The New York Jets told the NFL and all football fans their plan at the trade deadline: Let the rebuild begin.
By trading All-Pro cornerback Sauce Gardner to the Indianapolis Colts and All-Pro defensive tackle Quinnen Williams to the Cowboys, the Jets got rid of their two best players. With a trade return of a 2026 first-round pick, 2026 second-round pick, two 2027 first-round picks, wide receiver AD Mitchell and defensive tackle Mazi Smith, the Jets are moving on from this season and looking toward the future. Unless you ask their general manager Darren Mougey.
“I wouldn’t call it a teardown,” Mougey [told Jets reporters](https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/46851619/jets-gm-mougey-says-trades-gardner-williams-not-teardown) after the two blockbuster trades went down.
“The goal is always to win. These coaches and players work too hard every day, all day, with the goal of winning on Sunday. That never changes because that’s what the fans deserve. That’s what the players deserve, that’s what the coaches deserve, and that never changes.”
Mougey is doing the usual approach for any GM after a fire-sale trade: be optimistic for the Jets fanbase and the team’s locker room. But he’s being disingenuous. There are five premium positions in football: quarterback, offensive tackle, wide receiver, cornerback and edge rusher. Quinnen Williams may be an interior pass rusher but he is arguably the best at his position, so he’s a premium player.
Story continues below advertisement
Gardner is one of the best man-coverage corners in the NFL. He also signed a four-year $120 million extension with the Jets this past summer. He was firmly in the team’s plan for the current and future.
Add in that the Jets traded away nickel corner Michael Carter as well, and that’s three starters no longer with the team. Even with all their picks in the top three rounds over the next two NFL drafts, New York’s chances of landing players of the caliber of Williams and Gardner are highly unlikely.
What do you think? [Leave a comment.](javascript:void(0))
Darren Mougey may be going with the optimistic approach for the Jets, but it also sounds delusional to say this trade deadline was not a teardown.
Story continues below advertisement
Featured image via Nathan Ray Seebeck/Imagn Images