New York's Secondary Reset Is Running on Fumes

I wrote Monday that the Jets' back end was already under strain before a game had been played. A day later, the picture hasn't improved. Omar Cooper Jr. is questionable, Minkah Fitzpatrick is questionable, and Jarvis Brownlee Jr.—third on the depth chart at defensive back—is active but thin cover for a unit that shed Sauce Gardner and Jamal Adams this offseason and hasn't replaced that experience with anything close to equivalent depth.

The reset was always going to require patience. Trading away the highest-paid defensive back in the NFL and letting Adams walk to Minnesota meant the Jets were betting on youth and scheme to compensate. That bet looks shakier when two of the names you're counting on to fill those gaps are listed as questionable heading into Week 1 and a third is on injured reserve.

Qwan'tez Stiggers, who collapsed at a joint practice in August and was transported by ambulance, is active—which is genuinely good news given how that situation looked at the time. But Stiggers is still the secondary's No. 2 corner, and the depth behind him is thin. Samuel Womack sits atop the corner depth chart; Dane Belton leads the safety group. These are not household names carrying a proven track record.

Aaron Glenn is already in the "first coach fired" conversation before his team has taken a regular-season snap. A secondary that was supposed to be rebuilt and ready is instead managing availability questions in Week 1. That's not a crisis yet—but it's the kind of start that makes a fragile situation feel more fragile.