Browns upset win may have all but guaranteed Jets a QB in the draft

The New York Jets may have been embarrassed and humiliated on their home turf on Sunday, but they walked away from the afternoon with a clearer path to landing a quarterback in the 2026 NFL Draft.

The Jets continued to do their part in a fully embraced tank with a disgusting 42–10 loss to the New England Patriots in Week 17. It was a pathetic performance from a team clearly going through the motions, but it did move the Jets one step closer to finding their long-term quarterback solution.

And while the Jets helped their draft position, one of their most notable tank competitors may have blown their chance at landing a top quarterback come April.

The Cleveland Browns pulled off a stunning 13–6 upset win over the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday, improving to 4–12 and dropping from third to sixth in the draft order, notably sliding behind the Jets.

And with that one win, the Jets now have a wide-open path to landing one of the top two quarterbacks in this year's draft, assuming Oregon's Dante Moore ultimately declares.

Browns upset loss is massive for Jets draft position

Assuming Moore declares for the draft and the Jets close the season with another loss, they should be positioned to land a quarterback in April. At the moment, the Raiders are the only truly quarterback-needy team drafting ahead of them, and even that could change over the final week.

That’s why Cleveland’s upset win on Sunday looms so large in the Jets’ draft outlook. Moore and Indiana's Fernando Mendoza are widely seen as the top two quarterback prospects in this year's draft and are both presumed top-five picks.

The Browns were another quarterback-needy team competing with the Jets for one of those players, but with them essentially out of the picture now, the Jets should have every opportunity to land one of the top quarterback prospects.

In fact, there's still a chance the Jets could climb even higher in the draft order. The Philadelphia Eagles' 13-12 win over the Buffalo Bills on Sunday was huge for the team's strength-of-schedule tiebreakers.

The Jets' SOS dropped from .552 to .548, while the Giants saw theirs rise from .528 to .531, and the Raiders’ climbed from .542 to .544. There’s still a path for the Jets to land the No. 1 overall pick, but it would require both the Raiders and likely the Giants to win next week.

The strength-of-schedule tiebreaker between the Jets and Raiders will ultimately come down to the results of the primetime matchup and the Week 18 slate, and it figures to be close. Making up ground on the Giants in that same tiebreaker, however, will be far more difficult for the Jets.

Either way, the Browns' loss was the most important takeaway from this week. That one result essentially clinches the Jets a chance at one of the top quarterbacks in this year's class, assuming they don't stun the Bills next Sunday.

The Jets handled their end of the tank — brutally so. The Browns didn’t.