AFC playoff picture: Do the Jets have a path after beating the Texans?

Entering Thursday night's matchup against the 6-2 Houston Texans, the question surrounding the New York Jets was less "is this team going to make the playoffs?" than it was "is this team going to hit the sell button at the trade deadline?" Absolutely nothing had gone right so far this season: Aaron Rodgers looked out of sorts even after the team landed Davante Adams, a porous offensive line wasn't helping matters and a once-elite defense had begun to spring some leaks. A loss to Jacoby Brissett and the New England Patriots in Week 8 seemed to be the final nail in the team's coffin.

A few days later, however, reports of New York's demise appear to have been greatly exaggerated. After an abysmal first half at MetLife Stadium in which fans were openly chanting for Woody Johnson to sell the team, the Jets flipped the script, riding three second-half touchdowns from Rodgers and a swarming pass rush to a 21-13 win over Houston.

To be clear, there's still a long way to go yet: 3-6 is still 3-6, and New York made plenty of baffling mistakes in this game. But that second half was as good as this team, and especially this offense, has looked in quite some time, and with the AFC Wild Card picture wide open, it begs the question: What is this Jets team's path to a playoff spot? Let's break it down.

Updated AFC Wild Card picture after Jets win vs. Texans

The bad news: The Jets are still 3-6, on the outside looking in. The good news: No one is running away with an AFC Wild Card spot right now, and that leaves the window of opportunity very much open. Here's how things stand after Thursday night.

The Jets currently have three teams between themselves and the seven seed in the AFC: the Chargers, Colts and Bengals. But Cincinnati has been disappointing themselves, so much so that they're openly considering selling at the trade deadline. The Colts just benched their starting quarterback, while the Chargers are running out of receivers. Any of those teams winning more than nine or 10 games feels far fetched, which creates a path, however narrow, for New York.

The Jets travel to Arizona to play the Cardinals in Week 10 before facing the Colts in a game that feels like a must-win for New York's playoff hopes. And from there, the schedule really doesn't look too bad: The Jets have one more game against the Buffalo Bills, but other than that, they have the Dolphins twice, the Seahawks and Rams at home and the Jaguars on the road. In fact, outside of the Buffalo game, not a single one of the Jets' remaining opponents boasts a winning record entering play this Sunday.

Of course, those other teams are probably viewing the Jets as a winnable game themselves. But we saw on Thursday night a glimpse of this passing attack when it's clicking, and we know the talent on the defensive side of the ball. If New York can just get out of its own way, sweep the AFC South and take care of business at home and split road trips against the Cardinals and Dolphins, that gets them to 9-8. Considering the state of this race, that might just be good enough.