The Jets, a year removed from making splashy news on NFL trade deadline day, were quiet Tuesday.
They are 2-7, losers of their previous four games, and they stood pat.
Jets general manager Darren Mougey, who last year traded away former first-round draft picks, cornerback Sauce Gardner and defensive tackle Quinnen Williams, for valuable draft capital, made almost no moves this time around.
In the case of this year’s trade deadline, the Jets were more defined by the moves they didn’t make — specifically pertaining to fourth-year edge rusher Will McDonald IV, who requested a trade Monday, and cornerback Nahshon Wright.
There were reports earlier in the week that the Jets were offered a second-day draft pick (as high as a second-rounder) for McDonald, the team’s 2023 first-round pick.
McDonald, who has 24 ½ career sacks, has seen his playing time dramatically diminish under head coach Aaron Glenn, who prefers more size at his position. It has appeared from the start that McDonald, who’s 6-foot-4, 245 pounds, doesn’t fit into Glenn’s defensive scheme because he struggles against the run.
He was a starter in 2025, and the Jets picked up his fifth-year option, guaranteeing him $13.8 million in 2027. But the Jets switched to a 3-4 defense and added edge rushers David Bailey, Joseph Ossai and Kingsley Enagbare in the offseason, and that has turned McDonald into a situational player.
This season through nine games, he has three sacks, one forced fumble and 13 tackles in 263 defensive snaps.
Glenn said Monday he had a talk with McDonald last week and called it “a really good conversation.”
That was before McDonald played only 23 defensive snaps Sunday in Kansas City, decided he’s had enough and had his agent leak out his desire to be traded.
“He’s a good player and I still believe that,” Glenn said Monday. “We’re going to continue to try to put him in a position to make plays for us.”
If the Jets could have gotten a second-round pick for McDonald, it was surprising they didn’t pull the trigger — unless Mougey is higher on him than Glenn, whose job is in serious jeopardy, and Mougey sees a better future for McDonald with a different coaching regime.
It’s difficult to pinpoint what exactly went on there.
What’s also difficult to comprehend is the Jets’ seeming waste of Wright, whom they signed in the offseason to a one-year, $3.5 million contract after he led NFL cornerbacks with five interceptions in 2025 for the Bears.
It seems curious that a Jets defense that has recorded one interception in the 26 games Glenn has coached would not try to find a way to take some advantage of Wright’s ball skills.
It was a surprise the Jets didn’t trade him away considering that, nine games into the season, the 28-year-old Wright has played all of 22 snaps — all of which have come on special teams.
It came as little surprise that the Jets didn’t deal away receiver Garrett Wilson, their best offensive player, or running back Breece Hall.
Those two players are considered the foundation of what Mougey is trying to build.
There, too, was late talk that the Vikings, who were desperate to land a competent quarterback with Kyler Murray and Carson Wentz not the answers, were inquiring about Jets starter Geno Smith.
But that, too, went nowhere, with the Jets retaining the veteran quarterback in his second stint with the franchise.
The only trade the Jets made came Monday when they sent safety Andre Cisco, whose playing time had diminished along with his performance, to Detroit for a sixth-round draft pick.
