As Jets players walked off the field on Sunday, it was obvious they were completely outclassed by a Patriots team that blew them out 42-10, even despite not having all of their top guys healthy.
For the Patriots, it was their 13th victory of the season, and it clinched the AFC East. For the Jets, it was their 13th loss of 2025, and it comes on the heels of new head coach Aaron Glenn’s first season in New York.
To this point, many expected it to be a difficult season, but it sounds like there hasn’t been much positive to build from heading into the offseason. The only bright spot right now is that after next week, the misery ends and Jets fans head back into another offseason hoping there might at least be some optimism should this campaign pay dividends in the NFL Draft in April.
“It has been a decade and a half of disappointment and a season full of lows. And yet somehow, week 17 at home against the New England Patriots felt like a new bottom for this Jets team,” said Steve Gelbs on Jets Postgame following the loss. “Guys, I pretty much just said it. I don’t really know how to be more succinct on air in a thoughtful way. But this is a Jets team that we understand is outmanned and doesn’t necessarily have the talent to compete with the Patriots team, but to be at home in front of, at least some of your fans, a lot of Patriots fans out there today, and put together that type of performance for really the fourth consecutive week, it’s pretty embarrassing and should really, I think, be a red flag for this organization right now.”
“I mean, Aaron Glenn would probably say that we went out there and there was a lot of good things that could be said and done, but we don’t see that,” said Bart Scott. “It’s a bigger plan, and big ships take long times to turn and all that stuff. But if I’m a Jet fan, I’m tired of seeing this, right? Especially when I’m looking across the field and I’m looking at a team, an organization that we were supposed to be ahead of that have turned their ship around quicker than ours. So jet fans are trying to figure out, When does our ship turn?”
One of the biggest frustrations is the lack of fire the team has shown, especially from the Jets veterans. The scuffle that took place before the half happened between rookie tackle Armand Membou and Christian Barmore and it left Barmore pretty heated, calling the rookie a ‘dirty player.’ But for Jets fans, it was a bright spot given that Membou seemed to be the only one out there fired up compared to the guys around him.
That left a bad taste in everyone’s mouth, given that the overall sentiment seemed to be the older players were “lifeless” as they spent the afternoon getting manhandled by New England.
“By the way, he’s your rookie,” said Willie Colon of Membou. “There’s other veterans on that team who have been there, been through the fight, been through the ugly days. I want a guy, no matter how many in this we got to go to war with, just going to charge the hill, not retreat and say, ‘Well, this is another down year.'”
“So the fact that your rookie right tackle was willing to fight going into halftime to show the most emotion and passion out of everybody in the green helmet is a testament to what this team is going through. Because if you’re Jamien Sherwood, who’s been paid a lot of money, who’s your Green Dot linebacker, you should also be next to Membou wanting to fight. If you’re Olu Fashanu, who’s a cornerstone with this organization who is drafted first round, you should also be wanting to have a fight.”
“I know how we played. Bart and I sit at this desk, and we talk about time and time [again], how we were overly passionate because it meant something to us. It wasn’t just about the name on the back of our jersey. It’s because we knew we had the city on our backs. Every time we walked on the NFL field, there was a boatload of diehard fans who said, ‘Man, we work a real 9:00 to 5:00. We look to see you play. We want to see you go get it.’ When you don’t see that on the field and you’re a rookie right tackle, the only one that’s really pulling helmets off and fight, that’s an indictment where this team is already tapped out. At the end of the day, man, I’m over it just like everybody else, but there needs to be a bigger level of accountability and who’s really believing in the brand. ”
Connor Rogers feels that the more concerning situation is the fact that while it’s not a surprise that there are some guys who are just trying to play out the season, the larger red flag is that a lot of what has gone in New York was going on long before the Jets were fully out of it.
He believes that’s the bigger indictment on Glenn, which has left both the team and the fans with a lot of unfulfilled promises, and even more questions heading into the offseason.
“The lack of togetherness and pride, right? That’s what’s so shocking,” said Rogers. “Listen, when Aaron Glenn was hired, nobody billed him as a mad scientist or a scheme architect, right? He’s somebody that was viewed as a leader, a former player, kind of a grittier program. And there’s nothing wrong with that, right? There’s different approaches to being a head coach in this league. The problem is right now, the promises that he came with, we haven’t seen any of it. All I hear when people that want to defend him, and I get it, you want to be optimistic, you want to hope for improvement. But the number one defense I always get is, ‘Well, the last couple of weeks, they’re starting Brady Cook, and they’re shutting players down, and they’re tanking.’ Listen, no one is denying that. But the main issue I have is, why did they get to that point? Because they started 0-7. That’s why we’re here, and they’re not playing for anything. So your defense can’t be that, because in reality, you’re revealing how you feel about the state of the team and how they got here.”
Gelbs agreed with that, feeling that there are definitely doubts at the direction they’re heading in. It also sounds like Glenn might be losing confidence, primarily because, much like Jerod Mayo’s first season, this Jets team doesn’t seem to be taking much positive to build off of heading into 2026.
“The thing that bothers me about that, too, I understand fans at this point, rooting for losses and rooting for draft position, because why not?” said Gelbs. “You want the higher draft position. If you are Aaron Glenn, who is coming here with the stated goal being to change the culture and build a foundation, and you are having your team go out and play that lifeless, and with that lack of fire on a week-in, week-out basis, that, to me, is not doing anything like what you said you were going to.”
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Ian Logue is a Seacoast native and owner and senior writer for PatsFans.com, an independent media site covering the New England Patriots and has been running this site in one form or another since 1997.
