Jets and Giants' finale day is finally here
Jets coach Aaron Glenn and quarterback Justin Fields, left, and Giants rookie quarterback Jaxson Dart. Credit: Ed Murray; Getty Images/Patrick McDermott
Well, we made it.
The 2025 regular season ends for the Jets and Giants with games on Sunday, and not a moment too soon. Despite some flickers of promise in the past year, this season has been abysmal even by the already low standards set here in recent years.
Coming into these final contests, the two teams have a combined six wins, which ties for the worst total between them since the Jets began play as the Titans in 1960 (6-22 in 1976, 6-21-1 in 1973).
If the Jets lose to the Bills and the Giants fall to the Cowboys, this season will go down as the absolute worst in terms of winning percentage at an embarrassing .176. Even if both somehow win these finales, their 8-26 mark would be tied for the worst since the two teams went a combined 7-25 in 1996. The two teams went 8-26 in 2024 and 2021 and 8-24 in 2020 and 2017.
And there is a very good chance that neither will wind up with the first overall pick in the 2026 draft as a consolation prize for their stinkage.
Blech.
But before we move on and try to unsee this unforgettably bad campaign, a look back at just how vile it has been.
Since the season began in September, the two teams have had three head coaches, four defensive coordinators, six starting quarterbacks and five kickers. Two All-Pro defensive players were traded away by the Jets. The Giants’ third overall pick in the draft was benched twice, the rookie quarterback around whom they want to build their future has had more concussion tests (four) than victories (three), and the former seventh overall pick who failed at tackle was moved to guard and was so bad at that job that he hasn’t played a snap all season.
Garrett Wilson, who hasn’t caught a pass for the Jets since Oct. 12, still leads the team in receiving yards (395). The only player to throw a game-winning fourth-quarter touchdown pass for them remains running back Breece Hall.
That’s only slightly more glaring an imbalance than the Giants. Cam Skattebo, the rookie running back sidelined since Oct. 26, still leads the non-quarterbacks on the team in touchdowns with seven. Malik Nabers, who played in only four games, is fourth in receiving yards (271) and tied for third — with Skattebo! — for touchdown receptions (two).
If you want to go all the way back to the offseason, there are omens there, too. It began with two meetings with quarterbacks that went in very different directions.
Newly hired coach Aaron Glenn and general manager Darren Mougey brought in Aaron Rodgers for a face-to-face — with Rodgers flying from California “on his own dime,” as he noted — that was short and to the point. They cut him, severing the biggest tie to the previous regime and setting their course forward.
Or so they thought. They quickly zeroed in on free agent Justin Fields as their next starting quarterback, signed him to a two-year, $40 million deal, and — despite a training camp full of warning signs about the hazards ahead — stuck with him for far too long.
Around the same time of the year when the Jets were divorcing Rodgers, the Giants were beginning to have meetings with another quarterback, Jaxson Dart, as they and the draft-eligible player from Ole Miss began to court each other in a dance that would lead to the Giants trading up to select him in the first round in April.
But even then, their plan was for him to sit and not play. The Giants already had added two high-profile, high-personality, highly decorated veterans — Super Bowl winner Russell Wilson and Heisman Trophy winner Jameis Winston — and hoped they would be able to keep Dart on the bench.
That experiment lasted three games before it became clear that Wilson had little left to offer on the field and Dart was ready to start playing.
Dart did win two of his first three starts, but then came that day in Denver when it all fell apart. Up 19-0 going into the fourth quarter, the Giants allowed 33 points, missed an extra point by a kicker who was on the team only as an international player exemption and lost on a last-second field goal, 33-32.
It was an epic collapse that didn’t just end when the Giants got home from Denver; the echoes of it reverberated for about two months and led to a nine-game losing streak that was snapped only last week.
Brian Daboll was fired by the Giants for a number of reasons, but keeping defensive coordinator Shane Bowen around too long was a big one. Two weeks after Mike Kafka took over as interim head coach, he did the thing Daboll should have done and moved on from Bowen.
Meanwhile, Glenn, who was brought here in part because of his experience running the Lions’ defense so successfully in recent years, had to fire his defensive coordinator, Steve Wilks, after that side of the ball showed little to no production or improvement. It’s almost incomprehensible that the Jets still have not recorded an interception this season.
The season featured other sadnesses and personal issues, too.
In October, beloved former Jets center Nick Mangold died shortly after announcing he had chronic kidney disease and made a public plea to find an organ donor.
Earlier that month, Giants president and CEO John Mara announced that he had been diagnosed with cancer, the treatment of which has kept him mostly out of view this season, although the team has said he remains in his role leading the organization.
And in November, Jets safety Kris Boyd was shot twice in the abdomen during a late-night altercation in midtown Manhattan. Boyd, who already was on season-ending injured reserve, is recovering after the harrowing experience.
Yep. It’s been a lot.
There is more to come, too. Just because the games will be over doesn’t mean the mess will be gone. There still is plenty to mop up.
In the coming days, the Giants will decide whether to keep general manager Joe Schoen (signs indicate they will, although that has yet to be formally announced). The Jets will have to give serious consideration to Glenn’s future (it seems as if he too will be back).
At the very least, the Giants will have to go through a coaching search while Glenn — assuming he returns — undoubtedly will work to overhaul and improve his staff.
Oh, and as a capper for everyone in town? Shortly after the Giants and Jets finish playing, they’ll get to watch the league’s final regular-season game of the season on Sunday night. Rodgers, who spent two years with the Jets and met briefly with the Giants in the offseason as one of their potential additions, will be playing in that game — and if he wins, he and the Steelers will be headed to the playoffs.
When the Giants beat the Raiders last week, essentially ceding control of the first overall pick not just for themselves but for the Jets as well, Dart came into the postgame locker room, gave Schoen a hug and told him: “We have to start doing this more!”
Presumably he was talking about winning games. That’s an idea we can get behind for both the Giants and the Jets.
As far as the way this season has gone for both of those teams, though? No. Enough of that. No more. Please.
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.
