Smith arrives to a Jets squad that finished 3-14 in 2025, the franchise’s 10th consecutive losing season and 13th of the past 15. New York hasn’t experienced a postseason since going to back-to-back AFC Championship Games in the 2009 and 2010 seasons.
That futility predates Smith’s first tenure with the team, when he started 30 games over four years for the Jets as a 2013 second-round pick. He couldn’t lift them then, but eventually revitalized his career after journeying from the New York Giants to the Los Angeles Chargers to the Seattle Seahawks, where he won Comeback Player of the Year in 2022 during a stretch that included making two straight Pro Bowls. After a down 2025 campaign with the Las Vegas Raiders, who traded him to New York in March, he’s again, at long last, Gang Green’s starter.
“Coming in for physicals and just walking down the hall again — it was the very first hall I walked down when I got drafted — all those feelings come back,” Smith said. “Just great feelings, great memories, seeing my mom in the locker room, and I started just thinking about my first time in the NFL, first time here. Immediately, it clicked right back in: I’ve got to get to work. I just got right back to that.”
Though expectations aren’t sky high in New York, Smith should have more to work with than he did amid his struggles in Sin City. Raiders tight end Brock Bowers was plagued by a knee injury for most of last season and Las Vegas traded Jakobi Meyers away, diminishing the amount of trusty pass-catching targets in a group that was already thin.
With the Jets, he’ll have Garrett Wilson to throw to, plus a cast of Tim Patrick, Adonai Mitchell and Mason Taylor that is supplemented by first-round picks Kenyon Sadiq and Omar Cooper Jr. Running back Breece Hall is also back to make life easier after renewing his commitment to the Jets with a three-year extension.
There’s much to do to make all the pieces work and extend the feel-good sentiment beyond Smith simply returning to the team that drafted him, but he has the proper mindset to make it happen.
“We want to be the best team in the world,” Smith said. “I don’t feel shy about saying that, but I understand there’s a lot of work to be done.”
