Braiden McGregor (NYJ) Out for Season with Pectoral Injury, Surgery Required

Braiden McGregor is done for the 2026 season with a pectoral muscle injury that requires surgery — this is a significant upper-body loss for the Jets. The injury date has been resolved to approximately October 4, 2026, placing him roughly 2 days out from the reported event at time of publication.

The tissue involved is the pectoral muscle group — most commonly the pectoralis major in NFL athletes. The severity here is confirmed as season-ending with a surgical procedure required, which places this firmly in the Grade 3 (complete or near-complete disruption) category. However, the specific surgical procedure has not been publicly disclosed. That distinction matters for the RTP window: pec major repair — the most common surgery for this injury pattern — carries a literature range of roughly 4–6 months for return to sport, with some athletes requiring closer to 6 months before full functional clearance. If the procedure is more limited in scope, the floor could be somewhat shorter, but any surgical intervention on the pectoral muscle-tendon complex realistically requires a minimum of 16 weeks of biological healing before sport-specific loading begins, and full remodeling extends well beyond that.

With an injury date of approximately October 4 and surgery presumably to follow shortly after (within days, which is negligible against the recovery window), McGregor is looking at a return-to-play window anchored in the 4–6 month range from the procedure date — putting his earliest realistic availability in the February–April 2027 timeframe. That is consistent with offseason eligibility, which aligns with the Jets' season-ending designation.

The pectoral muscle grade is confirmed as severe by the surgical and season-ending language; the specific procedure type is INFERRED as likely pec major repair given the NFL injury pattern but is not publicly confirmed. Any revision to that estimate would follow a formal procedure disclosure.