ClutchPoints
The New York Jets’ newly installed braintrust executed a sensible if unspectacular debut draft in April. Head coach Aaron Glenn and general manager Darren Mougey recognized the team’s most glaring needs and addressed them. Still, a team that finished 5-12 last season and hasn’t reached the playoffs in 14 years is more than one sensible draft away from fixing its roster. A number of holes remain and the Jets could address their deficiencies though the trade market.
But before proceeding with potential trade targets to round out the Jets roster, it should be noted that the team, under Glenn’s direction, doesn’t seem likely to make a splash this offseason. During the wild and reckless Aaron Rodgers era, the Jets were wheeling and dealing, operating under the assumption that they were always just an acquisition away from contending for a title.
That approach cost the coaching staff and front office execs their jobs as the organization was gutted following the 2024 season. Now the pendulum has swung back in the other direction. Glenn and company don’t seem focused on winning in 2025. Of course they want to win. But that’s not the primary objective in Year 1. Instead the emphasis has been on getting younger and building a culture from the ground up.
So, using draft capital or taking on salary to add players that could help the Jets make a playoff run in 2025 is somewhat antithetical to the new shot callers’ philosophy. But, at the end of the day, Woody Johnson still owns the team. And while Johnson accepted responsibility for some of the Jets’ dysfunction, and he’s indicated that he’ll take a step back to give Glenn space to run the team, the owner’s new hands-off approach isn’t going to last forever. Johnson wants to see the team’s embarrassing playoff drought end. If it doesn’t, sooner or later the meddling will resume.
With all that in mind, here are three trade targets the Jets should – but probably won’t – pursue this offseason.
Let’s begin by addressing the elephant in the room. The Jets need a WR2. New York has a budding superstar in Garrett Wilson. The former Offensive Rookie of the Year is the only player in franchise history to begin his career with three straight 1,000-yard receiving seasons. And considering the assortment of quarterbacks he’s worked with since being selected in the first round of the 2022 draft, the feat is all the more impressive. The Jets picked up Wilson’s fifth-year option but the team needs to sign him to an extension that keeps him in New York long term.
Wilson has been great regardless of who’s under center for New York. And now he’ll reunite with his former Ohio State quarterback Justin Fields. But opposite Wilson, the Jets run into problems. Allen Lazard is the team’s WR2 on paper. But the seventh-year wideout is clearly not part of the Jets’ future. And he may not be part of its present either. New York could still...
