Stock up, stock down after the Jets' 17-0 preseason win over Steelers

The New York Jets (1-1) had a disappointing start to the 2026 NFL preseason as they lost to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers by a 24-16 margin despite seeing some good football out of quarterback Brady Cook. Friday presented another chance for New York to prove what they could against the Pittsburgh Steelers (1-1) and the Jets showed up to play some dominant football.

The Jets beat the Steelers 17-0 in a game where New York was relentless on both sides of the ball despite not scoring in the second or third quarters. All of the quarterbacks that took the field for New York had good outings against what is supposed to be a tough Pittsburgh defense, but it was encouraging to see projected starter Geno Smith look pretty much as good as anyone could have expected, even in a preseason contest.

For the Steelers, not much can be said about the running game as the Jets did a great job of limiting that part of Pittsburgh's offense, but rookie quarterback Drew Allar showed some signs of being a solid signal-caller someday. New York made it tough on Allar, but he also made some nice throws as he competes with Will Howard for the backup job behind former Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers.

Here is the stock report for the Jets following Friday's preseason win over the Steelers:

Smith is closer to the end of his career than he is at the beginning so it's not surprising to see him look competent, or even better than that, in a preseason game. However, with Smith finishing his time in this game going 7-of-7 throwing the football while compiling 65 yards and one touchdown could be an indication that he is ready to be the quarterback the Jets need at this point in their rebuild.

Cooper will likely be fine by the time the regular season comes around, especially with him being regarded by the Jets as being worthy of a first-round pick for what he did in college for Indiana University. However, in a game where the Jets passing offense seemingly couldn't be stopped, Cooper did not make his presence known outside of one catch (albeit on one target) for nine yards.

Bailey didn't make many plays in this game outside of the one sack that he picked up when he essentially bull-rushed all the way to the quarterback in what seemed like an effortless action. Bailey will likely get plenty of reps during the regular season going against NFL offensive linemen and if he can do what he did in this game to pick up his first sack, he'll be well on his way to being a contributor in the pass rush.

Allen suffered a tough knee injury last season so it's fair to assume that he's still working his way back into form as training camp and the preseason continues. However, Allen finished this game having run the ball three times for just four yards, showing there are still some timing issues to be worked out before this preseason comes to a close as he will be seeing playing time behind starter Breece Hall.

One of the areas that the Jets were trying to improve on from last season was their pass defense, specifically due to the fact that they made NFL history by not intercepting the ball even once over the course of last season. While this was just a preseason game, New York was able to intercept the ball twice, hopefully foreshadowing a much better performance by the coverage unit.

As mentioned earlier in this piece, Allen wasn't the only running back to struggle getting anything on the ground as the entire team for just 62 yards on 24 rushing attempts (2.6 yards per carry). The Steelers have always prided themselves on stopping the run, but it doesn't look good for the Jets when the only player who averaged more than 4.0 yards per rushing attempt was quarterback Cade Klubnik who had one rush for 16 yards on a scramble play.

This article originally appeared on Jets Wire: Stock up, stock down after the Jets' 17-0 preseason win over Steelers