The Jets absorbed a season-ending 35-8 loss at Buffalo late Sunday afternoon and into the evening to finish 3-14. When all the necessary results were in from the NFL's regular-season finales, however, the Green & White were presented with a silver lining to the game and their season that they didn't want but obviously will accept.
The Jets have secured the second overall selection in the 2026 NFL Draft in late April.
The Jets were able to grab the No. 2 spot at the NFL's draft table with help from their MetLife Stadium mates, the Giants, who ended their season with wins at Las Vegas last week and over the Cowboys earlier Sunday,. 34-17, to finish 4-13.
That opened the door for the Jets. Despite seven teams entering Sunday's slate of games with a shot at the second pick, the simple path for the Jets to No. 2 was a Giants win over Dallas followed by a Jets loss at Buffalo.
Since the 1967 AFL/NFL draft, the first common draft between the leagues, the Jets have held the second overall pick three times. The first time, they traded up in 1980 to No 2 to draft Texas WR Johnny "Lam" Jones. Ten years later, in the 1990 draft, they selected Penn State RB Blair Thomas second. In 2021, the choice was BYU QB Zach Wilson.
The Jets also hold a mid-first-round pick in the April 23 first round, which they acquired from Indianapolis in the trade for CB Sauce Gardner. They entered Sunday with that pick at No. 15, but Baltimore's loss at Pittsburgh on Sunday night bumped the Ravens into the subgroup with 8-9 records and, because of their lower schedule strength, moved Tampa Bay and Indianapolis down a rung each, so the Jets now have the Colts' 16th overall pick in Round 1.
The Jets had been eliminated from the top pick with Atlanta's 23-21 win over the Los Angeles Rams last Monday night's. According to NFL.com, there was "no path for them to finish with a lower strength of schedule than the Raiders" if the Jets and Raiders both finished tied at 3-14. Even with the Raiders heading to a last-second 14-12 home win over the Chiefs, that did nothing to raise their strength of schedule and unseat them from the top pick.
With Tennessee and Arizona also losing Sunday, that placed two other teams at 3-14 with the Jets. But the Jets' strength of schedule, at .552 before the Sunday night game, was lower than both the Cardinals (.571) and the Titans (.574).
The Jets have eight choices in the April 23-25 draft being held this year in Pittsburgh. Besides their two first-rounders, they have two in Round 2 (one from Dallas in the Quinnen Williams trade), single picks in Round 4 and 6, and two selections in Round 7.
