The Jets are doing some things that no team in NFL history has ever done. They’re doing other things that no team has done in a very long time.
And none of them are good things.
The Jets are on the verge of becoming the first team to go an entire season without a single interception; they’ve already set the NFL record for the most consecutive games (16) without one. Unless they get three turnovers on Sunday against the Bills, they’ll set an NFL record for fewest takeaways in a season (they’ve forced four turnovers.)
They finished with the worst-ever December scoring margin (-107) after a 42-10 thrashing at the hands of the Patriots on Sunday. They are the first team since 1972 to lose by 23 points or more in four consecutive games — if they do that against the Bills this week, they’d be the first-ever to do it in five straight games.
The four blowouts the Jets have endured were brought up to coach Aaron Glenn on Monday.
“Absolutely it bothers me on a number of different levels,” Glenn said. “No coach likes to lose by 27 points. I mean, that’s obvious.”
The way this season has ended, optimism that Glenn is the right coach to shepherd the Jets into the future is dwindling. While it is true that the Jets are severely out-manned on a talent basis — especially on defense — that does not excuse their historical level of ineptitude.
The skid to end the season, along with the 0-7 start before the roster was stripped for parts, has left many wondering if this is the worst Jets team ever. By any statistical measure, analytical or traditional, they certainly have a case for it.
TruMedia has only tracked stats since 2000, but the Jets’ combined offensive and defensive EPA (expected points added) is the worst of any NFL team since the Rams in 2009, and the worst of any Jets team in that stretch. Among Jets teams since 2000, the 2025 edition ranks 22nd (of 26) in offensive EPA and 25th in defensive EPA — with another game to add onto their totals. (Note: The 2025 Jets do have the best special teams EPA since 2000.) The Jets also own the worst combined offensive and defensive DVOA (Defense-adjusted Value Over Average) in team history.
The Jets have also allowed 468 points on defense this season, the second-most in franchise history (the 2021 Jets allowed more) and 31st-most in NFL history. Only seven teams have ever allowed 500 points in a season; the Jets, Dallas Cowboys (477) and Cincinnati Bengals (472) are all within range heading into Week 18.
Pro Football Reference also has something called a “simple rating system” that “uses a team’s point differential and strength of schedule to assign a rating to each team, with 0.0 considered average.” The Jets SRS this season is -12 — the worst mark in the NFL and the second-worst mark in franchise history. The only Jets team that was worse: 1976, when Lou Holtz resigned as head coach midseason. That team had an SRS of -13.8 (in an era when there were only 28 teams).
Digging into the Jets’ history and using that stat (and others) for reference, the “best” candidates for the worst teams include: 2021, 2020, 1996, 1995, 1989, 1976 and 1975. And teams that deserve a (dis)honorable mention from recent years include 2018, 2016, 2014, 2012 (the year of the butt fumble), 2007 and 2005.
1975: Some context: The Jets fired Charley Winner midseason and replaced him with Ken Shipp. That season included an eight-game losing streak, five losses of 20 or more and quarterbacks (Joe Namath and JJ Jones) who combined for 16 touchdowns, 33 interceptions and a 45.3 completion percentage. Two of their three victories came against the three-win Patriots. Though those Jets only lost by two, eight and 10 in their last three games.
1976: Holtz resigned amid Namath’s final season with the Jets — he threw four touchdowns and 16 interceptions and they finished with a 3-11 record. They were blown out at the end of the season (last four losses were by a combined 88 points) but not as badly as these Jets, outside of a season-ending 39-point loss. That team had seven 20-point losses. Of their three victories that season, two came against a 2-12 Bills team, and the other was over the 0-14 Buccaneers.
1989: It was Joe Walton’s last season as Jets coach when they went 4-12 and their quarterbacks (Ken O’Brien, Tony Eason, Pat Ryan, Kyle Mackey and Mark Malone) combined to throw 14 touchdowns and 24 interceptions. That team lost by 24 and 37 points in their last two games — two of three 20-point losses on the season.
1995 and 1996: Rich Kotite was the Jets coach in 1995 and 1996, when they had a starting cornerback named Aaron Glenn. The Jets went 3-13 and 1-15 in those two seasons and had an NFL-worst SRS in both seasons.
2020: Adam Gase coached the Jets to an 0-13 start in his second, and final, season as coach. They won two late-season games to knock them off the No. 1 pick (Trevor Lawrence) to land at No. 2, where they’d select Zach Wilson. That team lost six games by 20 points.
2021: It was Robert Saleh’s first season as Jets coach and that year is probably the best one to compare to the current iteration because of the recency, and the context of what each coach was walking into. The 2025 Jets team looks worse than that one by most metrics. The 2021 Jets had Zach Wilson, Joe Flacco, Mike White and Josh Johnson get snaps at quarterback, which produced significantly higher-quality quarterback play than this year’s team. Current starter Brady Cook currently rates as the worst, or among the worst, among all NFL quarterbacks this season in most important measures, including EPA per dropback. Jets quarterbacks (Cook, Justin Fields and Tyrod Taylor) have combined for a league-worst 145.3 yards per game, with 13 touchdowns, 13 interceptions and a 60.8 completion percentage.
The 2021 Jets went 4-13, a season that included three three-game losing streaks — but the Jets ended with some level of promise. Three of their last four losses were by six or fewer points. They ranked 31st in SRS and had 14 takeaways and seven interceptions. Those Jets lost four games by 20 points or more and five games by less than 10 points. Glenn’s Jets have lost five games by 20 or more, though they have lost eight games by 10 or fewer points, which is at least worth noting, and one of the best cases that this is not the worst team in franchise history.
That 2021 Jets roster at least felt like it was building toward something, even in Saleh’s first year. There was still some hope that Wilson could be the QB of the future — there is no hope for anyone in the Jets’ quarterback room. The 2021 Saleh Jets had hardly any offensive building blocks outside of offensive lineman Alijah Vera-Tucker. On defense, they had Quinnen Williams, John Franklin-Myers, Bryce Huff, C.J. Mosley, Quincy Williams and Michael Carter II — all key pieces for the following year. On offense, these Jets have wide receiver Garrett Wilson, intriguing tight end Mason Taylor and an offensive line that will return intact next year. But these Jets have hardly any building blocks on defense after trading away Sauce Gardner and Quinnen Williams — and they might not have any based on how Jermaine Johnson, Will McDonald and Jamien Sherwood played this season. Quincy Williams will almost certainly leave in free agency. It is a defense devoid of difference-makers.
Saleh returned most of his coaching staff after that first year. Glenn already fired his defensive coordinator and some position coaches are likely on the way out too when the season is over.
It at least felt like there was some light at the end of the tunnel at the end of that 2021 season, and the Jets buttressed that with an impressive 2022 draft class. If it felt like there was a light when the Jets won three of five games earlier this season, it started to flicker after the embarrassment of the last four games. Maybe Glenn and GM Darren Mougey can make some noise with two first-round picks and two second-round picks in April, and with all that cap space in free agency. And it’s clear that over a full season, the Jets have had worse teams than this — though none worse at the end of it.
But that won’t change how the Jets’ failures this season, in some ways, are unprecedented in both team and NFL history. That’s not an easy hole to climb out of.
“Listen,” Glenn said. “We have one more game left.”
One more game left in what has become one of the worst seasons in franchise history.
