Jets Must Make Progress, But Must Find Small Wins In Season's Final Stretch

BALTIMORE — Goals changed the moment the Jets traded away Sauce Gardner and Quinnen Williams. They’re not tanking — no NFL team truly does — but winning slid to the back seat. This stretch of the season is about developing the players on the roster and determining who might be part of the future. If victories come alongside that, great. They just aren’t expected.

So, yes, you wish Aaron Glenn made a better decision on that fourth-and-2 in the second half. You wish Breece Halldidn’t fumble going in for a score that could have kept the Jets alive. You wish they had just a little more against the Ravens, instead of falling short again, 23-10, to drop their record to 2-9.

But that doesn’t really matter. Not now.

It’s about progress in defeat.

“Tough loss today,” Glenn said.

For the Jets, the wins the rest of this season must be found in the little things. It’s frustrating that this is the barometer for a franchise on the verge of missing the playoffs for the 15th straight year — the NFL’s longest active drought — but it’s reality. Glenn stood outside the visiting locker room, high-fiving each player who walked in. Why? Because they fought. They looked like the better team for much of the first half. That’s two straight weeks — including Thursday night in New England — where their effort can’t be questioned.

That’s building a foundation, Glenn said. That’s something you can cling to moving forward. So is the play of a few emerging contributors.

John Metchie III, a forgotten add-on in the pick-swap trade involving Michael Carter, has now caught a touchdown in back-to-back games. On Sunday, he posted a career-high six receptions for 65 yards and the score. AD Mitchell, the under-the-radar piece of the Gardner trade, added two catches for 42 yards, including an impressive 26-yard sideline grab.

The Jets already know they have Garrett Wilson — whom the team placed on the injured reserve last week with a knee injury — and they plan to add a true complement opposite him this offseason. But do they have internal candidates for the No. 3 or No. 4 roles? That’s what these games are revealing.

“I feel comfortable in this offense,” said Metchie, whose two touchdowns in his three games with the Jets are as many as he had in the previous 36 games of his career. 

A month ago, the idea of Hall being on the 2026 Jets seemed far-fetched. Honestly, making it past the trade deadline felt unlikely. But the Jets didn’t get the third-round pick they sought, so they kept him — and Hall has responded emphatically.

Despite Baltimore keying on him, Hall totaled 119 yards from scrimmage. He caught four passes for 75 yards, including a 40-yard catch-and-run where he slipped, spun, and shed defenders. His fumble stung, but the Jets are ready to live with that because of what Hall brings when on the field.

“S--t happens,” Glenn said, adding that Hall is “my guy.”

With Gardner and Williams off the books, the Jets now have the cap flexibility to extend or franchise Hall without major financial strain. And Hall is playing his way into a longer stay.

“My job is to show up on Mondays, Thursdays, and Sundays,” Hall said. “No matter what the record is, no matter what the score is. I’m going to come out and I love to play football, so I’m going to play football.”

This — development, flashes, small leaps — is what the final six games are about. It’s sad on some level. You watch teams around the league turn things around in a year, and here are the Jets, clinging to Metchie’s development as evidence of a brighter tomorrow.

But that’s what you hold onto.

Believe they’ll turn their four first-round picks over the next two years into stars and a quarterback. Hope they round out the roster with the three second-rounders in that span. Combine that with the foundation laid during this lost year, and maybe long-term success follows.

Maybe it won’t.

But at least now, you can cling to the possibility that it does.