INDIANAPOLIS — The foundation of the Jets 2026 season will begin to be built here this week.
Take flight with the Jets
Text with Brian Costello all season as he brings Sports+ subscribers the latest Jets intel from on the field and off.
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The NFL Scouting Combine is when the NFL offseason hits overdrive.
You have teams, agents and college prospects all in the same city for a few days and teams’ offseason plans begin to come to fruition.
For the Jets, they are trying to fix a team that went 3-14 in the first year of head coach Aaron Glenn and general manager Darren Mougey.
There are holes all over the roster, most notably at quarterback, that will begin to be filled.
Darren Mougey and Aaron Glenn address reporters during the Jets’ Jan. 6 press conference. Bill Kostroun for the NY Post
The new league year begins March 11, and that is when teams can officially sign free agents.
But deals will be discussed this week, both with the team’s own free agents and targets from other teams.
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This is also a key week for draft evaluations as prospects go through drills, interview with teams and have medical exams.
At his end-of-season news conference, Mougey set the expectations for 2026.
“I believe we can be competitive and respectable right away, next year,” Mougey said.
To do that, the Jets are going to have to be much, much better in Year 2 under Glenn than they were in Year 1.
The Jets were noncompetitive in the final month of the season and lost their final five games after opening the season 0-7.
Glenn made changes at both offensive and defensive coordinator and the process was not smooth.
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That is something he’ll have to answer when he meets with the media here on Tuesday.
Darren Mougey addresses reporters during a Jan. 6 press conference. Bill Kostroun for the NY Post
This is a big offseason for Glenn, who enters 2026 on the hot seat.
Glenn is expected to call the defensive plays this season but it will be interesting to see if he alters his approach in other ways.
At the end of the season, he hinted at realizing he made mistakes.
“As a rookie head coach, and same thing as a GM, man, going through the first year and really understanding the landscape of everything, like that’s a huge deal,” Glenn said. “I will tell you that right now. And speaking on myself, man, there’s a number of things that I know I will be better at.”
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The first order of business for the Jets is dealing with their own free agents.
Breece Hall is at the top of the list and the team must decide if they are going to use the franchise or transition tag on him by the March 3 deadline.
If they franchise him, it will cost about $14.5 million.
A transition tag is cheaper, about $11.5 million, but they run the risk of losing him to another team with no draft pick compensation.
Aaron Glenn reacts on the sideline during the Jets’ Jan. 28 game against the Patriots. Bill Kostroun for the NY Post
Hall’s representatives will not only be able to get a feel for the Jets’ plans this week but also what kind of value other teams put on him.
Beyond Hall, the Jets have decisions to make on guards Alijah Vera-Tucker and John Simpson as well as linebacker Quincy Williams and kicker Nick Folk.
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The Jets are projected to have about $80 million in salary cap space and Mougey is going to have to spread that around to cover up all the holes on the roster.
That means exploring a lot of free agents and those conversations will heat up this week, as well.
“I think everyone wants to be aggressive, but calculated with how they attack offseasons,” Mougey said in January. “Whether that’s free agency and the draft, and just knowing your team, knowing your division, and what you need. You can say it’s an aggressive approach, but it really needs to be a very calculated approach, knowing your resources, your draft resources, your cap, your future cap and what that might look like. So yeah, we’re always going to look to add and kind of know where we might be deficient and where we might need to really add power to compete in the division.”
Finally, the evaluations of the college players will pick up this week.
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Ohio State linebacker Arvell Reese is the player being connected to the Jets with the No. 2 pick most frequently and the team will get to see him up close.
They are not expected to draft a quarterback in the first round but they will get a look at the potential Day 2 and Day 3 picks at the position as they try to solve their never-ending quarterback riddle.
