{"id":746829,"date":"2026-02-12T10:27:26","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T10:27:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/746829\/"},"modified":"2026-02-12T10:27:26","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T10:27:26","slug":"who-is-a-breakout-candidate-for-the-new-york-jets-in-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/746829\/","title":{"rendered":"Who is a breakout candidate for the New York Jets in 2026?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Updated Feb. 11, 2026, 5:57 p.m. ET<\/p>\n

The 2026 NFL offseason is well underway now with Super Bowl 60 in the rearview mirror with the Seattle Seahawks<\/a> taking the title over the New England Patriots.<\/p>\n

With the nature of every NFL offseason, changes made by teams such as the New York Jets<\/a> will be the focus now. Can an injection of new talent and roster changes push the team toward a stronger 2026 season and future?<\/p>\n

There is potential for that to be the case. But Pro Football Focus<\/a> makes the case (and reminder) that players already on the Jets’ roster have an opportunity to have a “breakout” in 2026.<\/p>\n

PFF selected one of every such player for all 32 NFL teams. For New York, defensive tackle Jowon Briggs was the choice.<\/p>\n

Briggs being a potential breakout candidate for the Jets in 2026 can mostly be questioned for one reason: Didn’t he just have one of those last season?<\/p>\n

Expert NFL picks: Exclusive betting insights only at USA TODAY.<\/a><\/p>\n

Briggs was traded to by the Cleveland Browns to New York<\/a> just before the start of last season for an exchange of late-round draft picks. That deal proved to be one of general manager Darren Mougey’s first masterstroke as a GM. The trade proved to be a smart one as Briggs impressed in his first year with the Jets.<\/p>\n

In terms of looking forward on Briggs, here his PFF’s breakout on him as a potential “breakout” candidate:<\/p>\n

Briggs experienced something of a breakout in 2025, which unexpectedly came in the form of pass-rush production. He earned an outstanding 85.6 PFF pass-rush grade this season while racking up 38 pressures. Briggs was known as more of a run stuffer in college and with the Cleveland Browns<\/a>, but his PFF run-defense grade dipped to 55.5 this season. If he returns to form on the ground and maintains his excellent pass-rush numbers, he could quietly become a star in the Jets\u2019 defense.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Updated Feb. 11, 2026, 5:57 p.m. ET The 2026 NFL offseason is well underway now with Super Bowl…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":746830,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2051],"tags":[95878,7,226,1917,255,2321,2097,6,97197,97198,95882,95957,107287,95896,96747,95888,95895,95899,95906,95977,95883,95881],"class_list":{"0":"post-746829","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-jets","8":"tag-accessfree","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-jets","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-jets","13":"tag-newyork","14":"tag-newyorkjets","15":"tag-nfl","16":"tag-sstssportsnfljets","17":"tag-sstsnjets","18":"tag-tagamerican-football","19":"tag-tagcleveland-browns","20":"tag-tagjowon-briggs","21":"tag-tagnational-sports","22":"tag-tagnew-york-jets","23":"tag-tagnfl","24":"tag-tagnfl-hub","25":"tag-tagoverall-neutral","26":"tag-tagoverall-positive","27":"tag-tagseattle-seahawks","28":"tag-tagsports-news","29":"tag-typestory"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116057187592092847","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/746829","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=746829"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/746829\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/746830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=746829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=746829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=746829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}