The Jets have Life! Week One Thoughts | The Cutting Edge W/JackKnife

What a feeling

My fellow New York Jets fans.  When was the last time you felt something like this?  For once, on week one of a 1 PM start time, you entered the four o'clock hour and watched the next wave of that week's games with euphoria after a Jet win. I'm not talking about later in the season when the Jets are out of it, and they finally eek out a win so that they don't go winless while a portion of the fan base lambastes them for hurting their draft stock. I'm talking about when the big picture (while far away) is still obtainable and the Jets win a meaningful game.

Well, we got that euphoria yesterday as the Jets went into Nashville and defeated their former coach, Robert Saleh, and the Tennessee Titans to start the season 1-0. This was the Jets first week one victory while starting at 1 PM since 2015 when they beat the Cleveland Browns by a score of 31-10. You know what this means? It's time to overreact! The Jets are going to the Super Bowl! 

Okay, let's not go that far. This is the Jets after all. However, even my jaded self can look at yesterday's game and take out a lot of positives.

Clearly the better team

The expectations heading in for both the Jets and Titans were low. Gang Green coming off of another historically bad season, while the Titans kept the Jets company matching their three wins. Tennessee riding with Cam Ward after Will Levis turned out to have a lot more than 32 quarterbacks better than him, while Geno Smith returns to the team that drafted him after a blip of success in Seattle followed by turning into a pumpkin in Las Vegas.

One may look at this matchup and not be at fault for thinking , "who would watch this? Both teams stink!" Well, anyone who watched this game can tell you that the Jets were clearly better than the Titans as they dominated the time of possession (38:46), executed their plays on offense, and the defense kept the Titans attack off the field. Certainly you may think, "oh, it's the Titans, led by Saleh." That's certainly true, but if this team is going to be good, they should be beating teams like Tennessee in this fashion. It almost serves as some type of measuring stick to see and say to yourself, "Okay, maybe there's actually something here."

Speaking of the Titans, it was nice to be on the other side of a poorly prepared Saleh led team. Some of those looks of disgust on his face we shared with him from 2021 up until his firing during the 2025 season. A lot of the same issues that were with Saleh in New York followed him west of the Appalachian mountains, and it's seen on every highlight reel for this game when Breece Hall ran in for a touchdown with not one but two Titans were running off the field to try to avoid a too many men on the field penalty. Obviously, they weren't successful.

I (and every Jet fan) wanted him to be the savior when he became Gang Green's leader. I loved his energy, and loved how he believed in his guys, but it is starting to appear evident that after his success in San Francisco as a defensive coordinator, before joining and after departing the Jets, that that position is Saleh's ceiling and he's not fit to be a head coach. Current Jets coach, Aaron Glenn, is trying to show that is not his ceiling. I will give Saleh credit though. He didn't strangle this reporter after getting this ridiculous question. That probably took a lot of restraint.

Geno's redemption arc?

I talked a lot of crap about this trade and how Geno Smith was not going to be the answer to our problem at quarterback. Well I'm happy to say my reverse jynx (let's call it that) was successful and Geno did his job and did it well. 

It certainly was not an MVP caliber performance, but Smith's first game back with the Jets was a success and he impressed in his return in green. Smith completed 19-24 passes for 215 yards, averaging 9.0 yards a catch, an 84.7 QBR, and a 104.0 passer rating.

Geno had plenty of help from his receivers with Garret Wilson getting six catches for 79 yards, Adonai Mitchell catching three for 60, and Omar Cooper coming up with a clutch 30-yard catch and run on 3rd and long to set the Jets up in the red zone on their first drive where they would eventually score. 

Smith protected the ball (which was an issue for him as he totaled 32 picks the past two seasons) and managed the game smartly. It would have been cool to see him throw a touchdown, but he did not have to do too much today. Thanks to help from guys like these.

Breece and Braelon

Smith had a lot of help in his backfield as Breece Hall ran for 102 yards on 22 carries, averaging 4.6 yards per touch, and scoring a touchdown. The Jets other running back Braelon Allen did pretty well himself getting 40 yards on 10 carries, averaging 4 yards per touch and was oh so close to a tuddy of his own had it not been for a holding penalty on the center Josh Myers. 

A strong backfield will make the lives of Smith and Frank Reich much easier and if they can continue this good run game and build a promising passing attack, the Jets may actually have a decent offense. Time will tell as they take on their stronger opponents on the schedule. 

Both Jets touchdowns yesterday came off of the rush. One from Hall, the other, not by Allen, but by this guy who deserves a shout out of his own.

Savior Sadiq

In my opinion, the best pickup the Jets made this off-season on offense. The 16th overall pick, wearing #16, Kenyon Sadiq showed us one of the many things the Jets have been missing the past decade-plus. A solid threat at tight end. 

Sadiq opened the scoring for the Jets on their first drive of the game on an end around touchdown run for three yards. As a receiver, Sadiq caught the ball three times for a total of 21 yards. 

A small sample size, but I certainly hope the Jets continue to build off of this kid and turn him into a great weapon so that takes pressure off of Wilson and Mitchell to be the big playmakers as receivers. A great tight end can really help in that regard. One needs to look no further than the Rob Gronkowskis, Tony Gonzalez's, and Travis Kelces of the world. 

Defensive clinic

I mentioned above how Sadiq was the Jets best pickup on offense this offseason. On the defensive side, I might be a little torn, but one man who made a strong case would be who the Jets picked earlier at second overall in the draft, David Bailey. The young edge rusher notched his first career sack on Sunday, completed four ackles and racked up a team high six QB pressures for a team high according to Next Gen stats.

Gang Green recorded two other sacks coming from Will McDonald IV (which should have been a safety because the ball bobbled in Ward's hands as McDonald sent him into the end zone from the 1-yard line) and Kingsley Enagbare. The Jets defense had no issue keeping the Titans off the field, holding them to just 21:14 minutes of possession. The Titans were held to just 195 yards on the game, and Ward was only able to muster up 140 yards in passing, with his one touchdown pass to Eric Ayomanor coming too little too late with less than three minutes left in the game. 

Still waiting on that first pick in over a year, but we'll take this performance. 

Not perfect by any means

Of course, there were some moments that made you go, "oh, there are the Jets." One instance came as the first half ended the first half by running out the clock on a false start penalty by Wilson. Clearly they're still not all there when it comes to the hurry up offense. 

Another instance was kicker Jason Sanders sending a 54-yard field goal wide left into the Cumberland River. Though he did redeem himself by making his three other field goals, including two that were over 50 yards. Still confused about that first one, but good recovery.

Perhaps the biggest concern though is the injuries to Minkah Fitzpatrick (groin) and Omar Cooper Jr. (ankle). Coach Glenn was not too concerned after the game, but if the Jets are going to succeed on the power of friendship (their heart), whatever talent they have needs to stay healthy. We'll see the conditions of these guys and the other Jets on the injury report as the week goes on.

Successful hate watch

If you're a Jet fan, you not only got to see your team win to start the season, you were nearly perfect on your hate watch. In the AFC East, the New England Patriots (how do you lose SIX Super Bowls?) lost on Wednesday to the Seattle Seahawks, and the Miami Dolphins lost to the Las Vegas Raiders in the 4 o'clock hour. The Buffalo Bills were one (dropped) interception thrown by Josh Allen away from losing to the Houston Texans in a barn burner, but Houston couldn't answer back in the end, leaving Gang Green and Bills Mafia tied a top the AFC East.

Regarding draft outcomes. I wrote in my previous blog post about needing the Indianapolis Colts to lose so that their pick (which is now the Jets thanks to the Sauce Gardner trade) is at or near the start of the 2027 NFL draft. I almost completely forgot about the Quinnen Williams trade with the Dallas Cowboys and how the Jets are going to end up with one of their two first round picks. The other pick the Cowboys have is from the Green Bay Packers thanks to the Micah Parsons trade and the Jets will get the better of those two (thank you to my brother-in-law for reminding me so I can update the last blog accordingly). 

Well as far as those other three teams go, the Jets could not have gotten to a better start. The Baltimore Ravens trounced the Colts 41-23, the Minnesota Vikings beat the Packers 39-22, and our roommates at MetLife, the New York Giants, defeated the Cowboys 28-20 on Sunday night football.

That's your rooting guide, Jet fans. Aside from the typical hatred of our AFC East rivals, the worse the Colts, Cowboys, and Packers do, the better Gang Green's picks this upcoming draft. So I'm going to declare myself off of the tank bandwagon as of this moment, so we can get some guilt free Jets wins and root for the misery of some other franchises in hope of our benefit for once. 

Next up: Green Bay

Seamless transition. I talked about how the Jets could use some Packer misery to help them get a high draft pick above. Well, next week at MetLife Stadium, the Jets have an opportunity to help themselves in that regard because not only does Gang Green have a chance to go 2-0 to start the season, but they can also hand Green Bay a loss that could potentially boost New York's draft position. 

The Packers will be without elite pass rusher Micah Parsons, and are coming off a loss in which they concussed Kyler Murray only for Carson Wentz to come in and lead the Vikes to a comeback victory in Minneapolis. Needless to say, they're going to be motivated to avoid going 0-2. The Jets need to match that energy if they're going to send them back to Wisconsin disappointed.

How the Jets will ride their momentum from Tennessee into week two is to be seen, but enjoy these next few days, Jet fans. It's only going to get harder from here, but for now, let's enjoy the fact that at this moment in time, the Jets are (though it's a small sample size) over .500, and it's possible they will be playing meaningful games in the weeks to come. 

There it is, that damn hope again. Right after I say this team's ceiling is seven or eight wins. I never learn.

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