None of us will live forever. All we can do is appreciate the time we have here and what we're fortunate to see, but truth be told, you can live a long time and never again see what the New York Jets managed to do last season. Forget the 26 team sacks. That alone is another conversation entirely. How does an NFL team play 17 games and fail to snatch an interception?
Perhaps it's time to retire that conversation. After all, this is a new year, right? Then again, who are we kidding? How can we not bring that up from time to time?
You can best believe that even the Jets have had this conversation. There's an old saying. Sometimes picks come in bunches. New York snagged two duringtheir second preseason game, a road winover the Pittsburgh Steelers.
They say preseason games don't matter. Maybe they don't, but it certainly seems as though the Jets gave this one their best effort. It also seems as though they're satisfied with the results they achieved by doing so. All one has to do is ask Brandon Stephens for his thoughts.
"We were celebrating for our guys. It was good to see. We went a whole year without seeing it. Just to get that feeling back of getting an interception, two of them, it was big time."
Head coach Aaron Glenn looked better after this week than the most recent. He praised his team's overall effort when speaking to the New York media postgame.
Coach Glenn gives his initial thoughts on tonight's game pic.twitter.com/x3v3UwKLx7
— New York Jets (@nyjets) August 22, 2026
It bears repeating. Preseason games don't matter? It seems as though they matter a little. Had the Jets lost 17-0, the mood would be different.
Instead, we're discussing Geno Smith's perfect drive, a shutout by the defense, and two interceptions. Yes... Two interceptions.
Once we turn the page to the regular season, the tally will be dialed back to 'zero', and conversations about a Jets team that couldn't secure a single pick will again take center stage until they grab one. But interceptions sometimes come in bunches. We've seen Aaron Glenn's defense turn a team over, and that's how momentum starts (even if the final score of a road win will be forgotten in a month).
This article originally appeared on Jets Wire: Brandon Stephens praises teammates for defensive effort vs. Steelers
