The Jets is likely to be improved. But they nonetheless can’t intercept a move.
Three weeks into the NFL season, after struggling two losses by a mixed 10 factors, New York Jets coach Aaron Glenn held his index finger and thumb inches aside for instance how shut he felt his staff was to a breakthrough.
“How can we shut that hole?” Glenn mentioned Sunday in Detroit, after a loss to the Lions that left the Jets 1-2. “I problem myself, I problem the employees, I even problem the gamers on let’s establish a pair issues that we have to enhance on and let’s make it possible for we hone in on these issues.”
One space isn’t onerous to search out: No staff has been worse at intercepting passes in NFL historical past than the Jets.
The league’s record-setting interception-less streak grew to twenty video games throughout New York’s Week 3 loss at Detroit. New York final picked off a move on Jan. 5, 2025, when it recorded two.
Ever since, the Jets’ protection has confronted 608 passes with nary a choose to indicate for it.
“That’s onerous to do,” former NFL coach John Gruden said on social media this week. “You would assume a ball would ricochet into anyone’s fingers.”
During Glenn’s 15-year enjoying profession as a defensive again, interceptions have been a specialty. He collected 41, tied for 73rd on the NFL’s all-time listing. As the Jets’ streak grew final December, Glenn admitted that “it’s disappointing that we don’t have an interception as a result of coming from what I’ve all the time performed, you anticipate these issues to occur.”
The Jets know all about turnover. When Glenn was employed in January 2025, after a profitable run as Detroit’s defensive coordinator, he was the franchise’s fifth coach since its final profitable season in 2015. Glenn informed followers to “anticipate a profitable staff that you can be pleased with.”
But solely weeks into his first season, because the Jets staggered to a 3-14 document, the staff traded two of its greatest defensive gamers in cornerback Sauce Gardner and defensive deal with Quinnen Williams. That defensive hearth sale didn’t assist a unit that will permit 29.6 factors per sport, second-most within the league.
When the streak reached 12 video games final December, Glenn referred to as it “actually puzzling.”
When the streak reached 15 to interrupt the earlier document held by the San Francisco 49ers in 2024, Glenn mentioned that, “I hate the truth that we didn’t get an interception,” after a loss to New Orleans. “But the factor is we obtained a turnover, after which we obtained a fourth-down cease, so these are some issues we are able to construct on.”
Unfortunately for Glenn and the Jets, turnovers of any selection have been onerous to come back by. Since the beginning of the 2025 season, New York has compelled a league-low six turnovers in 20 video games. The next-lowest staff produced 13. The league chief in that span, Chicago, has 39.
New York got down to tackle its defensive shortcomings within the offseason. In its secondary, it signed security Minkah Fitzpatrick, drafted a security and cornerback and signed Nashon Wright, whose 5 interceptions final season helped Chicago choose off a league-best 23.
Yes, Wright had heard of the streak.
“I’m on social media, so I’ve seen it, however strive to not pay it any thoughts,” Wright said in June. But “actually, don’t assume it’s been introduced up in any respect” throughout staff conferences, he added.
“I believe 2025 was 2025 and I believe we’re attempting to show over a brand new leaf,” Wright mentioned.
Three video games in, the Jets’ rank within the league’s higher half by permitting simply 20.3 factors per sport.
Yet the streak lives on.
Relief might be on the best way. In three weeks, New York faces New England, whose quarterback Drake Maye has thrown 10 interceptions in his final seven video games.
“We’re proper right here and our guys understand it,” Glenn mentioned, his fingers inches aside. “It’s this hole proper right here that we obtained to shut. And we’re combating our asses off to shut that hole and we are going to.”
