It's only been two months, but the New York Jets and their new front office have found themselves at a crossroads for the future of the franchise.
As top players like All-Pro cornerback Derek Stingley, and top receivers like Ja'Marr Chase earn lucrative contract extensions with their own team, the Jets need to decide whether or not they will spend money early on their young core.
Players like All-Pro Sauce Gardner and wide receiver Garrett Wilson are eligible for extensions of their own this offseason.
There's just a simple problem. The previous Jets regime made it clear that they weren't interested in locking up their young core early in their careers. Instead, they would rather wait for the last moment for the market to solidify.
That was the previous regime, though. And General Manager Darren Mougey has a chance to break from the previous Jets mold to get ahead in negotiations as SNY's Connor Hughes laid out last week.
"The last Jets regime with Joe Douglas, they were very much in the realm and the world of, 'We do not play players after three years; we don't pay players after four years. We'll figure it out after that. We don't want to set the precedent that everyone after three years, we pay them,'" Hughes said. "I think that's bogus; I think that's an old logic. I think that when you have players, like you do in Sauce (and) like you do in Garrett, two players playing premium positions, two players that can be franchise cornerstones ... you reward them now because the price is only gonna go up and up and up."
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It's fair to wonder if Mougey wants to have the same kind of thought process as Douglas once did when it came to extending some of the team's younger talent.
Previous history shows New York would be smart to extend players like Gardner and Wilson early to get ahead of the cap and market value of certain positions. If the Jets off against that thought process, though, it could set up for an ugly few years as they determine what the culture of this team is supposed to look like moving forward.
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This story was originally published March 17, 2025 at 4:00 PM.