I promised that I wouldn’t only write about the New York Jets, but shit just keeps on happening. I wrote a blog just a few days ago talking about how the Jets shouldn’t move star running back Breece Hall at the trade deadline and look at that I was right! Unfortunately, they moved just about everyone else worth having. First year GM Darren Mougey had a very active Tuesday shipping off two big pieces of the Jets defense, All-Pro Cornerback Sauce Gardner and All-Pro defensive linemen Quinnen Williams.
Now I mentioned previously that I didn’t think the Jets should move Williams just yet, with two years left on his deal. I just thought there was a chance they’d give him one more shot to lead the Aaron Glenn defense next year and if we grabbed the right QB in the draft that we could potentially start turning things around. What I did not consider was trading Sauce Gardner.
We Lost the Sauce
At the moment this move came as a shock, I did not expect Sauce Gardner to be on the table, especially after the Jets extended him to the tune of 4 years 120 million in the offseason. I just assumed, much like everyone else, that Sauce was going to be a cornerstone that the Jets built their defense around under first year head coach Aaron Glenn. Darren Mougey and Jets had other ideas, trading the 2x All-Pro corner to the Indianapolis Colts for 2 first picks and WR Adonai Mitchell.
On the brightside, it is a substantial haul for the former 2022 4th overall pick and picks I guess we’ll need as the front office made it clear that we’re in for some sort of rebuild. Haters will say “maybe you can use that pick to get an All-Pro Corner” and I get it. It seems counter productive to trade a sure thing for a mystery box of draft picks, but who knows maybe these picks will turn into two first All-Pro Corners!
As I sat back and thought about this trade today, my mind kept saying “you know Sauce has really been underforming this year anyways”. Then I hopped on X.com (the everything app) and saw people fighting over that take.
I guess it’s probably just a bad take, and my spitefulness as a Jets fan made me remember all the bad plays and none of the good. But Sauce just never felt like the lock down corner everyone is telling me he is. I wish him all the best though and I hope that he helps Indy make a legitimate push to the super bowl. Unrelated here’s a clip of Sauce’s trade partner AD Mitchell burning him for a TD
Thank you Dallas?
As much as it pained me to see Quinnen Williams go, this trade seemed like a fleece and a no brainer. Honestly, I’m not quite sure what Dallas was thinking other than Jerry Jones trying to get his team the spotlight again. Yes, they’ve been terrible against the run and terrible as a defense as a whole and surely Williams will help with that, but it seems like too little too late as they currently sit at 3-5-1. As it stands right now, they have just a 7% chance to make the playoffs, so I’ll gladly take their probably mid second round pick next year and hope that they flounder again in 2026 so that their 2027 first round pick is extra juicy. Oh yeah, and Dallas sent over 2023 first round DT Mazi Smith, a 24-year-old who admittedly has struggled to see the field. Hopefully he’s a player the Jets can develop to take over that interior DL spot. Williams is 28 years old and on a heavy cap hit deal, this just doesn’t seem like a move Dallas should be making. He’s a great player, but I just don’t know if he fixes their problems on defense. You know they could really use a guy like Micah Parsons… but I guess that deal at least gave them the flexibility to be buyers at the deadline and to build going forward.
Hall Pass
Breece Hall seemed very unhappy to not be on the first bus out of 1 Jets Drive today. He made it very clear on X.com that he wanted to be moved with this post that he later deleted.
We’ll see what the Jets plan to do with Hall in the coming months. It was reported today the price to move Hall was a 3rd round pick. Clearly other teams felt that was too steep for the dynamic All-Pro running back. I think it’s clear that the Jets are going to try to extend him, and with all this cap space they cleared today they can surely throw him the bag. Like I said in my previous blog, if you’re going to draft a QB next year you might as well give him all the tools to succeed.
Retooling on Offense
What was very evident today and with the other moves leading up to today is that the Jets are doing whatever they can to get any sort of weapon on offense. Adding receivers John Metchie III earlier this week and adding AD Mitchell today. Both are young players with upside that could really help this year’s offense (for whatever that’s worth) and potentially the quarterback of the future. Metchie in the last year of his rookie contract has yet to make a lasting impact in the NFL, but maybe he can show the team something in the remaining half of the season that could lead to some sort of extension. Paired these two WRs with retaining Breece Hall (to hopefully resign) and adding a plethora of picks, the Jets have options going forward. We might not have a defense anymore, but hey if we’re going to keep losing games I’d rather it be a high scoring affair.
Wash. Rinse. Repeat.
I’ll close with this, we’ve done this before. It feels like just yesterday that the Jets surprisingly sent Jamal Adams to the Seattle Seahawks for a similar haul of picks as this Sauce Gardner deal. With those picks we were able to draft some great players, Garrett Wilson and Alijah Vera-Tucker included. Outside of those picks we’ve continued to draft well, otherwise we wouldn’t have a slew of players on a second deal that were able to fetch first round picks in return. The problem is and probably will always be, is the quarterback, this is my plea to the Jets front office to please take the right guy this year. I can’t go through this again, I’m running out of money buying jerseys for guys that we trade away.
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