The Jets‘ joint practices with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have been eye-opening, to say the least.
First, on Tuesday, scuffles broke out, with two of them coming from edge rusher and second overall pick David Bailey, who was the star of the day. But besides the drama, the practice was, for lack of a better term, disappointing. New York struggled on Tuesday to begin practice, mostly on the offensive side of the ball. Quarterback Geno Smith threw three interceptions, with one being taken back from six the other way.
All that, however, was in the rear-view mirror when both squads had another joint session Wednesday, two days before hitting the actual gridiron for their first preseason game this summer on Friday.
And again, it was the Bucs winning the second joint practice — though not by a large margin.
“Really good day of work,” head coach Aaron Glenn said. “Obviously, we got some situational work. Lots of red zones going in two minutes. It was a battle against a good team. It was intentional to get two minutes against this team. Baker [Mayfield] does a really good job in that situation. I wanted to see exactly how our guys operated in that situation. It was two good days.”
Glenn stated Tuesday that the preseason opener will see almost everyone at camp get in on the action, albeit that can vary from player to player.
While it is unknown how much the Jets’ starters will see the field, and for how long, Glenn is using the game to evaluate the younger players on the roster.
“Looking forward to our young guys going out there playing,” Glenn said. “To see exactly how they’ve improved and we’ll go from there.”
Can the Jets’ defense get an interception this year?
The two-minute drill Glenn was referring to came towards the end of practice, with Tampa getting the ball at their own 32-yard line, mimicking an end-of-half situation. Bucs quarterback Baker Mayfield diced the Jets secondary.
He completed five passes as Tampa waltzed its way to the endzone. The drill was capped off by a Mayfield strike to tight end Cade Otton. The drive showed weakness to a defensive backs group that had already been thought to be New York’s Achilles heel.
“This is why I wanted to go against this team, seeing how Baker operates,” Glenn said. “I gotta help them when it comes to defensive calls.”
New York defied all football logic when Gang Green’s defense went an entire season without making a single interception in 2025, the first team to do so since 1933, when the NFL began tracking the stat officially.
The team has been trying to turn the corner in that regard. They brought in safety Minkah Fitzpatrick from a trade with the Dolphins in the offseason. So far, Fitzpatrick has been a stalwart in the team’s starting defense. He even had an interception of Smith last week in practice.
Fitzpatrick’s running partner has been a revolving door of Malachi Moore, Dane Belton and Andre Cisco.
The cornerback position is more of the same as well. Brandon Stephens has cemented himself as one of the corners, but Azareye’h Thomas, who missed the final month of 2025 has been battling it out for the second spot with Nashon Wright.
Then there is D’angelo Ponds, who New York drafted in the second round from Indiana.
He’s expected to be at nickel, but has not played in camp due to a calf strain. He was seen working on the sideline with rookie tight end Kenyon Sadiq, who Glenn expects to be ready for week one. He also expects Ponds to be ready soon.
“[D’Angelo] Ponds is getting close. I don’t want to put a date on it yet,” Glenn said last week.
Now to the offense.
After taking time to settle in yesterday, the unit looked more polished on day two. Smith completed 10 of his 17 passes on the day and Cade Klubnik, who has looked like the person to be the Jets’ backup, launched a 50-yard rocket to Arian Smith for a touchdown.
But the team struggled in the same two-minute drills that the Bucs flourished in.
Tight ends Mason Taylor, who has been a constant name being called and Jeremy Ruckert both picked up first downs in the session. Other than that, though, the drive fizzled. There was a drop then Smith threw a pass into a tight window that fell incomplete. Then after Ruckert’s catch, three incompletions and a false start ended the drive with kicker Jason Sanders trotting out for a field goal, which was missed.
One of the calls was against tackle Armand Membou, who struggled against Bucs rookie Rueben Bain, who also came up with a sack during the closing drill. However, it was tightly contested, which is a positive heading into the team’s preseason game.
“I want to see the fundamentals of the game show up,” Glenn said. “I want to see blocking, catching, tackling, ball security [and] punching the ball out. I want to see those things, and I want to see the techniques behind that also. I want to make sure we operate in that aspect when it comes to the game. Then I want to see us execute. And I want to see the discipline of our team.”
