Jets just set an NFL record with a stunning drought (but not the one you think)

When people hear “New York Jets” and “drought” in the same sentence, their minds typically go straight to the big one. Of course, we're talking about the 15-year playoff drought that continues to hang over the franchise.

But somehow, unbelievably, there’s another drought in Florham Park that’s even more shocking, even more baffling, and somehow even more historically unprecedented.

The Jets have now gone 10 consecutive games without an interception, tying the longest season-opening streak in NFL history after Thursday night’s loss to the Patriots. And that’s only part of the problem.

Through 11 weeks, the Jets have one total takeaway, a forced fumble in Week 6 that feels like it happened three seasons ago. They are on pace to shatter the league record for fewest takeaways in a season, and the gap isn’t even close.

Jets on pace to set NFL record for historic defensive ineptitude

The most astonishing part of this historic drought isn’t just the zeroes on the stat sheet, but it’s how many chances the Jets have had to avoid them.

How many fumbles have there been in Jets games that have somehow managed to bounce right into the awaiting hands of their opposition? How many should-be interceptions bounced harmlessly off the hands of one of their defenders?

Outside of Jarvis Brownlee's forced fumble in London, the lone change-of-possession the Jets defense has created all year, every other loose ball, every other gift, has gone to the other team. That's a total systematic failure on the part of the organization.

A growing share of that failure arguably falls on defensive coordinator Steve Wilks, whose aggressive, stubbornly man-heavy scheme has made the Jets both predictable and painfully exploitable.

New York runs man coverage at the third-highest rate in the NFL (45.1%), yet they haven’t been particularly good at it, allowing 5.7 yards per dropback in man, ranking 20th in the league. In zone, they’ve actually been significantly better, allowing 5.6 yards per dropback, which ranks 7th.

The discrepancy becomes even more glaring on third down. The Jets play man 54.5% of the time on what should be the defense’s money down, but give up 5.5 yards per dropback in those situations. When they play zone on third down, they rank eighth-best in the NFL, surrendering just 4.1 yards per dropback.

That predictability has consequences. Without disguises and unpredictability, turnovers dry up, and boy, have they dried up in historic fashion. Trading Sauce Gardner and Quinnen Williams didn’t help, but even before those moves, this defense wasn’t producing the game-changing plays required to survive in today’s NFL.

So while the playoff drought remains the headline-grabber, the real story of the Jets’ 2025 season is a different, staggering, record-setting turnover drought.

And unless Steve Wilks dramatically adjusts his approach — or the Jets' defense manages to make a play — it may not end anytime soon.