New York Jets fans, your team may officially be on the verge of another offseason championship.

Fresh off a critically acclaimed free agency spending spree, the Jets are four top-45 draft picks away from exiting the 2026 offseason with a plethora of A+ grades on “offseason scorecards.”

It’s a place the Jets have found themselves many times across the last 15 years, often on the road to a steep cliff that leaves them flat on their faces with another high draft pick and more cap space. Once they pick themselves off their feet, they giddily frolic down another rosy trail that culminates in despair. And so the cycle continues.

But could this be the year when the Jets’ supposed light at the end of the tunnel is truly an exit from the darkness rather than an oncoming train?

The Jets have placed second in a metric that aims to quantify NFL teams’ offseason improvement. It’s a metric that enjoyed noticeable predictive success in 2025.

Data scientist Kevin Cole of Unexpected Points published the early results of his 2026 “NFL Offseason Improvement Index.” After accounting for their moves in free agency, the Jets are expected to have improved by nearly 30 points when it comes to projected point differential. Only the Cleveland Browns have fared better.


Courtesy of @KevinCole___ on X/Twitter

Jets fans will also be thrilled to see that the team’s most regressed team, by far, is the Indianapolis Colts, who owe their 2027 first-round pick to New York.

Why should you care about this random chart? Well, in 2025, the best and worst teams on Cole’s list performed exactly as his metric expected.

As Cole states, the top three teams in the 2025 offseason were the Patriots, Bears, and Panthers, while the bottom three teams were the Chiefs, Jets, and Eagles.

The metric was on-point. The Patriots (+10), Bears (+6), and Panthers (+3) each improved by at least three wins and made the playoffs. Meanwhile, the Chiefs (-9), Jets (-2), and Eagles (-3) each regressed by multiple victories.

Jets fans are tired of their optimism amounting to nothing on the field. They can derive great solace from any piece of evidence suggesting their faith will be rewarded this time around, and Cole’s metric does the job.

We’ll have to wait until September to see if the Jets’ efficient offseason translates into any victories. In the meantime, this is the type of tangible, rock-solid evidence of legitimate improvement that can keep fans nourished.