The Jets lost a defensive end for the rest of the year in Chicago. Braiden McGregor tore a pectoral in Sunday's 23-12 loss to the Bears and is out for the season, per Yahoo Sports.
The injury landed on a day the Jets' defense was already absorbing punishment. Geno Smith finished 8-of-15 for 119 yards and a touchdown, and the passing volume was unusually low, which meant the front seven spent the afternoon on the field. The tackle distribution says it plainly: Minkah Fitzpatrick 16 total tackles, Dane Belton 14, Jamien Sherwood 13. Thirty stops from two safeties is not a healthy number. It means runs were reaching the second level and the defensive line wasn't getting off blocks, and that was with McGregor available for part of it.
On the other side, the Jets' only chunk play came from Isaiah Williams, who turned three targets into two catches, 73 yards and a 58-yard score. Braelon Allen churned 14 carries into 59 yards, a 4.2 average. That's the shape of a 23-12 loss: one explosive, no sustained offense, and a defense left to hold a game it couldn't win.
A torn pectoral is a season-ender, and it's the kind of injury that strips a position group of a body rather than a star. McGregor wasn't going to headline a box score. He was going to take 20-some snaps a game so the starters didn't have to, and now those snaps have to come from somewhere else on a roster that dressed seven inactives against Chicago.
The temptation is to call this a depth issue and move on. It won't play out that way. Edge snaps don't disappear; they get redistributed, usually to players who are already carrying a heavier load, and the attrition compounds over a 17-game season. Watch whether the Jets add an edge body from the practice squad or the street in the next week. If they don't, the sign is that they think the rotation can absorb the loss. I don't. Losing a rotational defensive end in Week 4 costs you in December, not October.
