The two biggest moves of today’s trade deadline saw the Jets send away two former top-four overall picks in defensive tackle Quinnen Williams and cornerback Sauce Gardner. Many are billing the moves as a teardown of the roster en route to a rebuild, and first-year general manager Darren Mougey has put his team in as good a position as possible to stage an epic rebuild. 
Trading Williams and Gardner was not necessarily part of the plan, but according to Brian Costello of the New York Post, the Jets were given “offers they could not refuse.” A crucial part of one of today’s trades actually occurred back 112 days ago, when Gardner signed his four-year, $120.4MM extension. Mougey told the media of the strategies that made his trade possible.
“We had a lot of discussions going through that contract process and some of the details we had to have in that contract because you never know how the future is going to unfold,” Mougey said (via Costello). “We always wanted to be in position to potentially trade these contracts.”
The deals took a lot of talent away from a team that has struggled mightily in 2025, even with those stars, but they also brought incredible potential for team improvement. NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport credited Mougey for his willingness to hold out throughout the leadup to the trade deadline. As offers continued to pour in with increasing intensity of interest, Mougey held firm, showing teams that he wouldn’t give up his top-tier assets unless serious offers were made. Mougey told reporters that as “Indianapolis kept getting richer and richer” with the value of their offer, it became too good to pass up.
Altogether, the new draft picks acquired in the trades give New York five first-round picks over the next two years — two in 2026 and three in 2027 — and three second-round picks, not to mention the supplemental additions of former first-round defensive tackle Mazi Smith and former second-round receiver Adonai Mitchell. Additionally, Costello reports that, in exchange for taking on $43MM in dead money this season for the trade, “the Jets are projected to have about $117MM in salary cap space” to utilize in free agency.
They didn’t trade away everyone, though. Obviously, they made it clear wide receiver Garrett Wilson wasn’t going anywhere, but the team tried and failed to find new homes for outside linebacker Jermaine Johnson, running back Breece Hall, and linebacker Quincy Williams before the deadline. Some of the issues keeping these trades from happening came down to Mougey’s demand for value.
Jordan Schultz of FOX Sports reports that the Bears and 49ers made serious attempts to acquire Johnson, but both teams pivoted as New York stood pat on their second-round demand. Fellow FOX Sports reporter Ralph Vacchiano claimed little surprise that the Jets kept Johnson over the second-round offers that reportedly did come their way, pointing to the team having already exercised his fifth-year option as evidence that they were less willing to let him go.
Another factor restricting the options available to deal the remaining players came down to competition. According to Dianna Russini of The Athletic, other “AFC East teams reached out to the Jets about potential deals, but New York was reluctant to trade with division rivals.”
Costello points out that, at this point in time, the oldest draft picks remaining on the Jets’ roster hail from the 2021 draft class and only long snapper Thomas Hennessy, the longest-tenured player on the team, dates back before that. The team is full of youth, and Mougey has set up multiple strong avenues with which he can continue to build around the remaining talent. All that’s left to see is whether or not Mougey can do a better job of building a team than his predecessors who put him in this position.