The New York Jets announced their 2026 preseason schedule on Thursday, and it opens with a familiar sound: football under the lights at MetLife Stadium. The Jets will host the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Friday, Aug. 14, at 7 p.m., then travel to face the Pittsburgh Steelers on Friday, Aug. 21, at 7 p.m. before closing against the New York Giants at home on Friday, Aug. 28, at 7:30 p.m.
The first game gives Aaron Glenn a chance to begin his second regular season as coach with a home crowd and a matchup the Jets almost never see. The Buccaneers have met the Jets in the preseason just twice in the last 20 years, and their last preseason meeting came in 2023 at MetLife Stadium, when Tampa Bay won 13-6. This time, Todd Bowles returns to New Jersey as the opposing coach, nearly a decade after leading the Jets from 2015 to 2018.
The middle game carries a longer absence and a little unfinished business. The Jets and Steelers have met eight times in the preseason from 1971 to 2002, but not in a regular preseason game for almost a quarter of a century. A matchup scheduled for 2020 at MetLife Stadium was canceled because of COVID. Now the Steelers are led by Mike McCarthy, and the trip to Acrisure Stadium will give the Jets a fresh measuring stick in the middle of August.
The finale is the one that feels built into the calendar. The Jets will be the home team against the Giants, extending a rivalry that has played out almost every summer since the two sides first met at Yale Bowl in 1969. It will be the 57th meeting in the last 58 summers, and the Jets carry a 29-26-1 edge in the preseason series. They have also won their last two home preseason games against the Giants, beating them 31-27 in 2022 and 10-6 in 2024.
That edge did not travel last year, when the Jets lost 31-12 on the road to the Giants. This summer’s home finale gives Glenn and his team one more chance to reset the tone before the regular season starts, and it comes against the kind of opponent that turns even a preseason game into a small referendum on where both New York teams are headed.
For the Jets, the schedule is not just three August dates. It is a first look at Glenn’s team against a former coach, a long-absent AFC opponent and a crosstown rival that has turned August into a habit. The dates are set, the venues are fixed, and the story now moves from announcement to the field.
