The NFL trade deadline arrives at 4:00 pm Eastern on Tuesday. Traditionally the NFL’s deadline has been quieter than those in other major professional sports leagues. Activity has picked up, however, in recent years.
The Jets find themselves with a 1-7 record as we approach the deadline. The team has a number of veteran players who could interest other teams. Thus there is a lot of chatter about whether the Jets will be major sellers.
To answer the question of whether they should, I propose that we step
into a time machine and go back a year.
If you want the ideal example of a team that should have been a major trade deadline seller, it was the 2024 Jets.
A year ago the Jets were 3-6 on deadline day. It isn’t just the record that made the Jets an obvious deadline seller. It was the construction of the roster. The Jets were full of players in their 30s who obviously would not be returning in 2025.
It’s likely the Jets could have scored picks by sending off Tyron Smith, Davante Adams, Haason Reddick, and Morgan Moses. Yes, the team would have been mocked for selling off Adams and Reddick at significant losses. The team had acquired Reddick months early and Adams weeks earlier and surely gave up more to acquire them than they would have received in return for them at the deadline. By the 2024 trade deadline, however, those moves were sunk costs. The Jets were going nowhere, and these players were leaving anyway. The Jets could either salvage some value or let them walk away for nothing.
You probably know how it went. The Jets had just upset the eventual AFC South Champion Houston Texans on a Thursday night Halloween game. That improved their record to 3-6. Perhaps they foolishly talked themselves into believe that win would spark a season-salvaging run. The only veteran who was traded was Mike Williams, a deal which seemed to be made more because Aaron Rodgers was upset with a route he ran on a critical interception the quarterback threw against Buffalo, than because it was the best move for the team’s future.
Smith ended up suffering a season-ending injury the first game after the deadline anyway and then retired. The Jets only won two more games the rest of the season. Adams, Reddick, and Moses departed in the offseason. Of those players, the Jets are in line to receive a compensatory pick only for losing Moses.
There’s a lot to dislike about the way the Jets managed things in the 2023-24 timeframe. The 2024 trade deadline is among the least consequential, but it’s also genuinely inexplicable why the team didn’t try to get at least some value trading players in a season that was sunk anyway. The Jets probably don’t get anywhere near the level of criticism they deserve for this decision.
That brings us to our current Jets team. There are a number of rumors surrounding players on the roster. There’s a catch, though. Many of these players could return to the team next season and play important roles.
At this point, only Quincy Williams and Breece Hall are set to be free agents among the Jets players whose names come up most in trade rumors. There are also some preliminary rumblings in the media that the Jets have interest in Hall.
I will say this. If there are any players the Jets are not planning on bringing back next year, they should 100 percent be dealt at the deadline for the highest bid. This team obviously isn’t going to be making a Playoff push at 1-7. It’s better to get something in return. The Jets will have fewer financial limitations in the 2026 offseason than they did in 2025. This means the team is likely to be a bigger player in free agency than it was a year ago and makes it very unlikely any compensatory picks will be earned for departing players. If the Jets want value, they need to deal players now.
Aside from that, would it be wise for the Jets to aggressively deal their top players? I would argue the answer is no.
The most common argument made for the Jets to be sellers is the need for more Draft picks. I am in total agreement that the Jets need more picks. The team sent way too many picks out the door in the previous two years. The 2025 NFL Draft marked the first time since 2022 that the Jets made a selection in each of the first three rounds. 2022 was the last time the Jets made multiple selections in any of those first three rounds. 2021 was the last time the Jets selected more than seven players in the NFL Draft.
On the list of reasons the Jets are in their current state, their refusal to value Draft picks should receive much more attention than it does.
There’s a question of how you acquire those picks, though.
Trade Quinnen Williams for a first round pick and Jermaine Johnson for a second round pick, and you will add to your Draft capital.
You also create gaping holes on your roster. It’s frankly unlikely that the player the Jets selected would even make up for the value lost with Quinnen or Jermaine heading out the door.
On a rebuilding team it is too often forgotten that adding extra Draft picks is a means to an end, not an end itself. The reason you acquire extra picks is to improve the team. Sacrificing your best players for picks probably won’t improve the team unless you hit grand slams with your picks.
There is an argument to be made that the career timelines of Williams and Johnson don’t line up with the Jets’ timeline to build a good team.
Both players have one year left on their respective contracts. A Williams extension would kick in when he is 29. A Johnson extension would kick in when he is 28. Isn’t it best for the Jets to trade these guys now since they will be too old when the Jets are ready to compete?
I can appreciate the argument, but I don’t see the player/team timelines as completely misaligned.
Accounting for likely contract structures, new deals for Williams and Johnson wouldn’t keep them in green and white into their mid-30s. New contracts would likely only keep them in Jets uniforms until they are 30 or 31. At that point, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to think they will still be providing high quality play. Both of their play styles would lead me to believe it is likely they will have graceful aging curves (although Jermaine’s injury history admittedly gives me a bit of pause).
Equally important, I would argue that the Jets’ perpetual rebuild has skewed perceptions in this fanbase about how long it actually takes to turn a team around. With smart management and quality coaching, a bad team can get very competitive within a year or two. There are no three to five year rebuilds in the NFL. The Jets have been lying to you to cover for lousy management. If the Jets can’t improve substantially in a Quinnen Williams/Jermaine Johnson timeframe, it’s because they have the wrong people in charge. It’s not because of any impossibility.
So that leaves one natural question. If the Jets need extra Draft picks, how can they be acquired?
The answer is by looking to trade down in the NFL Draft and ideally multiple times. The Jets will be looking at high first and second round picks. There are never any guarantees that another team will look to move up, but the odds are generally good when picking high.
Yes, that might mean holding off at least a year on drafting a quarterback. A few weeks back we discussed the reasons why the Jets should stay away from the 2026 quarterback class anyway. Trading down would allow the team to keep its existing talent and still build up a roster that could help a future quarterback thrive.
It’s a better way to go than selling off everybody with value.
