The New York Jets were the league’s most active team at the NFL trade deadline. The team now has an extra first round pick from Indianapolis in the 2026 NFL Draft to go with its own selection which will
be quite high.
With so much focus on the upcoming Draft, let’s take a look at the players various mock drafts project the Jets will pick.
SB Nation (Mark Schofield)
3. New York Jets: Fernando Mendoza, QB, Indiana
32. New York Jets (via IND) Colton Hood, CB, Tennessee
Tuesday brought a fire sale to New York City. Thanks to trades involving Sauce Gardner and Quinnen Williams, the Jets now own two first-round picks and two second-round picks in 2026, and three first-round picks and a second-round pick in 2027.
That is a lot of draft capital.
And yes, there is a bit of the “Family Guy mystery box scene” at work here. Gardner is just 25 years old, and Williams is not much older, as the defensive lineman will turn 28 just a few days before Christmas. Moving on from those players and creating a need to replace them via the draft does carry some risk.
Still, it is hard to argue with the draft capital they added.
As discussed above, addressing the quarterback position is one area, and in this mock draft the Jets do that with the Indiana quarterback. As for the second pick in the first round, one coming from Indianapolis, here we have the Jets taking cornerback Colton Hood out of Tennessee. With Gardner headed to the Colts, the Jets will have a need in the secondary. He is an aggressive corner with fluid feet, comfortable in both man coverage as well as in zone.
Pro Football Focus (Trevor Sikkema)
3. NEW YORK JETS: QB DANTE MOORE, OREGON
Moore, just a redshirt sophomore in his first season as a full-time starter, is not certain to be in this quarterback class. But there are signs of a top-five player if he declares. He has a 96.0 PFF passing grade on throws of 20 or more yards this year, with a 7.5% big-time throw rate to just a 1.7% turnover-worthy play rate.
32. NEW YORK JETS (VIA COLTS): DI CHRISTEN MILLER, GEORGIA
The Jets now have two first-round picks in 2026 due to the Sauce Gardner trade. Here at the back end of Round 1, they secure one of the best players available in defensive tackle Christen Miller. There is an obvious reason for the pick, with the team having shipped off Quinnen Williams, but Miller is just a really good player, even independent of that reason. He owns an 85.0 PFF run-defense grade and a 6.5% run-stop rate this season.
The Athletic (Nick Baumgartner)
1. New York Jets: Arvell Reese, edge/LB, Ohio State
If there’s a football player in this draft reminiscent of Micah Parsons, it’s pretty clearly Reese, the dynamic Ohio State junior. He can play in the box, off the edge or even in the slot in some situations — he has true do-it-all potential and could be a game-breaker in the NFL.
There’s zero pressure on the Jets to take a quarterback here, as they now own five first-round picks over the next two years.
29. New York Jets (from IND): LaNorris Sellers, QB, South Carolina
It’s pretty tough to slot Sellers right now. He may be better served by spending another year in college (possibly even in a new offense somewhere), but he’s also the most physically gifted quarterback in this class. This would be a draft-and-stash situation, but the Jets have great flexibility now.
The normal caveats apply here. These are just projections and midseason projections at that. There is still a lot of college football left to be played on top of all of the predraft process. I think the use for these mocks at the moment is seeing where prospects are valued relatively speaking. That will change of course in the months ahead.
This also shows that there is a wide expectation the Jets will be picking a quarterback in the first round, although the Jets both passing on a quarterback with the top pick and not trading down would be surprise.
