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Rich Cimini, ESPN Staff Writer
FLORHAM PARK, N.J. — A look at what’s happening around the New York Jets:
1. Clock is ticking: Sometimes the squeaky wheel gets the grease. Check out recent Jets history: S Jamal Adams, RB Le’Veon Bell, WR Elijah Moore, WR Denzel Mims and WR Mecole Hardman, all of whom expressed unhappiness for various reasons, were granted a change of address, courtesy of general manager Joe Douglas.
With running back Dalvin Cook and defensive end Carl Lawson publicly airing their frustration with reduced roles, and both open to trades, the spotlight is on Douglas and whether he will deal the former starters before the NFL’s trading deadline on Tuesday at 4 p.m. ET. Douglas is willing to move them, multiple sources close to the situation said, but he’s not going to give them away, especially with the Jets (3-3) still in contention.
On the job since 2019, Douglas has made deadline deals every year. In 2019, he traded defensive lineman Leonard Williams to the New York Giants for a 2020 third-round pick (safety Ashtyn Davis) and a 2021 fifth-rounder (nickelback Michael Carter II). His biggest deal came last year, when he acquired running back James Robinson for a sixth-round pick. Robinson never panned out.
Douglas is already on the board this year, having dealt Hardman and a 2025 seventh-round pick to the Kansas City Chiefs for a 2025 sixth-rounder. It was the 23rd player trade of the Douglas era, not counting draft-pick swaps. That’s more than a flurry of activity — it’s a blizzard.
He’s known for maximizing value on outgoing players (see: two first-round picks for Adams), but he has yet to acquire an impact player via trade. Quarterback Aaron Rodgers would’ve been that guy this season, but we all know what happened with the Achilles tear. Safety Chuck Clark, another offseason addition via trade, suffered a season-ending injury.
Trading Cook and/or Lawson would create playing time for a couple of rookies, Israel Abanikanda (inactive for six games) and Will McDonald (only 59 snaps in five games), respectively. Right now, McDonald, a first-round pick, is buried at the back end of a deep defensive-line rotation.
Both Cook and Lawson are relatively pricey — each is due to make more than $3 million for the remainder of the season — but the Jets can always eat some salary if they really want to facilitate a trade. Because he plays a premium position, Lawson will likely attract more interest than Cook.
2. Part-time Cook: Like a lot of high-volume runners, Cook believes he gets more effective as the game progresses. In his case, though, the stats don’t support it. For his career, he has a 4.6 per-carry average in the first half of games, 4.7 in the second half. It’s a virtual toss-up. By the way, both averages are very good.
3. Big Apple turnover: The Jets meet the Giants for the 15th time on Sunday. The Jets trail the series, 8-6, but they’ve won two in a row, including a 34-27 decision in the last meeting (2019). Try to wrap your mind around this: Of the 46 players in uniform that day for the Jets, only two remain on the roster — defensive tackle Quinnen Williams and long-snapper Thomas Hennessy. That’s a 96% turnover, stunning even by NFL standards.
4. Thanks, Big Blue: A rare Jets-Giants trade yielded one of the best players on the Jets’ roster.
During the second round of the 2022 draft, the Jets moved up two spots — 38th to 36th — to select running back Breece Hall. Convinced he was a future star, they started their trade-up attempts in the bottom of the first round, finally finding a taker in the Giants. They weren’t worried about the Giants picking him, but rather another team jumping into the 37th slot. It cost the Jets their second-rounder, plus a fourth-rounder, but it was well worth it.
Hall is averaging 6.1 yards per carry, the best career mark for any running back in franchise history (minimum: 100 carries). The Jets are 7-0 when he scores a touchdown. And now the Giants have to figure out a way to stop him.
5. Goodbye to slump? The talk around the Jets all week was how they can overcome their annual post-bye blues. Under coach Robert Saleh, they’re 0-2 under when coming off the bye week, but the struggles pre-date him. His predecessors, Adam Gase and Todd Bowles, had the same problem. In fact, the Jets have lost seven straight off the bye — the third-longest streak since 1990, when the NFL reintroduced byes.
A big believer in sports science, Saleh said the organization studied the situation in the offseason, looking for ways to improve. The key, he says, is keeping the team mentally fresh through the dog days of the season. He wound up tweaking the daily schedule, starting this past week. We’re talking about relatively minor changes — i.e., lifting weights in the morning instead of the afternoon (post-practice) and moving some morning meetings to the afternoon.
6. Cobb story: Wide receiver Randall Cobb needs to produce more, and he knows it. As receivers coach Zach Azzanni said, “When he came back after the bye, he was disappointed in how he played. He said, ‘I thought about it the whole break and it’s eating me alive.'”
Cobb is averaging a league-low 0.17 yards per route run, the lowest in the league since at least 2011, per ESPN Stats & Information. Look for him to start losing snaps to rookie Xavier Gipson.
7. Unfiltered truth: Like all coaches, offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett used the bye week to self-scout his unit. His blunt takeaway: “We sucked in the red zone and we sucked on third down.” You can’t argue with that; the Jets are ranked 32nd in both categories.
Winning isn’t sustainable unless they improve in those key areas. They can clean up the red zone mess by eliminating negative plays — three sacks and 60 penalty yards (sixth most in the league).
8a. Underdogs: Gipson scored on a walk-off punt return in Week 1. Quincy Williams made a victory-sealing strip sack in Week 5. Tony Adams secured a win in Week 6 with a late interception. What do these players have in common? They made it the hard way.
Adams and Gipson signed with the Jets as undrafted free agents in 2022 and 2023, respectively. Williams was claimed on waivers after being cut by the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2021. That three players with their background made game-defining plays illustrates two points, according to Adams: “Great scouting” and a system built on meritocracy.
“The coaches play the best players,” Adams said, “no matter where you come from.”
8b. Sorry, Giants: Interesting side note on Adams, whom the Jets believe will be a fixture at safety: He said he actually received a better financial offer from the Giants than the Jets after the ’22 draft, but he opted to sign with the Jets because he felt their zone-based scheme was a better fit.
9. Money for nothing: Close to $7 million of the Jets’ salary cap is devoted to wide receivers no longer on the roster, according to Over the Cap — Braxton Berrios ($3.2 million in dead money), Moore ($1.9 million), Hardman ($984,000), Corey Davis ($667,000) and Mims ($378,000). We’re not talking about older, past-their-prime players, either; they’re all within the ages of 23 and 28.
10. The last word: “I don’t want to be the king of New York. I want to be the king of the NFL. … Big brother, little brother, who gives a f—?” — Jets defensive end John Franklin-Myers on the Jets-Giants matchup
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