Goodbye, Aaron Rodgers. Goodbye, Davante Adams.
Big-ticket free agents? No thank you. A blockbuster trade for a star receiver? We’ll pass.
Upon arriving in Florham Park, the New York Jets’ new regime – led by the harmonious pairing of head coach Aaron Glenn and general manager Darren Mougey – immediately established a goal to rebuild the franchise’s culture from the ground up. Household-name stars were banished, and none were brought in to fill their shoes.
In free agency, the Jets maintained an economical approach, aiming to preserve their long-term cap flexibility and recover from the short-term-minded moves made by the preceding general manager. On the trade market, the Jets remained dormant, opting to neither trade for high-level players or dump any of their own.
As the Jets made all of these moves (and non-moves), one theme remained prevalent: the intention to rely on their coaching staff.
The Jets loaded up their roster with moldable players who have displayed low floors in the NFL (hence their lower costs), but also high ceilings in very limited spurts. New York’s goal is to cultivate value by amassing players who can outplay their contracts if given the right coaching to maximize their potential.
Brandon Stephens is a lengthy and athletic cornerback who has proven he can stay tight in coverage as well as anybody in the league, but his brutal ball skills have held him back. The Jets are betting that they can coach up Stephens’ ball skills to turn him into a great corner. They believe the physical tools are uncoachable, and that the coaching staff, led by Glenn, can fix the ball skills.
Andre Cisco is coming off a rough year as a tackler and coverage defender, but he was one of the NFL’s best ball hawks over a two-year span from 2022-23. The Jets hope that Glenn and company can hone the finer points of Cisco’s game, while Cisco’s natural ball skills give him a lofty ceiling.
Stone Smartt is a converted college quarterback who has only played the tight end position for a few years. He has limited NFL production and struggles with blocking, but displayed excellent efficiency as a receiver in limited opportunities last season.
These are just a few examples of the overarching philosophy that has dominated Glenn and Mougey’s first offseason in New York. They want to buy low and bet on the ability of their coaching staff to get the most out of high-ceiling, low-floor players.
And this philosophy extended to the NFL draft.
From top to bottom, the Jets’ 2025 draft class is jam-packed with potential. New York loaded up on athletic prospects who have displayed impressive upside in high-impact areas. The downside is that many of these prospects have a major wrinkle or two in their game, but the Jets believe their coaching staff can iron those out.
Stockpile uncoachable traits and rely on the coaching staff to handle the rest – so far, that seems to be the core team-building philosophy of the Glenn-Mougey era, at least as they wade through the rough waters of the roster and cap situation they inherited.
For starters, six of the Jets’ seven draft picks had a Relative Athletic Score (RAS) of 8.00 or higher. This tied New York with New England for the third-most 8.00+ RAS picks in the 2025 draft.
It is notable that New York pulled this off with only seven total picks. The Raiders and Chargers tied for the most 8.00+ RAS picks with seven apiece, despite having 11 and nine total draft picks, respectively. The Patriots had 11 total draft picks.
The class’s elite athleticism summarizes its moldable, high-ceiling nature. But as you go down the list, you can identify the weaknesses that go hand-in-hand with this philosophy.
Everybody loves a high-ceiling prospect, but unless they are a bona fide blue-chipper going near the top of the first round, it always has to come with a cost. If they didn’t come with an equally low floor, they’d be getting drafted top-10.
There is a reason that players fall in the draft. You can either go the safe route with these players (accepting a lower ceiling for a higher floor) or the risky route (accepting a lower floor for a higher ceiling); the Jets opted for the latter with most of their draft picks.
Third-round pick Azareye’h Thomas is a specimen of a cornerback. He stands at 6-foot-1 with 32⅜-inch arms while sporting an 8.17 RAS. Thomas was extremely productive in coverage during his final college season, yielding a 50.2 passer rating and zero touchdowns.
The catch with Thomas is that his tackling needs major work. Thomas missed eight tackles in 12 games this past season. His missed tackle rate was 13.8%, which is mediocre even for a college cornerback. It ranked 67th out of 136 qualified Power Four cornerbacks.
Tackling, though, is something that can be coached up. Height, length, and athleticism cannot be taught. The Jets are betting that their defensive backs coaches can refine Thomas’ tackling, allowing his uncoachable traits tp put him over the top.
This trend continues as you go down the class. Fourth-round pick Arian Smith is a true burner at the wide receiver position, sporting a 4.36 forty time to go with blistering explosiveness (38-inch vertical, 127-inch broad jump).
Smith’s problem is that he had an abysmal 16% drop rate in his college career, including 10 drops against just 48 receptions in 2024 (17.2% drop rate). Once again, the prospect’s weakness comes in a technical area of the game, while his strengths lie in the physical, unteachable side.
Fifth-round pick Francisco Mauigoa is a quick and speedy player at the linebacker position, boasting a 4.60 forty and 4.24 shuttle time at his 233-pound frame. Like Thomas, though, his tackling needs major work. Mauigoa had a career missed tackle rate of 14.2%, and he progressively declined. In 2024, he tied for the ACC lead with a career-high 18 missed tackles (16.1% miss rate).
The same issue applies to fifth-round edge rusher Tyler Baron. After transferring to Miami in 2024, he broke out with a career-high 48 total pressures, but his 18.2% missed tackle rate was worse than his already concerning 15.8% career average.
It’s only one offseason, so their goals could change in the future, but the Jets’ core team-building philosophy in 2025 is clear. With low expectations to compete in the upcoming season, they are more than willing to accept high-risk/low-floor players in exchange for higher ceilings. They have loaded up the roster with lottery tickets in hopes that just a few of them will cash in, therefore strengthening the team’s core as they seek to make bigger moves in pursuit of contention starting in 2026.
And it all comes down to their faith in one thing: the coaching staff.
This Jets regime does not give off the impression that it feels the need to add players with proven track records to be successful. Rather, they emit confidence in their ability to develop players from within.
Over the long haul, if the Jets can execute this strategy, it is an ideal model for sustained success. Look no further than the league’s most successful organizations. Whether it’s the Baltimore Ravens, Philadelphia Eagles, or Kansas City Chiefs, the NFL’s mainstays have proven they can develop high-level contributors from surprising places. They do not rely on big-ticket investments to build out the skeleton of the roster.
Now, it is up to the coaching staff to prove it can unearth a few gems from this large crop of free agents and draft picks with innate traits and fixable weaknesses.
