Trade Deadline Special

Edition #254

Good morning!

The trade deadline has come and gone and the Jets were relatively quiet. What they chose not to do is far more significant than what they chose to do, we’ll get into it all below.

Let’s just use the quick throws section today to run down some of the trades that happened on deadline day. A few years ago the NFL trade deadline was insignificant and while it’s still not at the NBA level, we’re starting to see bigger and bigger deals

Baltimore Ravens traded for Chicago Bears star linebacker Roquan Smith sending A.J. Klein, a 2023 2nd-round pick, and a 2023 5th-round pick in the other direction.

Minnesota Vikings traded for Detroit Lions tight end T.J, Hockenson, a 2023 fourth-round draft pick, and a 2024 conditional fourth-round draft pick in exchange for a 2023 second-round draft pick and a 2024 third-round draft pick.

Chicago Bears traded for Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Chase Claypool in exchange for a 2023 second-round draft pick.

Miami Dolphins traded for Denver Broncos star pass-rusher Bradley Chubb and a 2025 fifth-round draft pick in exchange for running back Chase Edmonds, a 2023 first-round draft pick, and a 2024 fourth-round draft pick.

Jacksonville Jaguars traded for Atlanta Falcons wide receiver Calvin Ridley in exchange for a 2023 conditional fifth-round draft pick and a 2024 conditional second-round draft pick.

Buffalo Bills traded for Indianapolis Colts running back Nyheim Hines in exchange for running back Zack Moss and a 2023 conditional fifth-round draft pick.

Miami Dolphins traded for San Francisco 49’ers running back Jeff Wilson in exchange for a 2023 fifth-round draft pick.

I don’t love the idea of Miami having a premier pass-rusher for the next 5-6 years, even if they do have to pay him a ton of money and gave up a first-round draft pick for him. I took some heat for saying that on Twitter, but I think people underestimate the talent of Chubb, and considering I wrote about how bad Zach Wilson is under pressure yesterday, putting two and two together doesn’t excite me.

I like that the Bears are finally getting some help for Justin Fields and think the Claypool deal is a nice one, don’t forget that when Pittsburgh had better QB play in 2020 Chase caught 62 passes for 873 yards and 9 touchdowns. He’s a very talented individual. I also quite like the deal for Buffalo to get Hines, he’s an outstanding pass-catcher out of the backfield with 235 catches to his name, just adds another wrinkle to an already good offense.

Let’s now focus on the one more the Jets made, and that was to send defensive end Jacob Martin to Denver along with a 2024 fifth-round draft pick for a 2024 fourth-round draft pick. In essence, they used Martin to jump up a round in two drafts time. That may not sound like a lot, but the perception of the 4th round in comparison to the 5th is quite stark and it’s certainly better than grabbing a 6th or 7th rounder.

Here’s why I really like the trade.

Joe Douglas called Jacob Martin a “pros pro” saying he did everything right, but that this represented two opportunities:

1. To add flexibility in the 2024 draft.

2. To open up snaps for younger prospects on the roster.

The Jets used a first-round pick on Jermaine Johnson this year and expect to have him back this Sunday against Buffalo with the rookie having overcome an ankle injury that has kept him out of the last two games. They also have to generate opportunities for Bryce Huff who has been one of the better pass-rushers on the roster this season.

As Joe said, Martin has done nothing wrong. He’s generated 15 pressures and recorded 2 sacks and his pass-rush win rate of 15.9% is very respectable, in fact, it’s only slightly behind the 16.7% win rate being posted by Carl Lawson. He was a good asset to use from a positional group of strength to add flexibility going forward.

What this does is open up some cap space for the Jets next year, although they will need to eat $2.3 million in 2023 against what his cap number was projected to be $5.0 million according to Over The Cap. But more importantly, it opens up reps for Jermaine Johnson and Bryce Huff.

Huff in particular has been a standout performer so far this year. He’s generated 15 pressures like Martin, but he’s done it in 16 fewer pass-rush snaps and his win rate of 27.4% is an outstanding number. In fact, if you use a minimum pass-rush snap number of 50, that 27.4% ranks #1 in the league, ahead of players like Myles Garrett, Nick Bosa, Joey Bosa, and Gregory Rousseau up in Buffalo. I think we’ll see that settle, but why wouldn’t you want to open up opportunities for someone performing the way he is.

Jermaine Johnson’s progress has been stunted by his injury, but he was starting to show some real signs of improvement and already has 2 sacks to his name in less than 50 pass-rush snaps. Like with a lot of players on a young team, now’s the time to get him the reps he needs for his development. Martin was averaging just under 12 pass-rush snaps per game, if you divide those equally between Huff and Johnson, and you can even put Clemons in here, those are valuable reps.

I wish Jacob Martin the best in Denver and hope he can fill part of that role vacated by Bradley Chubb, but this was a good move for him and a good move for the Jets. Who doesn’t love a win-win?

As expected the Jets decided to keep hold of two receivers who both requested a trade. Elijah Moore and Denzel Mims will remain with the Jets until the Summer at least, and that gives the Jets an opportunity to mend a few bridges.

After the deadline had passed Joe Douglas met with the media, and he had a few comments on the receivers. “We think the world of both these guys. We love them here in New York. Both guys love football, work hard and you've seen Denzel's work pay off."

"We love Elijah. We all stood on the table to take him. We think the world of him. We're a football family and when there's an issue we like to handle that in-house."

Douglas confirmed that he had received calls about Moore from multiple organizations, but that he was always going to be a Jet. Mike LaFleur needs to implement a game plan that gets the ball into the hands of Moore, not just because it keeps him happy, but because the Jets will be a better team for it.

Going into the season I thought that Mims may be able to show enough that the Jets would feel comfortable moving on from Corey Davis and re-investing that money elsewhere. Around week 6 that theory looked absolutely crazy, over the last two weeks we’ve seen Mims make an outstanding receiving play and block on the perimeter for a big touchdown run. He also should have had a touchdown on Sunday but Zach’s back-shoulder throw forced him out of bounds instead of leading him to the end zone. It’s early days, but if he can stack performances, it gives the Jets an option.

I’m really happy the Jets decided to keep both receivers. You don’t tend to improve by getting rid of your offensive weapons on cheap rookie deals.

Joe Douglas did say that he canvassed the league at several other positions but that he liked the Jet’s depth. When asked specifically about the offensive line he spoke about Herbig and having brought in Ogbuehi and Remmers, he also referenced the fact that George Fant and Max Mitchell would soon be returning. The impression I got was that the offensive line wasn’t a priority and while that may be surprising to some if you really look at it it makes sense. No team in football had invested as much money in the offensive line as the Jets at the start of the season and then they added two players in Ogbuehi and Remmers, you can’t continue to sink salary into one position group, especially when you have starters returning.

A couple of other notes to just quickly mention from the Joe Douglas presser yesterday. He mentioned that neither Breece Hall nor Alijah Vera-Tucker have had surgery yet but the outlook is optimistic: "Two young players that were having Pro Bowl-caliber seasons. You could argue All-Pro caliber seasons...Our docs are very optimistic that they're going to come back full strength next year + hit the ground running."

With all the injuries we’ve had this year, Becton hasn’t been at the forefront but Douglas had this to say about the former first-round pick: "His focus is on coming back next year in the best shape he can be and as healthy as he can be. We feel really optimistic that he's going to be full strength for OTAs."