T’Vondre Sweat sends clear message at Titans after Jets schedule release

The 2026 NFL regular season schedule is set, and the New York Jets are facing quite a gauntlet to start their season, including facing three NFC North contenders in three of their first four games.

Before that, though, the Jets open their regular season against a familiar face, heading South for a date with the Tennessee Titans and their former head coach, Robert Saleh. It will be a massive tone-setter for the season, and New York will need a win before the schedule really gets tough.

It won't just be a revenge game for Saleh and his newly built defense that features several ex-Jets, including John Franklin-Myers, Jermaine Johnson, and Tony Adams, but some ex-Titans are looking to get a crack at their old team as well.

Nose tackle T'Vondre Sweat, who was swapped for Johnson in a trade this offseason, will look to prove Tennessee made a mistake in Week 1.

T'Vondre Sweat ready for revenge with Week 1 Jets-Titans matchup

Sweat, the Titans' second-round pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, is set to play his first season outside of Tennessee in 2026, and his first test as a member of the Jets will be to face the team that drafted him.

He responded to a post on X about the aforementioned Jets-Titans Week 1 matchup, and his choice of emojis should indicate how Sweat is feeling about facing his former team.

Sweat has plenty of fuel to use as motivation heading into the matchup with Tennessee. Obviously, the Titans decided to move him, but it wasn't just because they wanted to add a former Saleh pass rusher in Johnson.

Reports after the trade suggested Sweat was lazy and not the type of guy who's going to put the work in off the field. His conditioning was constantly called into question, and may have contributed to some of the injuries he's faced throughout his career.

Now with the Jets, veteran defensive tackle Harrison Phillips is taking Sweat under his wing and hopes to teach him what it takes to be a long-standing, successful player in the NFL.

His first chance to prove that he's turned over a new leaf? A Week 1 tilt with the team that gave up on him in the first place.

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