Unusual Jets stat offer needed early-season optimism

One of the things that makes the NFL season what it is is the fact that teams can never get too high or too low.

That's exactly what the New York Jets are experiencing. The heartbreaking 20-17 overtime loss to the Green Bay Packers is already in the past as head coach Aaron Glenn prepares his team for a Week 3 trip to tackle the Detroit Lions , where he'll face a team he once helped lead after spending four seasons as their defensive coordinator.

The Jets don't have much time to dwell on what happened Sunday, but we do have a moment to look back at two bizarre and surprisingly encouraging statistics that emerged from the home opener.

ESPN NFL insider Adam Schefter pointed out that New York ran 55 plays with the lead during its Week 1 victory over the Tennessee Titans . He states, for perspective, the Jets ran just 66 total plays with a lead during all of the 2025 season.

Think about that for a moment. After one game, the Jets had already been ahead for nearly as many offensive snaps as they were during the entirety of the previous season.

Not to be outdone, there is another stat for more context here, noting that the Jets have now run more plays with a lead through two games this season than they did during all of 2025.

That's not going to make the Packers loss any less frustrating, but it does provide another indication that this Jets team is operating from a much different position than last year's group.

The Jets are finding themselves in unfamiliar territory

The second statistic is even more interesting when viewed through the lens of what happened against Green Bay . The Jets led the Packers 17-7 in the fourth quarter and ultimately lost. That is obviously the part everyone remembers, but there is another side to it: New York keeps putting itself in position to control games.

For a team that struggled so badly to play from ahead last season, the early-season transformation is striking. The Jets have not figured out how to consistently finish those games yet, but they are putting themselves in the position to have that problem in the first place.

None of this will help the Jets win Sunday in Detroit. It won't erase the fourth-quarter collapse against Green Bay, either. Still, after the emotional toll of Week 2, we'll take our silver linings wherever we can find them.