Gang Green Nation
Broncos’ assistant general manager gets his chance to turn around moribund Jets franchise
The New York Jets are hiring 39 year old Broncos assistant general manager Darren Mougey as the Jets’ new general manager.
Darren Mougey played his college football at San Diego State, where he replaced Kevin O’Connell as starting quarterback. He was eventually switched to tight end. Mougey went undrafted in 2009 and was signed for brief stints with the Atlanta Falcons in 2009 and the Arizona Cardinals in 2010, but he never made it to a 53 man roster in the NFL.
Mougey began his post-playing career in the NFL in 2012 with the Denver Broncos as a scouting intern. In 2013 he was promoted to scouting assistant, and in 2015 he was promoted again to area scout. Mougey remained an area scout for the Broncos until 2020, when he was promoted to assistant director of college scouting. Up to this point Mougey had a fairly unremarkable rise in the Broncos organization. That changed when the Broncos brought in George Paton as general manager in 2021.
Paton apparently saw something he really liked in Mougey. Not only was Mougey retained on the new front office staff, he was almost immediately promoted in 2021 to director of player personnel. A year later Mougey was again promoted, to assistant general manager, a job he retained until now. George Paton clearly thought very highly of Mougey.
With Mougey’s meteoric rise in just the last three years, there isn’t much of a track record to evaluate. Mougey was the assistant general manager with a Broncos team that improved from 5-12 in 2022 to 8-9 in 2023 to 10-7 and a playoff berth in 2024. He was a key figure in drafts that included All Pro cornerback Patrick Surtain II in 2021 and Pro Bowl pass rusher Nick Bonitto in 2022, as well as wide receiver and All Pro returner Marvin Mims in 2023. Those are good things, but it is difficult to know how much credit or blame an assistant general manager should be afforded when he was never the top dog.
For now, the Mougey record seems positive, and George Paton is clearly impressed.
The hiring of Aaron Glenn and Darren Mougey fills the two major openings for the Jets going into this offseason. It is striking that a first time head coach and 39 year old first time general manager who is just four years removed from being an area scout ended up being hired by a Jets team that at the start of the process was supposedly looking for experience at the highest levels to fill one or both of these positions.
In any event, the Jets have their guys. Now comes the hard work of filling out coaching and front office staffs and gearing up for what will be a challenging and potentially franchise altering offseason.
