Gang Green Nation
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....
