The Jets 2026 Season Is Here! I Oklahoma Drill 190

Welcome, everybody, back to the Oklahoma Drill Podcast. I'm your host, Andrew, and as always, my co-host, Matt, is here with me. Matt, the wait is finally over. We are here to break down a real life New York Jets football game within the year of 2026, week one against the Tennessee Titans, an old friend and Robert Saleh now coaching the team. Jets are starting the year on the road heading down to Nashville. We are going to break down that game and then get through the rest of the season through our season long predictions and how we think the entirety of the year is going to go. Matt, I know we're both really excited to get into this. I don't want to take any more time than we need to. I want to jump right into this game in week one. There's been a lot of anticipation. We've talked a lot about this match up and bits and pieces going forward throughout the last handful of months, but it is finally here for us to get into the nitty gritty and break it down. I want to throw things to you here first, sir. Anywhere you want to go offense or defense, what should the Jets be looking to do in their first real life game so far in the 2026 season? All right. I think I'll start on offense, because I see a glaring hole in the Titans defense that we really need to take advantage of. When you look at their linebacker unit, it wasn't a great unit to start, but now I think their leading tackler has a concussion. I haven't heard anything about him improving to the point where it's likely that he plays. So without him, that leaves a big gap even bigger. And I think we have the tools to exploit that constantly, whether it's Mason Taylor or Hall or Cooper in the slot. Really, anyway, just keep attacking them in that middle. Find that matchup and abuse it constantly, because there will be opportunities there. And if they try to overcompensate for that, then that's going to leave everything open for somebody else, whether it's Wilson or Adi. Then it's either way. You can't compensate so much that it doesn't hurt the rest of the unit. And really, I mean, I think that is kind of where that needs to be our bread and butter for this game, especially early. Test it out. If it's working, don't stop. If it's not working, well, then you got to find something else. But that's where you have to look first. Yeah, no, I agree. You got to take a look at that linebacker unit. Like you said, it was already not fantastic. And now leading tackler Cedric Gray was there leading tackler last year. He's back again this season. Expected to be their starting middle linebacker. I believe it was an ATV accident. Suffered over Labor Day weekend. He is now in concussion protocol. As of today, Thursday practice did not practice. Did not practice the day before Wednesday. So it's possible. I guess he hasn't been officially ruled out completely for this game yet. But knowing how concussion protocol works, knowing that we're at Thursday and he hasn't practiced at all yet, there's only one more practice before the game itself will be the Friday practice tomorrow. I'm going to say not likely that he's going to be playing. Even if he is, you're going to having recovered a concussion a week before your first game of the season. You didn't practice all week and now you're expected to walk in and handle things as the green dot Mike Linebacker. That's a lot. That is a lot to handle and that is going to be a lot for Cedric Gray to have to deal with if he does end up even playing. If not, then you're looking at a depleted group possibly led by a rookie and Anthony Hill Jr. Who admittedly, I did like a lot as a prospect, but more so for his athleticism than his understanding and ability to lead as a Mike. Who's going to be calling the defense? If that's somebody you've been practicing all summer, is Cedric Gray is calling in the plays and then now somebody else has to step into that role. It'll be curious to see how that goes. Matt, I want to go a little bit differently. I completely agree. Like I said, the Linebacker group is where you want to attack, but I think their bread and butter needs to be something slightly different. And the reason I say that is I'm going off precedent. Do you remember the last time Frank Reich and Robert Saleh played each other? I do not. The last time Frank Reich and Robert Saleh played each other, it was Jets Colts. I want to say it was a Thursday night football game. It was the game Josh Johnson played at Indianapolis. You remember that game? Is that the one where they ran up and down on us? Where the Colts had 270 yards rushing? Yes, it was. Yes, okay. I do remember that game, actually. Yes, it was. So the Colts had 270 yards rushing. I'm going to pull up the stats from that game, Matt. I want to go over the statistics and looking at things in totality, just so we can get an idea of how the plan was to attack a Robert Saleh defense in the past. When Frank Reich has called the plays, when he's had a chance to study, this is how things have gone and what things have expected. So Carson Wentz was the quarterback. He was 22 with 30 for 272 for 3 touchdowns and no picks. Jonathan Taylor was their leading rusher. He had 19 carries for 172 yards and 2 touchdowns. Naheem Hines had 6 carries for 74 yards and a touchdown. Their leading receiver, Michael Pittman, 5 catches for 64 yards and a touchdown. Second, Naheem Hines again, 4 catches 34 yards. Zach Paschal, 4 catches 58 yards. Jonathan Taylor added 2 for 28 and a couple other guys chipped in here and there. What I remember from that game, and having gone back a couple of times over the summer, thinking about this leading up to this matchup, what I remember from that game victimized this Jets defense or that Jets defense, I should say, more than anything else, was the power run game and the ability to take advantage of the aggression of a Robert Saleh front of we don't play with gap control. We don't play two gaps at a time. We don't hold up and play sound. We penetrate, we attack, we look for angles, we try and shoot gaps. We are trying to create chaos. And what that does is that allows us to be hit from the side on glancing blows by pullers and by traps and whams, and knock us completely off guard and move, basically take advantage of our aggression and have you move us by ourselves where you want us to go, and move us out of the way. And the Colts beat the Jets up on the ground that day with the power run game. Anything they wanted through the air came on screens and short passes, because they didn't really need to focus too much on throwing the ball down the field. And Lord knows we know that defense couldn't tackle either. A lot of the guys on that defense are playing again for the Titans. You have JFM. You have Tony Adams. You have, I want to say that might have been the same year that Jonathan Martin was there, if I go back long enough and check in. There's a lot of carryover from the Titans defense from the Jets era that Saleh has brought with him to Tennessee. It's basically Jets South. It really is kind of insane when you look in the totality of how much of this Titans team, coaching staff, roster, plan, et cetera, is just Jets South. That plan worked already. We've seen it work. I think that Colts offense in its totality is no more talented than the Jets offenses right now. I think you could even make an argument that in its totality, that the Jets offense might have more talent. I think you have a better overall receiving court. I think you have a high of that year of peak Jonathan Taylor, maybe higher than Breece Hall has ever been, but Breece is still a perfectly capable running back and one of the 12-10 best in the NFL at least. You have some solid backups behind him that you trust in Isaiah Davis and you trust in Braylon Allen if Isaiah Davis isn't going to be healthy enough to play, which it seems like he is. He's not on the injury report. I don't believe he was placed on IR. So you're going to have your regular stable in the backfield. You got a heck of a lot more tight end talent. Like you mentioned, Matt, taking advantage of linebackers in space. Well, if they're focused on the power run game, then now you're just going to be able to hit play actions behind him any time you want. I think you beat Robert Saleh at his own game. And this might be a game that you can, that we as Jets fans really can exercise some demons and go, okay, yeah, this is what it must be like for the other teams. When we had to deal with Saleh's defense getting victimized by the same types of players, regardless of what opponent they were facing. You beat them up with the power run game, you take advantage of their overaggression, you throw a play action behind them, and then you make them tackle in space short underneath and make them have your guys run after the catch. And you have a lot of guys that are really good at that. I think you can, I think the Jets can have a, trying to pick my words carefully here, Matt. I think the Jets could have a shock of the weekend game offensively. If Reich shows his ability to scheme against this defense like he has already, where we could be looking at it and going, the Jets put up 35, and they were like one of the three highest scoring teams of the week one. Because this defense has already shown how it can be victimized. There is absolutely nothing that Robert Saleh has done or the Titans have done from any acquisition standpoint or personnel standpoint that gives you any indication he's doing anything different than what he's always done in the past. We've already seen what this play caller does against this scheme when he has talent, that's very, very similar to what he has right now. Beat them up on the ground with the power run game and everything else will follow behind that. All right. I'm going to push back a little bit. Because I also just don't think that these teams are built the same way. Their offensive line for the Colts was one of the best offensive lines in football back then. Our offensive line is improving and has a lot of promise, but I don't think I would say that they're close to what the Colts were thrown out there around that time if I remember correctly. In totality, probably not, but I don't think we're sitting here saying the Jets offensive line is a weakness or a concern. Weakness or concern? No, I wouldn't say that. But then I would also factor in that their defensive line, yeah, JFM and maybe Jacob Martin, but Simmons and Jermaine, this defensive line looks like they're built to stop the run. If you just those three guys, Frank, JFM and Simmons and JJ, these guys make their bread and butter, clogging up the holes and setting the edge and stopping the run. So I think it's going to be a little bit harder. I don't remember what our defensive line looked like back then. I'm going back to check right now just to make sure that I'm not going to be completely insane, and this is just something I'm remembering incorrectly, but I'm going to assume the Jets had Quinn and Williams. I would assume that, yes. So we had Quinn and Franklin Myers. If anything... Let's see. I believe that was 2022 or 2021. All these years blend together for me. It all blends together. 2021, Colts won 45 to 30. Let's check the box score and see if Quinn and Haddon had an attack. That was Josh Johnson playing well. That was the thing on offense. Quinn and Williams did play in this game. They also had CJ. Mosley. That was, I believe, the best year of CJ. Mosley as a jet. They had Foley Fadakasi. They had JFM. They had Shaq Lawson, Sheldon Rankins on the defensive line. So I'd say that was the peak of the Jets D-line talent. That was probably when they were playing at their best. All right. So let's say Simmons and Quinnen. I would probably take Quinnen over Simmons for sure. I think you can make an easy argument for either. I think if you are making the comparison, if Wright could handle Quinnen, I think he's going to have a similar plan for handling Simmons. Yeah. And JFM. I think is pretty comparable to JFM. He's going to be in the exact same, and he's going to be in the exact same role he was then too. Same role then. So then really it's the edge guys that I think is where they kind of show a little bit more than what we had. I would say JJ, especially against the run. Who did you say were edges? Rankins? Well, they had Shaq Wasson, just going off box score, looking at who had tackles. Shaq Wasson was listed as an edge, JFM was listed as an edge, Nathan Shepard is listed as an edge, that's probably Bryce Huff if I had to imagine. Let's check the Jets 2021 depth chart and see who their other edges were. I mean, even still, I think the point remains that I think there is talent on the Titans defensive line. I think there's talent on the Jets offensive line. I think there was talent on the Jets D line when it was, and Bryce Huff was their other starting defensive that year. So JFM., Quinn and Foley and Bryce Huff was starting for it. I think there's comparable talent to be seen here on both sides. Looking at what the Colts had on offense, including their offensive line, and looking at what the Jets have right now, and looking at what the Titans defense is, and who they will have in some of them in the exact same roles, and who the Jets had under Saleh then, I think it's comparable. And Frank Reich put 45 on them. So, let's say the defenses are comparable, and they're a wash. The offensive lines are definitely not comparable. Matt, I think they could be. And I think if you want to have an optimistic take of this offense, or of this team, or what is the position group that you are the most looking forward to seeing if they're going to take that next step and ascend, I mean, what if Memboo is like an All-Pro this year? What if Tipman's like with a whole year at guard set, that's what he's going to be doing, and he got his contract, and he just had a baby, and he got a house, and everything's going great for him. What if he takes the next step at guard? We see Olu continue to ascend and get to a Pro Bowl level of tackle. Myers is serviceable, Parham is serviceable. That's not a top, crap, that's not a top 10 offensive line in the league. To where we're going to sit here and go like, the Colts line at that point was that much infinitely better. I think they might have had more star talent. I think they might have had guys at their higher peak, like Quinton Nelson at the peak of his powers. But overall as a whole, I like this matchup for the Jets. I really do. I think if you can establish the ground game and you can let Barice run all over them early, you're going to be able to do whatever you want in the rest of the game. I'm looking back now at our offensive line. It actually wasn't that bad that year with Morgan Moses, had a really good year. Conor McGovern, FANT, that was the FANT year. The one good FANT year. And Greg Van Roten was probably the weak part. Point of that. So it wasn't a bad group by any means. I would say, so yeah, I think they're a little bit more comparable than I thought they were originally. I think that's where you look to go early. And power running and attack the middle. And the one other thing that I want to end with before we get to the defense, Matt, that's specifically about this of power run, attack the middle. That's your bread and butter. And what that's then going to open up when they start to clog the middle, is Garrett and AD one on one on the outside off play action. And we already saw in the preseason, Gino rip a deep out to AD off play action for like a 21-yard completion against the Steelers. We know it's in their playbook. We know that's something that they're going to look for, and they finally have enough outside wide receiver talent to make that happen. The Titans are going to be playing two new starting corners. They both signed in free agency. It's Cordell Flott and Alante Taylor that they're hoping to come in and improve a unit that was really not that good in the back end last year. So you're going to have guys getting the first taste of their action together. You're going to have communication in the secondary and a solid defense that we know is predicated on zone and communication. You're going to have two new guys on the outside playing for the first time together. You can work a little bit in the middle. You can make them uneasy with the power run game. You can throw some screens. You can hit Sadiq on a shallow cross. All of a sudden, you're going to start leaving Alante Taylor and Cordell Flott one on one on the outside and quarters coverage and you're going to be able to pick them apart off play action with AD and Garrett. I think you can dominate this team on offense. I really, Matt, I am, if Wright can show that he's still got it, if Wright can show that he's still got it, the Jets can have a field day on offense against this team. I really think that. I mean, I don't disagree. That's kind of where I'm going to be looking the most. Like defense, I feel like they're going to be improved and not a liability at least. Offense is really the big question mark. It's been a big question mark for a while now. If there's any semblance of competence on that side of the ball, even if it is just against the Titans and Saleh and these two schemes going up against each other again, it would still be very encouraging to see. Yeah. I really think they can have a big day. If Robert Saleh is who we think he is, I think they can have a big day. I really do. Let's get to the defense, Matt. I think this is where things can get a little more interesting and maybe a little more possibly even or possibly less known. Specifically with the Jets defense, what are you looking to see from them defensively? Or what do you think will be a key for them to focus on? Pass rush and that offensive line. Peter Skowronski, I think, is the only person of real note on that offensive line. RJC. Latham takes is not looking great. Pre-draft got to be real. There's not much there. This is where we spent a lot of the off season really building up, is that defensive line. This is kind of, you know, a game where they can let the horses out of the barn and go full throttle and really try to take advantage of these matchups. And I think there's a good amount of matchups to be had all along that defensive line. I think Bailey against any of these tackles is going to be a problem. I think even on the interior, I think they have enough Skowronski versus Sweatt, I think, will probably cancel each other out. If not, give a little bit of advantage to Sweatt maybe. There's enough there that I think they should be able to take them on and neutralize them. Right up front, and if you can do that, then it will reverberate throughout the defense. Then all of a sudden, our secondary is looking a lot better. They're going to have to get the ball out a lot quicker. If we can do that, then it's setting us up to take advantage of mistakes, because there will be mistakes if we get constant pressure, if we are stuffing their runs and they have no run game, and force them to throw the ball, and we're able to pin our ears back and just go after them. It all starts up front and it all starts with taking advantage of these matchups. Yeah. No, 100 percent, Matt, we have the exact same take. That is exactly where I was going to go, was going to be this offensive line, and the offensive line for the Titans, and specifically the tackle position. Matt, the Tennessee Titans offensive tackles specifically, so not the offensive line as a whole, but just the pair of offensive tackles, starting offensive tackles. In terms of pressure rate allowed for the 2025 season, it was 29th in the NFL last year. They did not replace either of them. Well, going back to Latham, what would you say was his biggest weakness in college? Speed to the corner. Oh, that's going to be a problem for him. We might have drafted somebody second overall, who's pretty good at that. Not just Bailey, think of McDonald too. We might have a few of them. There's a lot more on the left side. It is for the amount of money that he is making at his position, committing highway robbery at this point. I believe he had an over like a four-year, $80 million contract a couple of years ago to leave the Steelers and go to Tennessee and has been awful. Since he has been in Tennessee. This offensive line was terrible last year. They did nothing to improve it at almost, if anything, maybe even got worse. This is going to be a victim, a back-breaking possible thing for the Tennessee Titans. If you are Aaron Glenn, if you are the New York Jets, you just drafted David Bailey to do this. You have Will MacDonald, you have other guys like Kingsley and Ibarri that you trust, you like Jawan Briggs as an interior pass rusher. We know Aaron Glenn is going to send some blitzes and send some backers, and you're going to get DiMario and Sherwood every now and again, coming up one of the A or B gaps. But quite honestly, if I'm playing defense, and I'm going against Cam Ward going into year two, who did not look great in the preseason, who did not look great in practice in training camp, who has been fighting with reporters over how he's been developing to the point where the Titans are banning reporters and fan personalities from going to their press conferences because they're pressing Cam Ward on how much he's improving. Why blitz? Until you have to. Make Cam Ward beat you with his brain, disguised like crazy, and then drop for every time and rush for it. Make it look like it double mug. We've already seen some of it in the preseason from Glenn. I love double mug looks. The Seahawks, if you watched last night, Seahawks Patriots, it's like double mug every single play. Somebody's up at the line of scrimmage, we're clogging the line, we're just flat and it's going to look like zero, figure it out. That is what I want to see from Aaron Glenn. Any time it is a suspected passing down, that is what I want to see from Aaron Glenn. Get everybody towards the line of scrimmage, get your safeties moving late, and then drop out of it, and do it over and over and over. The second they start to chip on or they start to cheat, now you send the pressure. I think you have enough talent with your front four, I think you have enough talent with the guys specifically on your edges and specifically against the Titans offensive tackles, that as long as you can keep Cam Ward in the pocket, he's going to get eaten alive eventually. And I think you can, I think the Jets have a fantastic match up in this game, Matt. I'm trying to be objective and look at what is going to be the hamstring thing the other way. And I know I can find them, but man, what the Jets do well and what the Jets have specifically added and what the Titans specifically are not good at and did nothing to improve on, that's not looking great for the Tennessee Titans. But you know what? These are the Jets. And we've seen many weeks where the match ups look perfect and they somehow squander to that opportunity. Hopefully things have changed. We'll see. I mean, I'm a little optimistic. But at the very least, we can go into it thinking that they should be able to take advantage. Just being able to take advantage of a weakness is a sign that, hey, we have a group that can show up and do what they need to do. And scout their opponent and adjust and find the little margins of error and margins of victory. And that's how you win in the NFL. Everybody's good. Everybody's talented. The worst and the best teams in the league are not really that different. Everybody's an All-Pro. Everybody was an All-American. Everybody was the best player at their high school. That's how it is. Coaching is the difference. And how can you take advantage of the tendencies of your opponent and exploit what they do the best and take away what they do the best and force them into uncomfortable situations? You do that by scouting and coaching. We'll see if they can do that. We've already seen that Frank Wright can do it to Saleh's defense. I have that on record that we know that can be the case. We'll see if Aaron Glenn can do it defensively. So I think this kind of ties into a topic we're going to talk about in a little bit. But if Glenn can't, because he is the guy now on defense, he is the DC, if he can't get this group to take advantage of these matchups, what does that say about him? I have no idea, Matt, and I wish I could remember specifically where I heard this from, who and exactly in what context, whether it was Glenn himself or whether it was one of their players on defense in a press conference. I truly, truly wish I would have written it down. I believe it was one of Glenn's players, one of their players on defense talking about Glenn as a defensive coordinator. I think it might have been Jamie Insherwood, actually, the more I think about it, and in one of his press conferences, where he was specifically talking about Glenn bringing up the point of down and distance tendencies, of down and distance and formation tendencies, and that's what we're looking and that's what we're scouting. Is it okay? It's second and seven, we're there in this defense. What should it be? It was Sherwood. Okay. Now, it was Jamie Insherwood. The more and more I think about it. The way he was explaining it was, you as the Mike Linebacker should basically already know what I'm going to call just based on the situation that you're in. Based on if you've scouted, if we've done our homework, if you know what I would want to do in this situation, you know what we're trying to do to this opponent, that if it's third and seven at midfield, in theory, I don't even need to send the call in. You should be expecting it because you're going to know the same thing I'm thinking based on what we've scouted. That's pricked my ears up a lot. It was one of those things where it's like, I'm going to file this in the back of my brain because that's really encouraging to hear but I don't want to get so excited by it that I think, everything's going to be fine and then when it's not, I'm going to be shocked. But to hear Sherwood specifically talk about scouting your opponent, game planning, studying tendencies, studying down and distance, studying formations and using that as your clue to what you think is going to come from your opponent and what you should be expecting and in turn, what you should be doing defensively to stop it. If you're going to be doing that in the meeting rooms and not do that on the field, then what are you doing? Yeah. Well, I mean, I don't really know about letting that out in the public, though, that that's what they're really keying in. No. And that's why that's not something that's like talked about all the time. That's not something that's necessarily mentioned. And that's no trade secret. I'm not necessarily giving away anything that's different than in any other defensive coaching room at any level of football of how you scout your opponent. You look for tendencies and you look for tells. And that's really what you're beyond just trying to recognize plays and formations and things they like when you're trying to get a bead for somebody or build a plan against them. It's what do I think they're going to do in this moment? So to hear that, I was very encouraged. And it's not something that's going to be bragged about. And it was offhand mentioned. I believe the question specifically, as it was phrased to Sherwood, was what is the difference between Glenn last year as the overall head coach and now as the head coach and calling plays on defense? And how is he in the meeting room? And that is how Sherwood answered it. Like, well, now when he's explaining it, now when he's explaining the call, it's, well, this is why I'm calling this play, because it's this down, it's this distance, we're at this point in the game, the opponent's tendencies are X, Y and Z. And so this is what we're going to do. That's different than, it was Steve Wilkes calling the defense and he had his influence, but it wasn't specifically into his brain of why we're doing this, it was how it was explained. That gave me a lot of encouragement. I hope that's what we see on the field. I sure hope so. I really, really hope so. We will- For our sake and Glenn's. For our sake and Glenn's, and we will get a clue of that this week. Matt, before we get to our season predictions, let's go ahead and get our official week one predictions, and I will let you go ahead and start, sir, because I think I'm still finalizing exactly how crazy I want to be. All right. I believe that our offense will be able to take advantage of them, and I believe our defense will be able to take advantage of them as well. I can see- I don't like predicting blowouts, but I'll give it something reasonable. How about 29-7, Jets? Okay. I thought I was going to be a little bit optimistic, and you beat me. So I was going to go 30-13 Jets. I think the Jets get the 30 piece. I think Reich is- I can't see Robert Saleh adding all of these former players and former Jets specifically. To run a completely different defense. That doesn't make any sense in the world to me at all. You don't hire all the same coaches. Gus Bradley is not your defensive coordinator if you're doing something different. We know what Reich can do. I think they have enough talent offensively. I think Gino is more than capable of doing what he has to do to keep the game going, be aggressive downfield when he has to be. I think Bruce Hall is going to go off and the Jets are going to get the 30 piece. I do think we are going to see enough scoring out of the Titans to get over 10. I think they're going to get to 13. I think they're going to get in the end zone at least once. Ultimately, I do think it is going to be the Jets offense that proves to win the day. However, I will end by saying, my final prediction, the Jets will get an interception week one and end the streak immediately. That would be fantastic. I think that would absolutely be fantastic. I think the wild card on offense would be Gino, though. For sure. As aggressive as he is, that also leads to a lot of turnovers. And, you know, usually if you lose that turnover battle, it can get kind of nasty in the scores also. It definitely can. And we need to prove and see that Gino is not Raiders' Gino, and that he can hopefully be somewhere in the middle of Raiders' Gino and Seattle Gino, or closer to the Seattle Gino side. That still needs to be proven. So I agree. If there is a wild card on offense, it is that. Defensively, if there's a wild card, I think it's the secondary. You have to see how that's all going to come together. D'Angelo Pond's finally practicing, which is really, really good. I'm very happy for that. It seems like the rest of the safety group is set with Dane Belton, so hopefully that'll bring some stability, but there's still a good bit of question marks there. If the Titans can pass block, and if Wondell Robinson can make plays down the field and not just underneath, then there is possibly an advantage to be had on the back end of this defense. But I think there's a lot of hurdles the Titans have to climb before they can get to attacking that first, that might have to be proven before anything else. Absolutely. All right, Matt, let's get into our season predictions here. I want to start with our offensive and defensive MVPs. I'm going to go ahead and kick things off here on the offensive side. We talked about this a little bit leading up of what would be a group that you're excited to see, you're looking forward to seeing or think could improve with the most potential. I'm going to go Armand Membou for offensive team MVP, because I think he's going to absolutely ascend this year, and you're going to see him establish as one of the five best right tackles in the league easily. It's not even going to be an argument where he's going to be in competition for one of the 10 best overall tackles in the league. You're going to have a true leader mainstay, like potential all-pro caliber player on your offensive line on the right side. I've loved what I've seen out of him out of the preseason. He was absolutely decimating people anytime he got in the game. It's been nothing but the same from what we've heard throughout all of summer in training camp. Anything that you've seen from anybody that's been there is just all Memboo has done is shown up, worked his absolute tail off, and looks like he's on a mission to just take over the league. I'm buying in. I think he is going to be the best player on their offense this year overall. Okay. That's fair. I feel like my answer is going to be a little bit of a cop out. I'm going to go Garrett Wilson. I think they made it very clear that they're going to feed Garrett Wilson a lot. And I feel like he's finally in the position quarterback-wise and aggression-wise to also kind of take advantage of his skills and put up some big numbers. The recipe is there for him to have a really big year. And you know, if it comes down to an offensive tackle being really good and Garrett Wilson playing really good, it's probably going to go to the wide receiver. Most likely if it's going to come down to it. And that's kind of me. Me is my homer, valuing the trenches type of person that I am and being like the tape watcher and ball-nower angle of Garrett's going to get the press if he has a big year as he should. But in terms of where would you rank them if you were to rank every player in the league at their position, I think Armand Membou might be higher on the list of tackles than Garrett might be on the list of receivers. For me, that's where I just wanted to lean him and recognize him as that MVP. Because I think overall, if you made me pick who is going to be the best overall player at their respective position comparative to the rest of the league for the Jets offense this year, my answer is going to be Membou come the end of it. It's fair. I mean, I can't disagree with that too much because I love Membou. Yeah, I do too. I'm really, really excited to see him. Matt, why don't you go ahead and start off with defense? Who you got as your defensive MVP? So this is, I think that it's got to be a difference maker. And the one difference maker I can think of is Bailey. I think that as a rookie, he's in a position to kind of set himself as the guy on defense that you have to worry about, that you can't just be one on one with. You need to chip him. You need to double him. If he can emerge as that kind of guy, I also just don't see anybody else kind of rising to that level. Who else do you think has that elite potential? I can't really see it in anybody else other than him. So just potential wise, I'm just going to go with Bailey. So as you're talking and you're saying, who has that potential? It needs to be a playmaker. I don't really see anybody else coming on from this team. Matt, I'm going to go off the cusp here, and I'm going to call my shot and I'm going to stick to what my eyes saw and what I know of this player, of everything that I know of this player, and I'm going to call my shot and say, by the end of the season, the defensive MVP is DeAngelo Ponce. I think he's going to be their unquestioned CB1 by the end of the year. I think there's a solid chance that he gets a couple interceptions with his play style with the positions that he's going to be put in to make plays on the ball. I know he didn't get a training camp. I know that's concerning. I'm not expecting it to happen right away, but give him a couple weeks, let him get his feet wet, let him get acclimated, and come the back half of the season, it's going to be like, holy crap, D'Angelo Pons is for real. Like he is like for real, for real, and the Jets got a steal in the second round, and the only reason he should have been a first-rounder, and the only reason he wasn't was because of his height, and if you watch the tape, it didn't matter anyway. He is so technically sound. He is so smart. He is so well-schooled. He's not a player that you need to ramp up from a technique or understanding standpoint, and yes, is there going to be acclimation? Yes, is there going to be growing pains? Of course. It's going to take a couple of weeks, like I said, not getting that training camp and not getting those reps. But eventually, I think the DeAngelo Ponds that I saw on tape at Indiana and put on some absolute clinic film throughout the college football playoff against the best of the best that they had to offer against him. I am over the moon sold. I'm going to bank on my evaluations. I think the second he's right, he's going to take over and David Bailey is 100 percent a smart choice. You were taking the safe money there for sure. But I can see the long shot angle in ponds and come the end of the year when the whole season is all said and done and we've forgotten that he didn't even get a training camp. I think we're going to be looking back and going, yeah, D'Angelo ponds was freaking awesome and probably the best player on their defense last year. Yeah, I could see that. Absolutely. I just shy away from him just because of the training camp. That's 100 percent understandable. I don't know many people that miss entire training camp, especially as a rookie, and really do anything of note year one, except for maybe at the end of the year, he'll find his feet and he'll show a little bit of what we really want out of him and what we expect out of him. But I don't think that comes until next year. It certainly might not. And we've talked a lot before about how important it is to get your rookie training camp and to not miss that going into the year and how much that does teach you the speed of the game and acclimating to the playbook and the language and how things get called on the field. And there is a lot to that. I'm not trying to discredit that. And that's why this is the long shot angle. But man, Matt, D'Angelo Pons had some of the best corner film I've seen in a very long time from anybody, specifically in Press Man. Holy crap. Can he play Press Man? Holy crap when he is a boundary flat corner, can he drive on the ball and make plays on it and take it away? Holy crap, can he tackle in space? Holy crap, is he willing to come up and hit? We've talked about it before. We did a whole episode leading up to the senior bowl thinking he was going to be in it. I spent like 25 minutes gushing about the tape that I was watching at the time for D'Angelo Pons. It's three out of the four guys we talked about drop out. We re-record the episode. We don't mention him basically until the draft. If you guys go back and watch our draft episode, I'm sitting there going, ah, this sucks. Why couldn't we do that episode? Because I called this crap. I said this in January and I can't prove it. Holy crap, D'Angelo Pons is so good and it sounds like I'm just making this up now because he's a Jet. But oh my God, I love this guy and he's so great. I'm too big of a fan to go against that. I'll be the homer today and say Pons for MVP. Okay. I would love to see that. If that happens, because he was also somebody I was really high on. It would be fun to see that happen. I would absolutely love that. Let's stick on a positive angle here. Let's talk about who we think is going to be the overall most improved player from last year to this year. It's a little tough because they've done a lot of roster turnover, I would say, specifically on defense. But who are you looking to take the big jump, Matt? Offense or defense, it doesn't matter. I'm going to say Mason Taylor. I like that answer. I think that last year he showed a nice baseline of competence and reliability. And I think now that he's got a year under his belt, now he's going to become more than just a reliable tight end. I think he's going to be a playmaker. I think that he's going to have a lot of matchups with the talent on this offense, where he becomes a weapon that teams need to really account for, rather than just an average tight end that's there, but not somebody you really need to worry about. No, I like that pick a lot. I think he could definitely become that. I think he could for sure, 100 percent. I love his hands. I love his ability to track the ball. We've seen him go up and get the football and have no issues. I like what he's done as a route runner so far early in the season through preseason. It looks like he's running crisp routes, had a good training camp, didn't hear any negatives whatsoever, and if Sadiq is going to have a ramp up, which is definitely possible, he's going to get a lot of burn. He's going to be the tight end one unquestionably. He is as of right now. I would love to see some big improvement for Mason Taylor because what an offense this could be, really. If you have two tackles that are playing really well, one possibly at a near all-pro level and one hopefully close to pro bowl or above level, you have an all-pro caliber receiver, you have another super talented X that you feel good about, you have a first-round rookie that you feel good about, you have another guy that's a gadget slot type of playmaker that you feel good about, you have a really talented running back, and if you could also have a Kenyan Sadiq freak of nature tight end and a quality just in line, do everything type of guy that can also make plays in the passing game and Mason Taylor, I mean, what else do you want? That would be fantastic. Yeah, absolutely. It really would. I got something else you could want, Matt, and that's going to be an improved right guard, Joe Titman, man. Joe Titman, I give him a year totally at guard. We talked about this when he was a rookie, Matt, if you go back and remember, because he had to fill in at guard a little bit as a rookie, he didn't start as a rookie. It was Roger's first year. They were installing the Hackett Rogers offense. It was complicated and technical with protections, and Rogers was changing the play every four minutes, so they didn't want to throw him to the fire to that right away. He ended up getting most of his playing time as a rookie at right guard, and he played awesome. He was really, really good. He looked like it was natural for him, and we even said back then, man, I don't know, there might be something to that. Tidman might just be a guard in the future. Well, lo and behold, here we are a few years later, and that's where he's going to be. This is the first year he's gotten to just focus at guard, to just focus at improving there. I want to say we might have talked about this before, maybe after he got extended, but he had mentioned something in his presser this year about the difference between center and guard and about how there's so much more of a mental load in terms of the play, the protection, the defense as a whole when you're at center, versus when you're at guard, you're basically just worried about your immediate assignment. It's what's the guy right in front of me. If it's not him, it's okay, what's my combo? What linebacker am I getting up to? If I'm pulling, what's my target? You can focus so much less on the rest of the team and the rest of the play as a whole, and really just focus on your assignment and your matchup and what you have to do individually. Tittman was saying, it's not that he had had a problem doing the center things, it's not that he couldn't do it or he didn't like doing it or had any issues, but it was more of a mental load. It's just a mental load that he's not carrying at guard and how freeing that felt for him. Man, everything we talked about coming out of Wisconsin with him was holy crap, the athlete. Look at this guy, he's 6'6, he's like 320, runs like a deer, he's fluid, he's flexible, he's strong, he drives people off the line of scrimmage. There is some serious athleticism talent here. You get to unlock that at a position like right guard as opposed to center. He gets the whole year, he gets the comfortable contract, he just had a new baby, bought a house up in Jersey, all of the Joe Tittman vibes gets voted a captain on offense. I think that's a sign of what they think of him, what he's been doing and wants to come. So overall improvement, I think you're going to see a massive leap from Joe Tittman. I would love that because if he has that massive improvement, that probably means the offensive line as a whole is going to improve. And Myers is not the best center, I would say, putting it nicely. We've seen worse though, Matt. He's not great and I know maybe this is where I have the green rose tinted colored glasses on, but do we remember Spencer Long? I know I said this before, but I'm going to say it again, do we remember Spencer Long? Do we remember when McGovern was bad? How bad McGovern could get? Do we remember really what a bad center is? Like Meyers is not a great center. I wouldn't even necessarily say he's a good center. He is an average to slightly below average center. And if that is the worst member of your line, a lot of teams in the league would kill for that. Oh, absolutely. But if he is on the below average side, I feel like that will drag Tippmann down just a little bit. I hope not. And I hope that hopefully Membu on the other side of him can pull him back up and they can just have an absolutely deadly right side. I do want to throw an honorable mention in really quick that I almost went with over Tippmann, but I decided not to at the last minute. That's Jawan Briggs. Another year with the Jets, another year getting to hone his body, getting another year under Glenn, getting with Carl Dunbar. The only reason I didn't go with Jawan Briggs is that I think schematically, he's going to be asked less to do penetrating explosive type things, and he's going to have some more time on the interior where he has to be a bit more stout and hold up in two gap. If there was an issue with him last year, that really was where the struggle was. I need to see him show that he can do that part and improve in that part where I feel really confident that Tippmann is going to improve. All right. I can't deny the potential there for sure. All right, Matt, on the negative side, we have to talk about it at some point. Somebody is going to decline, so who is your pick for biggest step backs coming into the season? Huh. All right. Step back. I am going to go... Maybe Olu. Yeah, I'm going to go with Olu. I've seen a lot of good, but I've also seen a lot of bad with him. And I don't know if he's... I wouldn't say he's ever really gone to the point where we will crown him as one of the best left tackles in the game. I don't even know if he would even be in the top 10. But I think that he has shown tendencies to be predictable, to be beatable. And if he doesn't switch things up and make himself a little bit more unpredictable, then I could see him having lots of problems. I could definitely see that as well. I'm hoping for the opposite. I'm hoping that working with Membu and them training together has improved, at least from a physical standpoint. He looks awesome. He did a lot of work in the weight room in the off season. His legs look much bigger and stronger to where hopefully the run game specifically in drive blocking, we can get some improvement there. I do agree he can get a bit predictable with his set, specifically with his hands. I do think he needs to learn to be a bit more independent with his hands overall, and that'll be some improvement for him. I don't hate that as a potential person to take a step back. That would be detrimental for the line as a whole, like we've talked about, but hopefully that is not the case, but I'm not going to say that I couldn't see it. Unfortunately, Matt, I have to bury something for myself here today with this take. The most step back is going to be Braylon Allen. I'm ready to wave the white flag. I've held on hope. I've loved him since he was 17 at Wisconsin. I think he's an absolute freak of nature alien of an athlete of a specimen. His looks somehow even bigger and stronger this year than he has in the years past. But Matt, I just don't get it. He's a big strong back that won't run like a big strong back. I'm waiting to see Braylon Allen just lower the shoulder and kaboom somebody. I'm waiting to see Braylon Allen when he's got a full head of steam coming up the A-gap, and he's one-on-one with the safety. To run him over and not try and juke him. I'm waiting to see Braylon Allen stick his nose and drag somebody and fight through contact and not dance. Even in what we've seen in the preseason, even if he had a touchdown and it was a good read and a good run, a good cutback and the speed and acceleration, love to see it. I'm excited for that. You owe that touchdown to Jeremy Rucker for sealing the edge on the secondary player and giving you that time to bounce that back outside. I don't know if I want my 250-pound running back bouncing runs to the edge. I want someone to just stick their nose in there and get the tough yards. I've wanted to just see Braylon become that for so long. But he is a small back and a big back's body. He's an elusive back who's 6'2 and 250. I just don't know when that's going to work. My biggest step back is going to be Braylon Allen, because I think by the end of the year, Isaiah Davis is going to be RB2. That to me, if I'm looking at overall, who's going to be the biggest overall step back getting demoted, it's hard for me to find another spot that I think genuinely has a shot for that to be the case. On the flip side, Isaiah Davis has been better than I expected him to play in the pros. I didn't know if he had the burst or the explosion to pull away or make plays in the NFL the way he did at San Diego State, because he also was a dancer. He also was the, I'm going to depress and wait and be patient and pick my hole in my gap and then explode. It's like, yeah, that works when it's D2, but this is the league and I don't know if you got the juice for that. He's been significantly better than I expected him to be. And so I'm going to eat crow on two ends and go, I think this is finally time I can wave the white flag and say the Braylon Allen Experiment, I think comes to an end this year and Isaiah Davis is going to finish the season as the backup running back. All right. I mean, you're saying how power run should be our focus in this first game. If he wants to prove himself as a power back. I would love to be wrong. Listen, I would love to be wrong right now and right overall throughout throughout history. But it was over and over in the preseason, Matt. I was waiting for it. I'm like, I get it's the preseason. I get it. But like that's who you are, Braylon Allen. That's who you need to be. That's what you built your body for. If you wanted to be a scat back, why are you 250? Why do you keep getting bigger? Like slim, get slimmed down, play at 230. Be lady on bell at 229. And if that's what you want to be, that would work. That I could see that being the case, but he keeps getting bigger and then keeps trying to play less like a big running back. It's driving me crazy at this point, and that's why I'm ready to sit there and go, okay, you got to prove it to me. And at this point, I don't see it. I mean, yeah, he's got it. There's a whole lot that this team needs to prove. Until we see it, I'm going to be a datter. I'm hopeful that we will see improvement. We have not been given reason over time to believe that will be the case, but we can try and be hopeful. Let's close things out here, Matt, as we always would. Final record overall for the season. We don't got to go game by game, just total record and where you think the chips lay at the end of the season. What are you looking at for this team? I am hoping for a massive improvement, which the bar is low from last year. I don't think we will make the playoffs, but I think we'll be around and in the conversation of playoffs for most of, if not all the season. I think we end up eight and nine. Okay. I would be very happy with eight and nine, even if it's outside of the playoffs. I think that's marginable improvement. I think that's definitely reason to be hopeful for the future. I wish I could say I'm there. I wish I could say I'm there, but I need to see Aaron Glenn still be a head coach. Yes, we need to see Aaron Glenn, the defensive coordinator. I still need to see Aaron Glenn, the head coach. And I don't care whether it was you're hoping to tank, I don't care whether it was you traded Soss and Quinnon. I don't care what the excuse was and when and how and why. There was a lot of problems on this team throughout the entirety of the season. A lot of them that were specifically Aaron Glenn problems in terms of clock management, a lot of them that were Aaron Glenn problems in terms of when to be aggressive and when not, there were a lot of games that were very, very close that could have been had, that poor decisions led to getting away. Then that's how you end up 0 and 7. At that point, it's like, all right, season's over, pack it in. I need to see Aaron Glenn, the head coach. I'm going to be a little more pessimistic. I think they're going to improve, but I think they're going to be 6 and 11. I don't think they're going to make that complete jump yet. I think there's going to be some marginal improvement. I think ultimately 35-year-old Geno Smith is going to prove to have a cap, and there is going to be a ceiling to that to how far you can push it, despite how talented the rest of this offense is. I do think that there is going to be a ceiling to this team, and I'm still needing to see the game management, clock management, and everything else come, and now you're also calling the place, which I do think will be an improvement overall for the defense specifically, but it's going to be that much harder to manage the game as a head coach when you're also now adding another responsibility of calling the defense, and being a play caller as a whole. So I'm going to be a little more down. I'm going to go 6 and 11. That said, that's going to be a great place to be. Hopefully, the Colts are also bad. You're going to be picking the litter in whatever area for some of these top quarterbacks you want, and you'll have the ammo to trade up to get one if you absolutely have to. So not going to be all that. Eight and nine would be great. I'd be happy with that too, but 6 and 11 and you're picking 8th or 9th, we can work with that. We can really work with that. Yeah. If we can get two top 15 picks, not even including our third pick. Yeah. You're sitting pretty. I'm watching Menza right now put up video game numbers. QB1 until proven otherwise, and it will continue to be that way since the second I saw him play against Clemson last year at Duke. Holy crap, Darian Menza is awesome. Matt, I'm going to be saying it all year. I mean, I don't think anybody can really counter you on that. He's looking pretty good. Of course, it is against the Florida AMU. So whatever, he's still looking really good. He is looking great. I'm hopeful to see him continue to rise. I'm hoping to see the rest of these quarterbacks continue to rise as many good ones as possible. I want all of them to play fantastic. I want all of them to declare. I want as many options as possible. I'm not rooting for any takes whatsoever. It is all of them be fantastic. Widen the options, give the Jets the biggest chance possible. Find the best one to fit for them and hope for the best. Yeah. All right. Well, that leads it. That's it for the season. Matt, any final takes you want to get off here before we wrap up our season preview? Yeah. I am a firm believer that the first game of the season sets the tone for the whole season. So if we come out victorious and looking good, I'm going to feel pretty good about the entire season. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. I honestly, Matt, this game matters more to me than any game I can think of on their schedule this year. But I just want them to beat this team. I just want them to beat that solid coaching staff. I want them to beat all of those former players. They have been, Saleh has been beating his chest like, oh my god, I'm so great and everything I did was fantastic from the second he got fired. And I'm not saying even that was maybe justified at the time or anything else and that can be a whole other can of worms or an argument. But no, Robert Saleh, you also were at fault too. Believe it or not, you also helped decide to draft Zach Wilson. And that you can't just blame the recent thing I saw on the Saleh side was the disconnect between the coaching staff and the front office when all we heard about all the time was how Saleh and JD were best buddies. And like, no, I want them to win so bad because all I would want is that victory lap. Like go one in 16, I don't even care. Like win this week one and everything will be fine after that. Yeah. I mean, if we beat Saleh, I would be happy. You know, Glenn came in and kind of immediately and like, oh, what's the difference between, you know, this team this year, this team last year, he goes coaching. Coaching and then you win three games. Yeah. So, you know, either prove it or don't. Yeah. Prove it or don't. You know what? Maybe that's a true final last little tidbit to get in here. So at eight and nine with your record prediction, does Aaron Glenn stay or get fired at the end of the season? Uh, I am going to be a little positive here and say he stays. OK. OK. I'm going to do the same and say even at six and eleven, he stays. Even at six and eleven? OK. Even at six and eleven, I think Aaron Glenn would still stay because I think Woody is committed to giving him a long leash and he's going to say three to six is double your win total. That's improvement. Yeah. I mean, it would be improvement. I don't think a lot of people, especially the Glenn haters, would look at six wins as any kind of positive or sign that he should stay. But I could definitely see things being a lot different on the inside. Yeah. No, I agree. And I think a returning Aaron Glenn with nine wins in two seasons would have a very, very warm seat. But I also can't say that it wouldn't exist at all. Yeah, that's fair. All right. That does it for our season preview. We are excited to get to week one this coming Sunday. I know where I am going to be parked on my couch. Very excited, hoping to watch the Titans lost. Matt, I'm expecting the same from you. Why don't you let the people know where they can find you? We can go ahead and wrap this one up. I'm Matt. You can find me at ZazieJets. And you can find me at AndrewGolden underscore 17. You can also follow the show at OKD Podcast. Thank you all so much for stopping by and we will be back real, real soon. Keep it locked right here. Bye bye.