Why the New York Jets’ Fire Sale Won the 2025 NFL Trade Deadline

The New York Jets won the NFL trade deadline.

At 1-7, the Jets realized that defense no longer wins championships in the NFL – especially if you don’t have a franchise quarterback. While Woody Johnson is lambasting the play of quarterback Justin Fields, general manager Darren Mougey is doing the responsible thing.

Tearing it all down.

The Jets have too much talent on their roster to be 1-7. They traded away one of the best cornerbacks in the league, Sauce Gardner, for two first-round picks. Then, they flipped longtime franchise cornerstone Quinnen Williams for an extra first-rounder plus more.

Again, the Jets are bad. If the NFL Draft were to be held today, they would already have the No. 1 overall pick. Trading away two defensive stars should only make locking up that No. 1 draft pick even easier.

And now the Jets have a war chest of picks.

In 2026, they have their own first-round pick as well as Indy’s top choice. They also snagged a second-round pick from the Cowboys in the deal for Williams. In 2027, they will have three first round draft picks.

Every bad team in the NFL this season is proof that unless you have a quarterback, you’re not doing anything meaningful. The Cleveland Browns have one of the best defenses in the league and they have two wins. The Las Vegas Raiders traded for a quarterback, he’s been miserable, and they have two wins. It’s the most important position in sports for a reason.

With this much premium draft capital, the Jets have whatever it takes to land the quarterback of their dreams in the NFL Draft. While there’s always pressure to pick the right one, the extra first and second round picks can be used as ammunition to trade up, or flipped for proven players.

The most impressive component of this trade deadline for the Jets is that they added all of this additional draft capital while keeping key offensive players. According to reports, the Kansas City Chiefs were offering a fourth-round pick for running back Breece Hall.

They also could have kept flipping players as wide receiver Garrett Wilson certainly would’ve gotten big-time attention.

While Hall voiced his frustrations on social media that he wasn’t traded off this terrible team, the NFL is built so teams could bounce back quickly. While that understandably has not been the case in New York, they’ve also never had a deck of cards like this.

If the Jets land a franchise quarterback in April’s draft, Hall could find himself feeling much better about the entire situation.

Nailing these draft picks is never a given. But with where the Jets are at, they definitely made the right decision and ultimately won the deadline.