With a 1-7 record as they hit the midpoint of their 2025 schedule, the New York Jets are playing out their 15th consecutive season without qualifying for the NFL playoffs.
And on Tuesday, with the NFL trade deadline looming at 3 p.m. CST, “Wait till next year” became official for the Jets. After training two-time All-Pro cornerback Sauce Gardner to the Indianapolis Colts, New York dealt three-time Pro Bowl defensive tackle Quinnen Williams to the Dallas Cowboys.
The Jets received a second-round pick in the 2026 NFL Draft, a first-round pick in the 2027 NFL Draft and defensive tackle Mazi Smith from the Cowboys to part with Williams.
A 2023 first-round pick, Smith had played only 89 defensive snaps in five games this season for Dallas after starting every game for the Cowboys in 2024.
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Dallas succeeded in landing Williams after failing earlier this year. In September, Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones said he had inquired about the availability of Williams in August before he swapped pass-rusher Micah Parsons to the Green Bay Packers for two first-round draft picks and defensive tackle Kenny Clark.
At that time, Jones said the Jets “didn’t have the resources to entertain conversation.”
“It was a very good, brief visit,” Jones said. “… A prerequisite to the entire trade was that we had to have right now a really, frankly significant, dominant inside defensive player, which was our goal to address the run more than we’d been addressing it the previous four years that we’ve, at that time, had Micah. But we wanted to really bolster up there. We had tried to do it with Mazi Smith when we drafted him two years earlier.
“But that was a prerequisite that you didn’t get in the mentality of my trading if you didn’t have that coming through the door.”
After a 27-17 loss to the Arizona Cardinals on Monday night, the Cowboys entered their bye week with a 3-5-1 record. Dallas returns to the field to play the Las Vegas Raiders at 7:15 p.m. CST Nov. 17 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.
A former Wenonah High School standout, Williams joined the Jets as the third pick in the 2019 NFL Draft after he won the Outland Trophy as a unanimous All-American at Alabama in 2018.
Williams has been a Pro Bowl selection for New York in each of the previous three seasons.
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