If you’re reading this, Intrepid New York Jets Fan, you should be lauded for your loyalty to a franchise that hasn’t had a winning season since 2015, hasn’t made the playoffs since 2010 (the Rex Ryan/Mark Sanchez era!), has gone through more bad quarterbacks than any team should, once hired Adam Gase to be its head coach on purpose, and has the NFL’s worst winning percentage since 2016 — .297, which is what a 49-116 record will get you.
Hope came in the form of new head coach Aaron Glenn in 2025,
as the former first-round pick of the Jets and ex-Detroit Lions defensive coordinator seemed to have it all on the ball in ways his predecessors didn’t. The corresponding 3-14 record, the team’s worst since Gase’s 2-14 mark in his final season of 2020, made it seem as if Glenn was yet another head coach who got the big green suit, and then puked all over it.
In truth, the main issue was something that Glenn couldn’t really control. Because in today’s NFL, if you don’t have a valid quarterback, you might as well cancel the season before you begin. The combination of Justin Fields, Tyrod Taylor, and Brady Cook has been replaced in the near term by the return of Geno Smith, who may or may not have more left in the tank than he was able to show in the Las Vegas Raiders’ broken offense in 2025.
If the Jets can get any approximation of the Geno Smith that enjoyed a career resurgence in Seattle, that’s one box checked. Glenn and general manager Darren Mougey did all they could to check other boxes by playing musical chairs with most positions on the roster. Between free agency, the trade market, and the draft, the Jets’ 2026 lineup will look startlingly different than the versions we saw in 2025, and that’s not a bad thing at all.
Because there’s nowhere to go but up, kids.
“I’ve learned a lot, we’ve learned a lot,” Mougey said at his end-of-season press conference in January, when he was asked why he’s confident in a turnaround after everything that went wrong in 2025. “We’ve got a clear vision. AG and I. We talk daily on this roster, and the vision, and this division. And with the assets we have moving forward, the draft capital, the cap space, I know we’re going to continue to build, and add good players to the team that are going to help us win.”
Well, let’s look at three of those players — the Hidden Gems for the 2026 New York Jets. One underrated veteran, one underrated free agent (okay, traded player — I cheated on this one), and one underrated draft pick.
Three players who may be able to unearth any level of success from a decade of ruins.
Underrated veteran: EDGE Will McDonald IV
When you’re evaluating draft prospects and their transitions to the NFL, there are times when college schemes get in the way.
This is definitely true for any defensive lineman playing in Iowa State’s 3-3-5 defense. When you’re running a base three-man front with little hybrid four-man fronts to go through, how often are you going to see the gap positioning at the NFL level? Not very. This was a problem when evaluating Will McDonald IV when he came out for the 2023 draft, because it was a bit frustrating to see a 6′ 3⅝, 239-pound speed end with ridiculous athletic potential lined up directly inside or outside the offensive tackle over and over, taking on double teams when he wasn’t really built for those power situations.
(This, by the way, is the primary reason that Iowa State defensive lineman Domonique “Big Citrus” Orange lasted all the way to the third round, where the Minnesota Vikings absolutely stole him).
I compared McDonald to Robert Quinn based on what I could deduce, and I was happy to see the Jets take him with the 15th overall pick in the 2023 draft.
After a four-sack, 12-pressure rookie season, McDonald started to live up to that promise in 2024, with 11 sacks and 61 pressures. 2025 showed more of the same, as McDonald had eight sacks and 42 pressures last season in just 385 pass-rushing snaps, despite a Week 15 knee injury against the New Orleans Saints that ended his season early.
McDonald’s best game in 2025 came in Week 10 against the Cleveland Browns; his four-sack, seven-pressure performance came just after the Jets had basically bailed on the 2026 season by trading Sauce Gardner to the Indianapolis Colts, and Quinnen Williams to the Dallas Cowboys. Somebody had to set the tone for that suddenly barren defense, and McDonald was vociferous in his response.
“I know those boys are doing good and doing their thing,” McDonald said postgame. “I appreciate everything that Quinnen did for this organization, especially for the D-line. He definitely got me right. Coming in as a rookie, he taught me a lot of things. Just the aspect of how to play defense – if I was inside, how to rush here, how to rush there. Sauce was always one of the guys that you wanted to be around. It was kind of heartbreaking to see them leave, but we’re going continue to carry on with the things we have now, and keep trusting the process.
“We’re going to get right.”
The process is now accentuated by second overall pick David Bailey as McDonald’s edge bookend, as well as a host of other new defenders (as many as eight new starters on that side of the ball). The Jets picked up McDonald’s fifth-year option in the hope that he can continue to lead the defense with both word and deed.
He’s already done so at the perfect time for an imperfect team. And while McDonald isn’t yet seen nationally as a premier edge-rusher, the tools and drive are there.
Underrated free agent traded player: DI T’Vondre Sweat
One of those potential starters is new defensive tackle T’Vondre Sweat, who came to the Jets in a rare one-for-one player trade with the Tennessee Titans, who got edge-rusher Jermaine Johnson in the deal. New Titans and former Jets head coach Robert Saleh was looking for outside pass-rush help for his four-on-the-floor fronts, and he saw Sweat as expendable.
Gang Green was quite happy to be on the right side of that bargain. While Sweat’s numbers don’t pop off the screen, his tape really does, because there is absolutely no way in hell that a 6’4, 362-pound dude should be able to move like he does. That tape makes up for the four sacks and 41 pressures Sweat has put up in the NFL since the Titans took him with the 38th overall pick in the second round of the 2024 draft out of Texas.
At his best, Sweat looks like he could be the next Dexter Lawrence — that one-of-one individual who can achieve things physically that make so sense. Injuries and conditioning can always be issues with people this size, and Sweat did miss five of the first six games of the 2025 season due to an ankle issue.
But when he’s on? DAMN.
“He’s a big man that’s agile,” Glenn said of Sweat in June. “He’s tough, he’s competitive, he has long arms, he demands a double-team block. The things that I believe in when it comes to D-line and how we play our D-line. So, any time you get somebody of that magnitude that actually fits exactly what you’re doing, you think about how you can put that player on your team. It just happened that we were able to make the swap with those two guys. Looking forward to seeing him grow, especially with the pads on, so we can see exactly how he can dominate inside.”
Glenn compared Sweat to Kris Jenkins, the 6’4, 360-pound nose tackle who played in the NFL from 2001-2010, and with the Jets for the last three years of his career. Jenkins was also rare in his ability to move for a man his size, which allowed him to make four Pro Bowls, and garner two First-Team All-Pro nominations.
Sweat isn’t quite there yet, and he won’t have Jeffery Simmons alongside him to soak up double teams as he did in Tennessee, but the promise of better things is all over the place, and the ascent could begin now.
Underrated draft pick: CB D’Angelo Ponds
Generally speaking, I try to keep the “Hidden Gems” draft picks to the third day. But I’m making an exception in D’Angelo Ponds’ case, because although the Jets selected the 5′ 8⅝, 182-pound Ponds with the 50th overall pick in the 2026 draft, he’s not getting the respect he deserves as a full-fledged defender. At his size, Ponds was doomed to slot usage in the minds of many, and though that’s not the career death sentence it used to be before the days of multiple coverages and nickel as the NFL’s base defense, Ponds is more of an afterthought for the next level than he should be.
Last season for the national champion Indiana Hoosiers, Ponds allowed 34 catches on 64 targets for 379 yards, 56 yards after the catch, no touchdowns, two interceptions, nine pass breakups, and an opponent passer rating of 55.4.
By the way, six of those pass breakups came when Ponds was playing outside cornerback — he was out there on 57% of his snaps last season, and allowed 26 catches on 47 targets when doing so.
Glenn has said that he sees himself in Ponds, which makes sense — at 5’9 and 186 pounds, Glenn played in the NFL from 1994 through 2008, racking up 41 career interceptions at a time when small cornerbacks had to be truly exceptional to get the attention of NFL shot-callers. I also see a lot of Antoine Winfield Sr. in Ponds’ game; the elder Winfield gave opposing receivers agita for 14 NFL seasons from 1999 through 2012 at 5’9 and 180 pounds.
Will Ponds primarily live in the slot? Most likely. Doesn’t mean there are no other options for his talent, though. Personally, I believe that if he was two inches taller, he would have been a Top 15 pick, and we’d be talking about him as a legit Sauce Gardner replacement.
“D’Angelo is his own man,” Glenn said in April of the comparisons. “He’s a guy that we love. Man, the traits speak for themselves, when it comes to height, weight and all of that. The physical characteristics of the player overcome a lot of the traits that he has, in terms of his height. I love the player. Tough, aggressive, [and] comes from a winning program.”
If Ponds brings any of that winning sauce (or Sauce) to the Jets, don’t be surprised. He’s been doubted over and over for his size, and he keeps shutting the naysayers up.
“Recruiting was really slow for me,” Ponds said after the Jets picked him. “I had mostly Group of Five [non-power FBS conference] offers, or Sun Belt offers. A lot of teams didn’t want me because of my size. But like I said, I’ve always had to earn it.
“Nothing was given to me, and they kind of regretted it later.”
Get ready for the next reckoning.
