The annual ritual has arrived. Drew Magary’s “Why Your Team Sucks” series — the profane, beloved NFL preview column that survived the death of Deadspin and found new life at Defector — kicked off its 2026 cycle with the New York Jets, and the result is a 2,000-word eulogy for a franchise that refuses to stop dying.
Magary’s premise is the same one that has powered the column since its inception: some people are fans of a given team, but many more are not, and the preview is for the latter group. What distinguishes the Jets installment is the sheer density of catastrophe. The piece describes a 2025 season that opened with Aaron Rodgers — now a Steeler — throwing four touchdowns against his former employer and telling reporters afterward, “I was happy to beat everybody associated with the Jets.” Pittsburgh kicker Chris Boswell sealed it with a 60-yard field goal with 1:03 remaining. The Jets then lost their next six, starting 0-7.
From there, Magary catalogs the collapse with the glee of a man who has been waiting months to unload. The Jets traded defensive cornerstones Sauce Gardner and Quinnen Williams at midseason. They recorded zero interceptions across 17 games — a feat Magary marks with a stage direction: “[pukes].” They lost their final five games by a combined 188-54. They were swept by the entire AFC East. Mitchell Trubisky threw four touchdown passes against them in Week 18. And Sam Darnold, the quarterback the Jets discarded years ago, won the Super Bowl.
The column’s sharpest section targets the front office. Magary quotes a report that 91 percent of the Jets’ front office now uses Microsoft Copilot daily, up from “a handful” roughly a hundred days prior. “Whenever I open up Copilot on my desktop, it’s always by mistake,” Magary writes. “Same feeling I get whenever the Jets pop up on Red Zone.” The Jets parlayed their selloff into three first-round picks — Texas Tech edge rusher David Bailey, Oregon tight end Kenyon Sadiq, and Indiana wide receiver Omar Cooper — which Magary dismisses with grim predictions: Bailey will “beg to be traded away” by November, Sadiq will bust Kyle Pitts–style, and Cooper will be “forced into the WR1 role after Wilson goes the full Brandon Aiyuk.”
Head coach Aaron Glenn, entering his second season, fired both coordinators. The new offensive coordinator is Frank Reich, “last seen going 11/17ths-and-done with the Panthers.” The Jets traded for Geno Smith — whom Magary notes led the league in interceptions last season with the Raiders — and drafted Clemson’s Cade Klubnik in the fourth round, a player whose scouting profile Magary summarizes as “the poor man’s Carson Beck.”
Owner Woody Johnson, who received an F on the NFLPA’s annual player report card, is quoted blaming quarterback Justin Fields for the team’s struggles: “Something’s just not jiving.” The column does not let him off the hook for the observation.
The Raiders preview, published alongside the Jets piece, corroborates the series’ internal timeline: Geno Smith went from Seattle to Las Vegas and then to New York, Pete Carroll lasted one season in Vegas, and Darnold’s Super Bowl victory is treated as established fact across both articles. The 2026 “Why Your Team Sucks” cycle is now underway, with the Jets and Raiders already posted and additional team previews rolling out on Defector’s site.
Magary has written the column in some form for over a decade. The formula has not changed. The Jets, as ever, make it easy.
