Why the Jets and Giants Feel Different Entering the 2026 NFL Season

New York football feels different heading into the 2026 NFL season, but now comes the real question: does different actually mean better?

This episode looks at why the Jets and Giants both feel like they’re operating with more structure than usual. For the Giants, John Harbaugh changes the tone of the building, Joe Schoen gets a surprising extension, Malik Nabers’ injury status looms large, and the franchise is betting that stability can finally turn into results.

For the Jets, Aaron Glenn and Darren Mougey appear to have a real plan in place. Breece Hall and Garrett Wilson sound bought in, Frank Reich gives the offense a more experienced voice, David Bailey brings new juice to the pass rush, and Cade Klubnik gives the quarterback room a developmental swing without forcing panic.

Plus, quick thoughts on Aaron Rodgers’ final Steelers season, Joe Burrow’s Super Bowl expectations in Cincinnati, and a weekend watch board featuring Knicks-Cavs Game 3, Spurs-Thunder, Mets-Marlins, and Yankees-Rays.

Transcript

New Intro And The Big Question

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Let's do it, do it tonight.

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Ah, yes. Yes. How are we feeling about the new intro music? I'm digging it a little bit. Don't worry though. I'll mix in a little Eagle as Landed from time to time. Anyway, I digress. Welcome and thank you for tuning into this week's NFL episode. And the title of this one is Why the Jets and Giants Feel Different Entering the 2026 NFL season. That's really where my head's at. Not are they fixed, not are they playoff teams, not should we start active normal and measured in May, which, by the way, nobody does. May is when every fan base starts lying to itself a little bit. For football at least. Nobody's thrown a pick yet. Nobody's blown a fourth quarter lead yet. Nobody has the coach explain why the team just gotta just gotta execute better. So everybody gets to sound good, you know? Every coach is changing the culture. Every GM has a plan. Every quarterback looks sharp and shorts, you know? And God, you know, best believe every rookie is way ahead of schedule. So I'm trying to separate the usual offseason buzz from something that actually feels structured. With the Giants, John Harbaugh the room, which we know. Joe Shane gets extended, which we didn't know. Malik Neighbors is working his way back. Jackson Dart is sitting there as the young quarterback. There's you know a real conversation about whether stability is finally the right move or whether the Giants are just trying to convince themselves a clean offseason means that the organization is fixed with a new person at the head here. And with the Giants, well, it's Aaron Glenn. It's Darren Muji, it's Brees Hall, it's Garrett Wilson, Frank Reich, all of them. There are pieces here that actually connect to each other, and that's kind of new. Before we dive into that, though, I will hit a couple NFL national notes here, just quickly.

Rodgers And Pittsburgh’s Last Ride

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Rogers back in Pittsburgh, Borough and Cincinnati. Both teams feel different. Now, now different has to become better. So we'll start in Pittsburgh. Again, just for a minute. I promise. Rodgers coming back with the Steelers. And now he has set it full flat out. Final season, last ride, one more year, one more run, one more chance to walk off into the sunset for the NFL content machine to argue every week about whether he still has it or Mike McCarthy can make it work, and Pittsburgh's being smart or stubborn or nostalgic or all three at once. You know? I don't want Rogers to take over this whole episode, but it's a clean little headline here. Rogers and McCarthy together again in Pittsburgh feels like one of those stories that kind of already has the documentary trailer built before the football even starts. I mean, you can see it now. Old Packers clips, Super Bowl highlights, somebody says full circle six times, black and white footage, you know, the whole kit and caboodle. Still, there's a football question underneath all of that. This is not prime Rogers. We don't need to do pretend time here. He's not 31. He's not creating explosives out of nothing the way he used to. You know, Devontae Adams isn't suiting up in a Steelers uniform anytime soon. But if you're asking where an older quarterback can be managed into a competent season, Pittsburgh with McCarthy is not the worst setup. You know, say what you want, Mike Talman or not, still a strong organization. The defensive backbone, you know, it's the black and blue division. A familiar coach, doesn't really have to learn a new offense. It's a place that usually does not let the whole operation spiral into circus mode. The Steelers are not betting on vintage Rogers. They're betting on the final version being good enough if everything around him is controlled. Run the offense, protect the football, let the defense keep you in games. Don't ask him to be a superhero every Sunday. And maybe he sprinkles one or two of those games in. Maybe not at a championship level, but at a, you know, this team is annoying in January level. Sure, I could see that. Now

Burrow Puts Pressure On Cincinnati

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you go to Cincinnati. And Joe Burrow, our boy, Joey B. I'm a big LSU guy. Love Joe Burrow. Totally different spot than Rodgers. Rogers is the old quarterback trying to squeeze out one more real season. Burrow is the franchise quarterback looking at the roster and basically saying, that's it. No more excuses, man. Is what it is. He called this the most talented Bengals team he has had. They added Dexter Lawrence. They added pieces on defense. Burrow is talking Super Bowl in May. And I kind of respect it. You know, a lot of quarterbacks avoid that. They give you the safe answer. Yeah, we like the guys in the room. We're just trying to get better every day. Yada, yada, yada. Burrow's not doing any of that. He's putting the whole standard right there on the table. He's taking it out and he's putting it on the table. Good. That's what a franchise quarterback that wins is supposed to do when the team gives him a real roster. Put some heat on the building. Make it clear what the season is supposed to be. And of course, you know, once you say it, you have to live with it. You don't get to call this your best roster and then ask everybody to be patient if November gets ugly. Burrow put the pressure on Cincinnati. And now Cincinnati has to play like a team that asks for the pressure. That's why I like the quote: it creates accountability. Around the league, everybody's selling something. The NFL this time of the year is basically one Giant sales pitch with, you know, popped collar polos. Locally, that's where this gets a little interesting. The Jets and Giants are not selling the same thing, but both fan bases are staring at their team and asking the same question. Does this actually feel different?

Giants Reset Begins With Harbaugh

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Let's start with the Giants. The Giants are interesting right now because the offseason is not as simple as new coach better vibes. It's kind of how it started, but I don't know. John Harbaugh changes the building. No doubt about it. You bring in a coach like that, the tone is different immediately. The credibility changes, the way people talk about the team changes. Fans may disagree on the roster a little bit, but the GM, the quarterback, all of it, nobody is sitting there saying John Harbaugh doesn't know what an NFL operation is supposed to look like. And for most of the offseason, the conversation around the Giants felt pretty straightforward. This is John's team. Joe Shane is still there, but Harbaugh is the real power. He's the one pulling the strings. Shane is kind of a placeholder because somebody needs the title. Somebody needs to handle the job, but the whole thing now runs through Harbaugh. I understood why people thought that. Shane's record is complicated to say the least. Daniel Jones got the big contract, then turned into a disaster. Saquon Barkley left for Philadelphia, and Giant fans had to watch the whole thing become a nightmare in real time. Evan Neal didn't exactly become what they needed. Deontay Banks is already in that weird zone where you're wondering if the player needs a reset somewhere else. Brian Taball gets fired. Dexter Lawrence ends up in Cincinnati. That's a lot to carry into your next sales pitch, man. So when Harbaugh in, the national reaction is, okay, this is the adult now. This is the reason to believe. This is the guy who gets the benefit of the doubt. And then the draft happens, and the story gets a little more interesting. Starts to feel less like Harbaugh and shoved everybody out of the way, and more like Harbaugh and Shane actually found some common ground. You hear them talk about alignment. You see them work through the Dexter Lawrence trade together. You see them at Arvell Reese, Francis Mavioga, Colin Hood. You see a roster that at the very least feels like it's being built with a cleaner idea. That actually says something good about Harbaugh, by the way. People wanted to believe that he was calling every single shot, like he walked into the building with a whistle, a depth, and a list of everyone who we wanted removed by lunch. But I don't really think that's who he is. Harbaugh has always felt more team first and ego first, strong personality, sure. Huge presence, no doubt, but not the guy who needs to prove he's the smartest person in every meeting. He's open into listening and exchanging ideas. You know, if he came in, worked with Shane, built some trust, and found a way to move in the same direction, that's real leadership. Sometimes the best power move is not acting like you need all the power, you know? Now, here's where I pause.

The Surprise Joe Shane Extension

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Joe Shane got extended. I get the logic, kinda. If look, if Harbaugh and Shane are aligned, ownership probably wants to avoid another weird setup where the coach and GM are on different timelines. Should we hit the reset button? You know, it's not my guys that I brought in, I didn't draft the gear, all that. Stability can be healthy. The Giants have been living in reset mode for years, and at some point you can't keep flipping the table every time the dinner tastes bad. Still, that extension felt like it kind of came out of nowhere, man. There was no inklings, there was no little tidbits from any of the beat reporters. Seven o'clock at night, right before Knicks Cavs game two, with the Knicks in the Eastern Conference Finals and the entire New York sports world locked into basketball, they dropped the extension. Come on. I mean, that did not feel like the Giants trying to start a big public conversation. It felt like they wanted the news out there, but they also did not want it leading every show for the next two days. They could have easily done this Wednesday, could have easily done this, you know, during the beginning of the week. If the Knicks lose, the city is yelling about the Knicks. If the Knicks win, which they did, by the way, the city is screaming about two wins away from the finals. Either way, the Shane extension gets tucked under the couch just a little bit more. Look, it's smart PR, if you don't want to hide it, or if you want to hide it, excuse me. Maybe it's coincidence. I'm not buying coincidence. It seems like they wanted to extend him, but they didn't want a lot of people to know that he was getting extended, or they didn't feel super confident to come out and hold the press conference about it, you know? They just kind of threw it out there and it was what it was. And look, I mean, it doesn't automatically make the extension wrong. It does tell me the Giants knew how the reaction might go, though. And fans are allowed to ask what Shane has done to deserve that kind of trust. That's that's not being negative. That's being honest about the record. The Giants have not won enough. The roster has had major issues. The Saquon decision is sitting there like a bad smell in the room and a worse taste in your mouth. You know, you can open the windows, you can light a candle, you can talk about Harbaugh all you want. People still know what happens. You had to watch your division hated division rival go win a Super Bowl with your vaunted all-star taken number two overall running back. At the same time, I don't want to ignore the other side. If Harbaugh really believes he can work with Shane, if the draft process was clean and the vision is shared, there is value in not having the GM on some awkward one-year prove-it deal while the new coach is building his program. That's kind of the debate. I don't hate stability. I just don't think stability should be treated like proof. Keeping people together can let a good plan breathe, but it can also keep the wrong plan alive longer than it should. The Giants are betting this partnership is worth backing before the results arrive. Harbaugh is the reason you can talk yourself into it. You know, even the little stuff like him calling out drops and OTAs gives you a sense of the room he's trying to create. He said the football should not hit the ground too often. Not exactly breaking news there, but you know, still, it tells you what he's watching. Some coaches wait until problems become disasters. Harbaugh is trying to set the standard early. Practice clean, do the simple things right, don't make sloppiness normal. A team that has been sloppy for years probably needs a guy who gets annoyed by sloppy play in May.

Giants Football Concerns Still Loom

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With all that being said, though, the football concerns are still real. You know, Malik Neighbors is the biggest one here. Harbaugh called the knee injury not simple. That wording alone should make people pay attention. ACL, meniscus repair, a second surgery to remove scar tissue, and now week one is more of a goal than a guarantee. If you're building around Jackson Dart, that's not some side note you want to hear, man. That's a major development. A young quarterback needs his number one receiver. He needs the guy who can turn a decent throw into a huge play. He needs the player defenses have to worry about before the snap, you know? Neighbors being active is one thing. Neighbors being himself is a completely different thing, you know. The difference between he's out there and he's terrifying, well, the Giants need terrifying. They also need to figure out life after Dexter Lawrence here. You don't really replace a player like that. You can replace snaps, rolls, body types, run fits, sure. Depth is nice, rotation is nice, but no one man for man replaces Dexter Lawrence. And that's the hard part of the Giants season so far. So much of the conversation is about stability and culture, but football still comes down to players winning downs. Can Dart grow without everything being perfect around him? Will neighbors be fully right? Does the offensive line finally stop being a weekly emergency? Can the defense survive losing a franchise level player in the middle? Those are all real questions. And they don't get answered at a town hall. So, yes, the Giants feel different. Harbaugh feel different. The draft gave them a different energy. The Shane Harbaugh gives the building, I guess, a little bit of a clearer structure than the mess that it was they were living in before. But now we find out if different is actually better. Did they actually choose stability or did they just choose comfort? Did they build alignment or did they dress up patience in a nicer suit? That's the Giants season.

Jets Feel Unfamiliar In A Good Way

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Across town, weirdly enough, the Jets, the Jets might be the team where the plan feels cleaner right now. I know. I said it. I also felt my body reject the sentence a little bit, but I did, I said it, and I stand by it. The Jets feel different right now, man. They're not fixed, they're not solved, same thing. They're not everybody calm down. The Jets are going 12 and 5. Let's not get crazy. I do have them at 8 and 9, though. Jets fans have learned not to get too loud in May. We love to, but we've tempered it as of late. Look, man, we got emotional scar tissue. Every time we start feeling happy, the football gods notice and immediately look for a piano to drop through the roof. So I'm trying to keep the excitement at a safe distance. But still, I can't admit when something looks more than professional. Aaron Glenn, I know a lot of people hate him, a lot of people don't like him. I am on the opposite. I think Aaron Glenn could be, is going to be a good coach. I think the first year got after him a little bit. And I think he's the real leader that this team needs. You know, Darren Muji is making moves that make sense on paper. Frank Reich gives the offense an actual grown-up in the room. Brees Hall and Garrett Wilson sound like players who believe in where this is going, who want to be Jets. You don't hear that often. David Bailey gives this defense a premium edge piece. Hell, even Cade Klubenick gives a developmental quarterback without forcing everyone to pretend he has to save the day. You know? That's the plan. That's a real plan in place. For once the Jets are not asking fans to believe in a slogan. Slogan, all gas, no breaks, you know, all that bullshit. There are actual pieces that you can point to and see a little bit of hope. And I'm going to start with Aaron Glenn here. Year two is big for him. No doubt about it. The schedule gives him a chance to build early credibility. Tennessee, Cleveland, Miami, Vegas. Games like that early in the year, look, not automatic wins. The Jets have no right to call anything automatic. This franchise could trip walking through an open door. But still, if Glenn can get them through that early stretch looking competent, you might be looking at four and four, five and five. The entire mood changes. The schedule helps, man. It does not make the Jets good, but it gives them a path to not getting buried by Halloween. For this team, that's a real starting point, as sad as it is to say. Then for Muji, I I like that he's keeping young players. It sounds basic, right? You know, good player, keep him. Amazing concept, revolutionary. Somebody alert can. But you know, for the Jets, basic competence has not always been guaranteed. Too often, this team either drafted poorly, failed to develop guys, or made the good players feel like they were trapped in a never-ending fire drill, or didn't surround the young players that were good with enough talent. Sam Darnold's best receiver when he was here was Robbie Anderson. Let that sink in for a second. You know, Muji is at least acting like a normal GM in that area. Get the young core under contract. Don't wait until the price explodes. Don't make every deal feel like a hostage negotiation. Garrett Wilson signs. Brees Hall signs. Those are two things that hit different for Jets fans. For once, guys seem like they actually want to be Jets. If you root for a functional franchise, that may not sound like some grand revelation here. Steelers fans, Chiefs, Eagles, they're used to good players sticking around and taking a little bit of a pay cut and talking like the building has a plan and wanting to go play for your team. Jets fans, Jets fans hear it and immediately start looking around like, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Are you sure? You want to be a Jet? You know, Garrett Wilson talks like he believes in the direction. Brees Hall talks like he sees what the offense can become. Those are core players saying that, not random death pieces. The buy-in gives you a read on the building. The Brees Hall quote to me is less about breaking down the offense and more about the temperature around the team. He looks at Geno Smith, the offensive line, the weapons, the coaching staff, and he sounds like a guy who believes there is finally a plan. Garrett Wilson gave the same similar feeling when he signed. That's how you start changing a franchise's reputation internally. Players have to believe it before the fans really do. Fans are slower, especially Jets fans. We don't exactly trust Joy around here. You know, we put Joy on a payment plan and uh check the terms and conditions. You know? Look, the offense still has to prove it, obviously. Player quotes do not convert third and sevens. Buy-in does not exactly fix red zone execution. A good spring headline does not make the pass protection hold up in Buffalo. But it helps.

Reich, Geno, And Raising The Floor

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And Frank Reich has a job to do here. I like having him in that job. He's been a head coach. He knows the offense, he knows quarterbacks, he's not learning how to run a room while the Jets are trying to learn how to be normal. It is another addition of another player that played in this league at a high level that has been a head coach, that knows what he's doing, that can bring some normalcy to game day, to the sideline. Like the bar for this offense is not become a monster overnight. Let's start with looking organized, which I think Frank Wright can get it done. You know, get in and out of the huddle clean. Use Brees like a real offensive weapon, not just a guy you remember exists when the offense is already behind schedule and it's third and ten and we're gonna do a draw. You know, stop asking Garrett Wilson to make circus catches just to keep drives alive, and let Geno Smith be the adult in the huddle instead of asking him to be the savior. Make the easy passes. Move the ball downfield. Geno does not have to be Superman. The Jets do not need Superman right now. They just need a professional baseline. Protect the ball, keep the offense out of the ditch, give the young pieces a chance to play football in something resembling a normal environment. That's the whole Jets offseason to me. Raise the floor. Stop being embarrassing. Build a normal offense. Build a real defense, one that might actually get an interception this year. Develop the young quarterback without setting the building on fire and keep your good players. Not sexy, possibly seen. I mean, how hard is it, right? Defensively, David Bailey is the guy that I'm gonna be watching this year. The Jets were near bottom of the league in sacks last year. That cannot happen if Aaron Glenn wants the defense to play his way. You know, pressure is not optional. You need edge players who stress protections and make quarterbacks speed up. Maybe you'll actually get an interception this year because of it. And I'm not saying Bailey needs 15 sacks as a rookie. I'd accept it. Obviously, that'd be great. I'm not anti-Jets rookie dominance, very open to that lifestyle. That'd be awesome. But he can have a strong rookie year without some cartoon sack total. Look, if he's forcing bad throws, if he's collapsing pockets, winning early battles, making tackles uncomfortable. That's a solid impact. Sacks are great, but disruption is the thing that changes the defense snap to snap. Seven or eight sacks with real pressure behind it, it's a great rookie year. And as for Cade Club, Nick, well, look, I'm not crowning him. Let's be adults for a minute. Nobody needs to order the jersey just yet. But what I like is the process. Frank Reich, Bill Musgrave reportedly liked him a lot during the pre-draft process. They kept it quiet. They put time into the evaluation. They had conviction about it. For the Jets, that's refreshing. Doesn't feel like they grabbed the quarterback because Twitter was yelling, or Woody Johnson's son told him he had a nice Madden rating coming out of NCAA 2025. Again, no guarantees, no parade, no fake confidence. It's just a plane that looks like actual football people built it. The Jets have won enough off-seasons. Everybody knows that movie. Big headline, big hope, big crash. The sequel always stinks.

Defense Pressure And QB Development Plan

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This one feels different because it's quieter in the right ways. Extend the core, give the young quarterback time, stabilize the offense, let the coach build the standards. That's the part I'm willing to buy. Not fully, again, at an arm's length here. But right now, I'm willing to lease. How about that? I'm willing to lease. The plan looks solid, the people in charge seem more credible. I'm okay with that. Now it has to show up when the game's count, though. So before I get out of here, quick little weekend board because uh this episode comes out Friday. And I'm not putting anything out over the weekend. Maybe some reels, maybe some stuff on the Instagram. Make sure to check it out. But uh, just just some stuff to be on the lookout for for this weekend. I'll come back Monday with a nice reaction for it. NFL got its little lane today. Uh first off, Knicks Cavs game three is on Saturday. Knicks are up 2-0. Read that sentence again and enjoy it for a second. The Knicks are two wins away from the NBA finals. Game three is fascinating because Cleveland has only lost one home game all playoffs. So, and they're going home desperate. Crowd is going to be loud for sure. Cavs fans actually show up. If the Knicks walk into Cleveland and win, that is more than a 3-0 lead. That would reinforce the tone and level that this team is playing at and pretty much guarantees them going to the finals because no team in NBA history has gone up 3-0

Weekend Sports Board And Closing Questions

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in an NBA in a playoff series and lost. You got Spurs Thunder, game three Friday, game four Sunday. OKC responded in game two. Series is tied up 1-1. We'll see how it goes. Baseball wise, Mets have a three-set with the Marlins. Uh Marlins are always annoying. Doesn't matter what the standings say. It doesn't matter what they look like. They just show up against the Mets. They kept them out of the playoffs last year, two years ago, whatever it was. Yeah, last year. They were creating a lab to ruin your weekend. But if the Mets are trying to climb back towards 500s, this is the kind of series they need to handle. No drama. No win late, yada yada. Just win the series, man. And the Yankees. The Yankees have a huge three-game set with Tampa Bay. Tampa, Tampa has not only kept pace, they have passed the Yankees for the division lead. So this is not some cute May series. This is a chance for the Yankees to get ground back and remind Tampa the division is not getting handed over to them because they got hot for a few weeks. So yeah, busy weekend. You can get my take where it makes sense here. You know, maybe some short form stuff on Instagram, a big podcast when the story has some legs. But for today, that's the NFL piece. Why the Jets and Giants feel different entering the 2026 NFL season? I appreciate you all for listening. Follow along on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, wherever you're seeing the clips. Tell me what you think. Are the Jets uh building something actually? Did the Giants make the right call, extending Shane? Are we are we allowed to believe in either of these teams yet? Or is that just how the trapdoor swings open? As always, spread good energy. Tell someone you love them. Thank you for tuning in. Have a good weekend. Let's do it to it.