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New York Jets cornerback Jarvis Brownlee Jr reacting in the middle of an NFL game against the Carolina Panthers.
The New York Jets will open up the 2026 season on the road against the Tennessee Titans.
Shortly after that news leaked, cornerback Jarvis Brownlee Jr took to social media to fire off a warning to his old team.
“You ever seen a gorilla on the green grass 🫣 circle Week 1 on ya calendar. Blood bath 🩸🤫 Yall gonna feel every inch in my body boa 💯,” Brownlee posted on his Instagram story.
Brownlee, 24, will turn 25 before the start of the 2026 season. He originally entered the league as the No. 146 overall pick in the fifth round of the 2024 NFL draft by the Titans.
In September of 2025, the Titans traded him and a 2026 seventh-round pick in exchange for a 2026 sixth-round pick.
In other words, the Titans gave up on him to move up a handful of slots late in the NFL draft.
A Ton of Connections Between These Two Squads
Brownlee is one of 22 players/coaches who are either former Titans on the Jets or former Jets on the Titans.
Tennessee caught a lot of flak for hitting the eject button on two young defenders. Brownlee, they essentially gave away to the Jets. The Titans got a better return for T’Vondre Sweat, who they swapped in a rare player-for-player swap for pass rusher Jermaine Johnson.
Both Sweat and Brownlee are motivated to prove the Jets right and the Titans wrong.
Johnson assuredly feels the same way. He originally entered the league as the No. 26 overall pick in the first round. He was a top 10 player on the Jets’ draft board. If wide receiver Garrett Wilson wasn’t on the board with the No. 10 overall pick, there’s a strong chance Johnson could have gone a lot higher.
Due to a combination of reasons, Johnson never fully lived up to the hype. Part of that was due to injury, usage, and some inconsistency. The talented pass rusher is in the last year of his rookie deal in 2026. He should be as motivated as anybody to prove that he’s a top-flight player so he can be rewarded with a top-flight contract.
NFL Schedule Maker Talks Jets-Titans: EXCLUSIVE
On Friday, May 15, I spoke with the NFL’s Senior Director of Broadcasting, Blake Jones, on “Boy Green Daily.”
He is one of the select few on planet Earth who get to put the annual schedule together for the NFL.
I asked him about the thought process of going Jets-Titans to kick off the 2026 season.
“You know it’s one of those things, as we go through our process, we see so many different shuffles in any given week. Obviously, we know the matchups, but where they’re going to fall. It’s one of the things that we pointed out when we saw this final [version] come out … We said, ‘Ohh, this could be interesting.’ That is one that we think is a key part of that CBS Sunday window, and I’m curious to see how it’s going to play out,” Jones told me.
I revealed to Blake during our conversation that, according to my research, 22 players and/or coaches were once a Titan or Jet, that is now playing for the other team in this matchup.
“It sounds like you put in the work; that’s pretty impressive. I didn’t know that it went that deep [but] look, that just adds to it. It’s always exciting in Week 1, but when you start putting those pieces together, that’s what the fans are looking for,” Jones explained to me.
Paul Esden Jr. covers the New York Jets for Heavy.com. A New York native, he co-hosts a morning show, “The Manchild Show with Boy Green Digital.” Before joining Heavy in 2021, Esden Jr. covered both national and New York sports for FanSided, Elite Sports NY, and The Score 1260. More about Paul Esden Jr.
