Aaron Rodgers? The door is right over there. Davante Adams? Make sure it doesn’t hit you as you follow him out.
That was the message sent by general manager Darren Mougey and head coach Aaron Glenn, whose New York Jets have made a focused effort to get younger throughout the 2025 offseason. They did not hesitate to part ways with multiple household-name veterans, and throughout free agency, they almost exclusively added players under 30 years old.
As shown by the data, their effort is paying off – big time.
According to a study from NFL contract analyst TexansCap, the Jets’ roster has an average age of 25.5 years old, ranking second-youngest in the NFL behind only the Green Bay Packers (25.3).
The Jets did not just accomplish the goal of getting younger than the veteran squad they fielded a year ago (which wasn’t a very difficult bar to clear). They have gone much further. Suddenly, they are the youngest team in their conference.
It is a night-and-day turnaround from the last two years. Previous general manager Joe Douglas added numerous 30-plus players in an effort to accelerate New York into an immediate contender. This included players such as Rodgers, Adams, Haason Reddick, Mike Williams, Randall Cobb, Tyron Smith, Morgan Moses, Duane Brown, Quinton Jefferson, and Al Woods.
With a few exceptions, these moves failed. Rodgers had his worst season as a starting quarterback in the NFL. Reddick was invisible after a lengthy holdout. Smith and Brown were liabilities for the offensive line, while Williams played his way to a mid-season trade for pennies. Cobb and Woods were non-factors when on the field. Adams played well but did not justify the price New York paid for a half-season rental.
The only successful 30-plus pickups were Moses and Jefferson, who performed admirably in their roles. Overall, though, the Jets’ collection of “win-now” players only decreased their odds of, well, “winning now.”
Seeking to re-establish the Jets’ culture, Glenn and Mougey made it a point to immediately eliminate these types of moves from New York’s offseason plan. Their goal is to build a nucleus of talented young players who can lead the franchise to sustained success, rather than sacrifice the future for a supposedly better chance of winning in a one-to-two-year window (although the chances are actually lower if your veteran additions are executed as poorly as New York’s were).
Boasting the youngest roster in the AFC, the Jets have set the foundation to make themselves contenders for the long haul. It may take a year or two to reach that status, but it was a necessary step for New York to get here first.
The Douglas-led Jets were here just three years ago. Unfortunately, they tried to skip a step after their promising 2022 season, and they paid the price.
For Glenn and Mougey, it is promising to have accomplished the goal of building such a young roster. But as they march into the future, the key will be to avoid falling into the same trap as Douglas. It is imperative to stay the course. When flashes of success arrive, they must not fall for the allure of contention and scramble to go “all-in.”
Year after year, the Jets must continue trusting the steady, patient team-building approach they established in 2025. That is how they will keep themselves in the AFC title mix on a yearly basis for an extended window, following the mold of model franchises like Kansas City, Buffalo, and Baltimore.
There is a time and place to make aggressive moves for veteran players. The Chiefs, Bills, and Ravens have all made their fair share. But they never completely sell their souls to the Madden Franchise Mode devil. Even while occasionally striking for a flashy veteran, they have sustained their intent to build through the draft, keep the roster young, and maintain cap flexibility.
Look no further than Buffalo’s shocking decision to trade Stefon Diggs ahead of the 2024 season. It ultimately did no damage to Buffalo’s short-term title hopes while making the team younger and substantially improving their long-term flexibility. Proactive moves like this are necessary to create opportunities for future aggressive moves without draining the team’s resources and youth.
Going forward, it will be critical for the Jets to make moves like the Diggs trade to balance the blockbuster moves that are sure to come. The Douglas-led Jets went too far in on the Rodgers era, abandoning the draft-first approach Douglas initially swore by when he entered the building. When they swung and missed on Rodgers, they fell face-first on the cold, hard ground with no soft cushion to land on, sealing the regime’s fate.
In 2025, the Jets have accomplished the first step of their rebuilding process – clearing out the dead weight and returning to ground zero. It does not guarantee success quite yet, though, as multiple steps remain. As their rebuild proceeds, the Jets must treat each step with care, avoiding the temptation to skip steps on their way to the mountaintop.
If they continue to patiently build this thing from the ground up, they should get where they want to go in due time. The first step on the journey was to abandon their previous climb and slide back to the bottom, allowing themselves to re-collect the resources they need for the next climb, and they’ve done just that.