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The New York Jets are headed towards familiar territory yet again. After six weeks of action, the Jets are at 2-4 to start the year. While they’ve had some encouraging performances as of late, the team is still headed towards another year of missing the postseason. With the trade deadline approaching, though, they find themselves at a crossroads yet again.
Should the Jets hold another fire sale at the trade deadline?
It’s a valid question to ask. New York has virtually no hope of making it to the postseason, barring an extreme glow-up by the entire team and the Bills and Patriots collapsing inexplicably. For most teams, the most sound decision would be to sell the farm and try to reload for the upcoming season with exciting rookies and whatnot.
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However, the Jets are not most teams. While New York could try to acquire more draft assets this year, they don’t need to sell the entire team to kickstart their rebuild… because they already have the draft capital that most teams desire.
Jets need not sell the farm for the 2027 NFL Draft
There’s one simple reason why the Jets don’t need to hold a fire sale at the trade deadline this year: they’ve already done something like that last year. If you’ll recall, New York was involved in two of the biggest midseason trades in 2025. They traded cornerback Sauce Gardner to the Indianapolis Colts and defensive tackle Quinnen Williams to the Dallas Cowboys for a haul of first-round picks. They netted two first-round picks from the Colts and one tackle from the Cowboys, giving them a boatload of draft picks for the future.
Looking at the Jets’ draft haul for 2027, they already have a lot of picks for the upcoming draft. Most importantly, they have three first-round draft picks in 2027, along with their own draft picks for next year. In total, New York has nine draft picks for 2027 (three firsts, one pick from Rounds 2 to 5, and two sixth-rounders). The high number of first-round picks is notable, as teams often just have one or two firsts in every draft.
The position of the first-rounders is also worth noting. The Colts are struggling this season, and it wouldn’t be a surprise to see that first-rounder become a top-10 pick or better. The Cowboys are slightly better than the Colts, but they’re also likely to finish outside the postseason race. That, combined with the Jets’ own 2027 first, means that New York might have three picks inside the top-11 next year.
Trading your valuable players for more draft picks is a valid strategy, yes. However, a team also needs to be careful about trading too many pieces in the name of drafting more young players. After all, you still need to have players on your team to build around. The Jets don’t have many intriguing pieces to trade that aren’t integral pieces to their future plans.
Former first-round pick Will McDonald IV is a good trade candidate, but beyond him, the options are either too valuable or wouldn’t net enough value. The Jets wouldn’t trade Garrett Wilson or Breece Hall, no matter how many firsts a team might offer. AD Mitchell and Geno Smith aren’t needle-movers for other teams. New York is much better off just evaluating their talents this season and waiting for a good offer from a different team in the league.
There’s also one looming possibility for the Jets, and that’s to leverage their draft picks to trade for a player themselves. Still, the best play for the Jets at the trade deadline is to simply just stay put, wait if any offer entices them, and just ride the wave.
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