The New York Jets and general manager Darren Mougey are on the precipice of another mid-season sale should things go belly-up against the Las Vegas Raiders on Sunday afternoon.
Gang Green is 2-5, just lost to the worst team in football, the Miami Dolphins, and faces the real possibility of offloading talent to fuel this ongoing rebuild. They did it last year, shipping star defensive tackle Quinnen Williams to the Dallas Cowboys and cornerback Sauce Gardner to the Indianapolis Colts.
This fall has seen continued trade rumblings around two of the Jets’ top offensive weapons: running back Breece Hall and wide receiver Garrett Wilson.
Wilson is clearly frustrated with how things are going this season. He is not getting the ball nearly as much as a star player of his caliber, who signed a four-year, $130 million extension last year, should.
Yet, he has done well to hold his tongue, then doubled down by saying on Wednesday that he has not requested a trade nor will he.
“Yeah, I want to be here,” Wilson said. “I want to win games. That’s the one thing we’ve been missing on here. I love it here. Do I love it more than I love winning? Nah, to be completely honest. But I’m hopeful. I’ve never been the best optimistic guy, but I found a way and dug deep, and I’ve been optimistic for three, four, five years now. That’s why these ones each weekend hurt a little more.”
But Mougey has shown that no one on his team is untouchable, especially at the right price. It’s why he parted ways with Gardner last year for two first-round picks and an NFL-ready contributor in Adonai Mitchell.
Could a similar price grease the wheels of a trade? Never say never, but it would be surprising to see Wilson playing elsewhere in a few weeks.
As for Hall, it’s not so cut and dry. The oft-injured running back has missed the last four weeks due to a quad injury, quelling the momentum built off his first-career 1,000-yard season last year.
The Kansas City Chiefs were sniffing around last season and reportedly offered a third-round draft pick for the rusher, but Mougey turned it down. Head coach Aaron Glenn has often gushed about how important Hall is to the Jets’ offense, but the emergence of Braelon Allen perhaps makes him a bit more expendable.
Allen rushed for 116 yards and a touchdown in New York’s Week 5 win over the Cleveland Browns, then went off for 104 yards on 17 attempts in Sunday’s loss to the Dolphins. Since Hall went down, he leads the league in missed tackles forced, run plays of 10-plus yards, and run plays of 15-plus yards. He also ranks second in rushing yards and fifth in yards per carry (5.0),
Now, if both Hall and Allen are healthy, the Jets have one of the best running back tandems in the league. But if they can get a hefty return for Hall, they might feel confident that they have a built-in replacement in Allen.
For more on the Jets, visit AMNY.com
