Throughout the New York Jets’ history, the organization has always been known as a team that constantly “wins” offseasons.
Whether through big-name signings or massive trades, the Jets have done whatever they could to stay relevant in the news during the offseason. Most of those moves, however, didn’t work out.
From Le’Veon Bell to Aaron Rodgers, the Jets have struggled to find ways to build a consistent winner with their “excellent” offseason additions.
Things seem different this time around, though.
With the arrival of head coach Aaron Glenn and general manager Darren Mougey, a new regime has brought its own method to retooling New York’s struggling football team in Florham Park.
Their arrival brought a new sense of positivity to the organization and their fan base.
The kind that doesn’t usually come this time of year.
Big Difference in Jets Offseason
Unlike many years in the past, the Jets have not acquired any “big-time” free agents this offseason.
Sure, they signed quarterback Justin Fields and cornerback Brandon Stephens to contracts over $10 million per year, but the larger game plan for New York this offseason was to sign short-term deals for younger talents.
There was a reason for that.
At the NFL owners meetings, Glenn made it clear he wanted to have his team “move in silence” throughout their offseason and draft plans. That is precisely what the organization did.
New York’s plan this offseason was to get younger and more athletic. Again, they accomplished that goal. Without breaking the bank with any overpayments to veterans, the Jets have quietly become one of the youngest teams in the league.
“It’s a young man’s game, but we want players that can help us win,” Glenn said. “So if those players happen to be 30 years old, we get those players. It just so happened that we got younger while we got players that could help us win.”
The organization’s handling of its two latest contract extensions, though, shows just how different things have been.
With four-year extensions to cornerback Sauce Gardner and receiver Garrett Wilson, the Jets did something this week that they haven’t really been known to do at this point in the offseason.
Extend players with just three years of NFL experience.
Previous iterations of the Jets front office have been reluctant to give contracts to players who had played only three years with the team. The fact that the new regime was not just willing to negotiate with young players early, but actually get deals done, shows that this regime understands the importance of building proper relationships with its players and staying ahead of the market value for their stars.
Extending Gardner and Wilson were the two biggest pieces of news the Jets had all offseason. New York made it clear that two of their best players will be team members for the foreseeable future.
That is how an organization actually wins an offseason: not by signing the top free agents every year but by taking care of its best players in-house and managing a young roster.
No one knows if the Jets’ additions this offseason will work. The additions made this free agency or in the draft may simply fail.
But for a roster that has failed so much over the last few years, the Jets are acting like a much different team under Glenn and Mougey.
That has brought a different kind of positivity that has rarely been seen with the organization.
Things are different at 1 Jets Drive this year. And that’s been clear throughout the team’s offseason plan for the last few months.