The Jets best thing we can say about tonight’s matchup between the Jets and Patriots is that it has the potential to be a whole lot more interesting than it seemed like it would be a week ago, after the Jets traded away two of their best players at the deadline.
The Jets found a way to get the job done on Sunday against the Patriots, which means both teams head into tonight on winning streaks.
Of course, the Patriots have won seven in a row under new coach Mike Vrabel and sit atop the AFC East at 8-2. The Jets have won two in a row after the starting the season 0-7 and still sit in the basement of the AFC East under new coach Aaron Glenn. But it wasn’t all that long ago the Patriots are where the Jets are right now.
So how did they do it and what can the Jets learn from it?
Here are a few things they can follow and one thing they can’t fix so easily.
1. Get the quarterback right
Priority No. 1 is finding the quarterback. And even though the Patriots didn’t do it in the most conventional of ways – they selected Maye months after legendary coach Bill Belichick was fired, and now they’re developing him – after showing promise as a rookie – under a new coaching staff.
But it has been clear since early on that Maye has the kind of spark that can make him a force at this league. Maye showed things in his rookie year that the Jets’ current quarterback has yet to show in his career. And it’s clear that the Jets do not have their quarterback of the future in Fields who started with the best game of his career in a Week 1 loss to the Steelers and has been getting somehow less consistent since. How bad is it? Glenn was praising Fields for pushing the ball downfield when the threw an interception on Sunday in the win over the Browns.
The Jets can’t live like that if they want to turn their fortunes around. They need to find the right quarterback.
2. Strike in the offseason
This is the most immediate example the Jets can follow from their division rival: getting aggressive in the offseason can pay big dividends, especially for a team trying to make rapid improvements after a down year. New England spent nearly $300 million adding talent, including defensive tackle Milton Williams, edge rusher Harold Landry, and cornerback Carlton Davis.
The Jets are going to be among the NFL’s cap space leaders heading into 2026. And while they can’t fix everything in free agency, they have more proven talent on the roster now than the Patriots had on the roster a year ago and more draft capital to work with. So they certainly have an opportunity to follow their division rivals, and perhaps even top them when it comes to an offseason roster makeover. But like we said before, it won’t matter if they don’t get the quarterback right.
3. Don’t double down
It had to be embarrassing for the Patriots, who anointed Jerod Meyo as Belichick’s replacement only for the plan to blow up in their face before the end of the first season. But they did it anyway because it was clear it was not working and they had a chance to get better with a proven coach, who also happened to have deep ties to the team. But the lesson here is that whatever embarrassment they were feeling is a distant memory because they didn’t double down on their mistake. They cut bait, as uncomfortable as it was, and moved on.
Glenn has showed more signs of promise in half a season than Mayo did in a year at the helm, so it’s not the exact same situation.
But part of being a good franchise is recognizing mistakes and rectifying them quickly. and if it beomes clear that the Jets aren’t making progress they would be better served to act as decisively as the Patriots did and move forward.
One thing they can’t
It’s hard to like Robert Kraft, but even Jets fans would have to admit he’s a whole lot better than the guy running the Jets. The team’s fortunes have been set perpetually at “down-and-out” since Woody Johnson took over in 2000. But now it’s even harder to watch because the Jets are nearly 15 years removed from their last playoff berth and it’s fair to wonder if their ability to get to the postseason in their first decade under Johnson, including back to back AFC Championship games in 2009 and 2010, was because of infrastructure in place before the current Jets owner got here.
It’s obviously pointless to compare the two owners. The win percentages and Lombardi trophies speak for themselves. But there is one important thing to remember as you watch this game.
Yes the Patriots beat out the Jets for Vrabel’s services this offseaon after both teams interviewed him. But the Jets had a chance to perhaps snag Vrabel a year earlier after the Titans’ shocking decision to fire him. But instead of going after him, the Jets brought back Robert Saleh for 2024 and fired him after four games. A year later we saw how the Patriots made sure they didn’t miss their chance to rectify their mistake and snag Vrabel. And it’s hard to find a better example of the differences between these two franchises than that.
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