Win on Sunday.
Win next April.
Your weekly rooting guide to Indianapolis, Dallas and Green Bay. Follow the results that improve the Jets’ acquired first-round capital.
New York wins come first. Only acquired picks drive the rooting model.
Who are we rooting for?
How the rooting model works
For each uncompleted game, we calculate both possible winners, recompute all records and full-season opponent strength of schedule, then re-project the playoff field and draft order, and compare the combined Jimmy Johnson chart value of Indianapolis’s projected pick and the earlier Dallas/Green Bay pick. Because a division leader or wild card drops to 19–32, games between other teams can matter by pushing a pick-source team into or out of the playoff field. New York’s own selection is excluded. A Jets game always recommends New York, regardless of draft impact.
If chart values are equal, we favour a loss for a pick-source team. When both teams supply picks, we use the combined winning percentage and then SOS of the two acquired slots. Other games may receive a small SOS lean. These are snapshot comparisons, not simulated end-of-season probabilities; a marginal recommendation may change after another result.
The league board follows the NFL rule that non-playoff teams pick 1–18 and playoff teams pick 19–32. The playoff field is projected from today’s standings: each division leader plus the three best remaining records in each conference. Division and wild-card ties use a simplified version of the NFL tiebreakers (head-to-head, division record, conference record, strength of victory, then strength of schedule); common-games and points-based steps are not modelled, so places decided this way are flagged “tiebreak”. Inside each group, teams are ordered by record with lower SOS picking first. In the real draft, playoff teams are ordered by the round they are knocked out in, so picks 19–32 are provisional. Equal record/SOS rows are marked ≈ and displayed alphabetically.
Live updates, data quality and sources
ESPN’s public scoreboard supplies the 2026 regular-season schedule, scores and game status. This standalone file downloads the scoreboard directly and checks every 60 seconds while open; this file reuses successful requests for up to 45 seconds. Records change only when a game is marked final. Reopening the file fetches fresh data. An internet connection is required for updates. If the connection fails, the last downloaded data or the clearly labelled embedded snapshot remains visible. This is not an official NFL feed and delays are possible. A failed refresh is clearly flagged; the last successful data is retained.
Schedule completeness is checked against 272 games and 17 games per team. Incomplete feeds disable the model. Playoff games are not included in this regular-season model. Pick ownership is fixed to the trades verified on 5 November 2026; subsequent trades require an ownership update.
Pick ownership & conditions ↗ · Jets trade announcement ↗ · NFL draft rules ↗ · Live scoreboard ↗