Key Storylines Through Week 1

Good Morning ☕

We got a break from practice yesterday with a schedules off-day which gave us an opportunity to pause and reflect on the first week.

It’s important to remember that it’s still early, we’ve only had a couple of padded practices, we’re still around 10 days away from the first pre-season game and there’s a lot of time left for players to play their way on and off the roster.

But It’s a good chance to sit and take stock of some of the developing storylines around the Jets as look forward to that first pre-season game.

• Jets have waived Eric Watts due to injury.

• Jets have waived DB Keidron Smith

• Jets have signed DT Patrick Jenkins

• Demario Davis talked to Bart Scott about what it was like coming into the league with the Jets while he was still a player:

  • “My first couple of practices, you were like, ‘Hey, when they run iso, you got to blow that guy up.’ I was like OK, I saw what it’s like, and so you showed me how to play the game as an inside linebacker and to be that enforcer. I learned that and I took a little bit from everybody — D’Brickashaw Ferguson, too — about being a pro. And I was able to put that into my game and build a career. And now I’m able to come back to a locker room that’s very familiar to me and do the same thing for other guys.”

• Talking of Demario Davis (#96), he’s still the only Jets player to make it onto the NFL’s Top 100 list. They’re currently on number 36 so I don’t expect to see too many Jets in that range the rest of the way:

  • “After five straight years on the NFL Top 100, the venerable Davis was absent in 2025. His final season with the Saints led to a return to the all-star squad on his way back to the Jets, who signed the 14-year NFL veteran whom they drafted in the third round back in 2012. The two-time Pro Bowler set a career high in tackles during his age-36 season, helping to rally a young New Orleans squad down the stretch. He’ll be looking to lend his wisdom -- and tackling prowess -- to New York this fall.”

• The Athletic had their QB power rankings out based on the opinions of 8 GMs, 5 assistant GMs, 5 former GMs, 3 executives, 9 HCs, 10 DCs, 5 OCs and plenty more, and Geno came in all the way down to tier 4, sandwiched in-between Malik Willis at #29 and Deshaun Watson at #31:

  • `Smith suffered the largest year-over-year decline of any quarterback, falling from a career-best 2.90 average to 3.70. His 11-spot drop in the rankings tied Stroud’s for the largest.

  • “He looked terrible on the film we saw,” a defensive coordinator said.

• Khalil Herbert who spent a lot of the 2025 season with the New York Jets has signed a deal in San Francisco with the 49ers.

• Tight end Connor Hulstein, from Marist University, reached agreement today with the N.Y. Jets.

1. Injuries

We spoke about it yesterday but it’s hard to ignore the injuries as we move towards that first pre-season game. Sweat, Ossai and Ponds have all failed to practice at all, Sadiq has been limited and we lose/cut some depth receivers due to injuries. Touch wood we haven’t had any major injuries like the Carolina Panthers, but this is a storyline the more it festers.