Catching Up

Edition #1070: Would the Jets trade Breece Hall? Is Malachi Fields being underrated as a prospect for the Jets?

Good morning ☕

I’ve swapped dreary Scotland for dreary England and travelling those Scottish roads with a child who’s prone to car sickness was less fun than watching the Jets QB carousel over the last couple of decades. I don’t need to give you the details, but needless to say the rest of my day will be spent cleaning the car.

It’s all quiet with the NFL news cycle at the moment, we have a couple more confirmed top 30 visits with the Jets. The interesting name is Behren Morton, Texas Tech’s QB who also met with the Jets during his Pro Day and at the combine. It’s clear there is some interest there, but it remains to be seen how much.

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NEWS & NOTES

• Albert Breer doesn’t believe the Jets are looking to trade Breece Hall on draft day, stating the value just wouldn’t be there for a RB under the tag:

  • “I’d be surprised, Paul. I just don’t think you can get the sort of value for a running back on a franchise tag that would make it worth everyone’s while to lose another of your best players. My sense is they’ll make a real run at extending him. And maybe if those talks don’t go well, and the team’s struggling in midseason, you look at dealing him at the deadline.”

• NFL.com included the Jets in a “win-win” trade with the LA Chargers, seeing them trade back into the first round to draft Ty Simpson. The trade involves the Jets received the #22 overall, #55 overall, #123 overall and a 2027 third round pick in exchange for #33 overall, #44 overall, #103 overall and a 2027 second round pick:

  • If the Jets want to draft Alabama QB Ty Simpson and address other weighty issues, they might have to trade back into Round 1 for a third first-rounder. They and the Cardinals figure to be the main bidders for Simpson, but New York can blow any team out of the water from a draft-position standpoint.

• Lance Zierlein had his third mock draft out recently and he had the Jets double-dipping on defense, which I’m sure will raise a fair few eyebrows:

  • #2 Arvell Reese - “GM Darren Mougey has loads of draft capital and should be allowed the runway to build his squad. Reese is an unpolished diamond, but the Jets can take a swing on the upside.”

  • #16 Caleb Downs - “Downs’ slide stops with the Jets, who should be overjoyed to add a culture player offering a tremendous competitive nature and the ability to play strong safety and some nickel.”

• Daniel Jeremiah updated his big board and he now has Sonny Styles as the 3rd best prospect, ahead of both David Bailey and Arvell Reese. I know the Jets taking Styles has been mentioned a few times in the comments:

  • “Styles is a tall, long and rangy linebacker prospect. He made a smooth transition from safety to linebacker during his college career and put on an epic display at the NFL Scouting Combine. In the run game, he’s quick to key, read and fill to make tackles. He uses his length to press off blocks and has outstanding lateral range to pick up production on the perimeter. He’s a firm, reliable tackler with stopping power on contact. Styles is outstanding in coverage. He can carry slot receivers down the seam and smoothly mirrors tight ends all over the field. He’s an explosive blitzer and will run over running backs who try to block him in pass pro. Styles’ performance in the Big Ten title game against Indiana answered any questions about his game, as he was the best defender on the field in that matchup. He reminds me of Fred Warner as a player. It’s hard to find prospects with Styles’ combination of speed, athleticism and instincts.”

• It’s also worth noting that Jeremiah had Carnell Tate as the #1 wide receiver:

  • “Tate is a tall, long wideout with better play speed than timed speed and outstanding production. He has excellent suddenness to defeat press coverage, and he covers ground quickly with his long stride. He attacks the defender’s leverage when they play him in off coverage. He has strong/reliable hands in traffic and tracks the ball beautifully over his shoulder down the field. He can access an extra gear when the ball is in the air. He is a loose athlete and that shows up when he adjusts to balls thrown on his back shoulder. He is efficient with his footwork when working back to the quarterback. He’s not exceptionally dynamic with the ball in his hands. Overall, Tate should provide an immediate impact in the vertical passing game.”

• Ben Solak released his best prospects per position based solely on the tape and I’ve picked out a couple of positions that should interest Jets fans:

  • WR - Germie Bernard - “He does everything well -- and I mean everything. Bernard will dig out a linebacker to spring a handoff on one play, stretch a safety to open another route on the next play, grind out some tough YAC on an RPO on another play, and then cut up a mean route to separate downfield on the next play. Look at the stopping power and upfield displacement he gets on this block against Oklahoma in the College Football Playoff. This matters for light personnel teams that need their wide receivers to contribute in the running game.”

  • Edge - Jaishawn Barham - “Barham is one of the most physical players in this class, bar none. At only 240 pounds, he is one of the lightest edge rushers in the class. But he’s the scariest 240 pounds I’ve ever seen. At his best moments (go watch the Wisconsin game), Barham is a game-wrecking upfield force with a wicked first step, excellent strain and balance through blocks, violent pop in his hands and a motor that never runs cold.”

• PFF ranked Geno Smith among the players with the most to gain in 2026:

  • “The Jets acquired Smith and a 2026 seventh-round pick from the Raiders in exchange for a 2026 sixth-round pick, reuniting him with the team that picked him in the second round of the 2013 NFL Draft. Smith struggled this past season with Las Vegas, ranking 34th out of 38 qualifying quarterbacks in PFF overall grade (60.9), but is just one year removed from a top-10 season in which he posted a career-high 83.1 PFF overall grade with the Seahawks.”

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Malachi Fields

Considering the Jets need for a big physical receiver to play opposite Garrett Wilson, I’m a little surprising that Malachi Fields name hasn’t popped up much.

We know that the Jets met with Fields at his Pro-Day and according to Tony Pauline the meeting was “extensive”.

Fields ran an underwhelming 4.61 in the forty at the combine but caught the ball exceptionally well, something he repeated at this Pro Day. Fields game isn’t built on speed, but most consider him the prototypical “x” receiver.

At 6’4 and 218lbs he’s a big receiver who uses his size and strength to outmuscle defensive backs.

He’s spent five years in college, the first four with Virginia and then 2025 with Notre Dame where he worked in a heavy run-offense, so plenty of experience blocking on the outside.

For a player has physically gifted as he is, his production has never jumped off the screen. His single season yardage topped out at 811, and his single-season TD production topped out at 5.

His speed and agility are the two main reasons why' he’s being spoken about as a late second or early third round selection. But don’t forget that Amon-Ra St. Brown also ran a 4.61 in the forty which dropped his stock to the 4th round, the Lions took a chance and it’s worked out pretty well. Aaron Glenn had a front-row seat for that selection, so I’m sure there is some support for drafting him despite his slow forty time.

Outside of the base numbers there are some real positives. His drop rate is just 5.7% meaning he dropped 10 of 278 targets. But he has only 3 drops over the last two years combined and is coming off a season where he had 1 drop on 62 targets.

He’s caught 47.3% of all his contested catches and has been higher than that average in both the 2025 and 2024 seasons. As he’s become physically more imposing, defenders have struggled to bring him to the ground immediately after the catch. Over the course of his career his yards after the catch per reception has increased from 3.8 in 2023 to 5.1 in 2024 and 5.3 in 2025.

He doesn’t have those elite traits in terms of his speed. But there is something to be said about a player who has decent explosion, elite size and ball skills who fits the mould of what the Jets desperately need in their offense.

I’m not skilled enough in talent evaluation to tell you where exactly he needs to improve from a technical perspective. I will leave that up to the experts, but I’m all for drafting receivers who have some serious ball-skills.