Day 1 of NFL free agency is in the books, and the New York Jets were among the league’s most active teams. Six players are in, and four former Jets are out.
But after going 3-14 with a -203 point differential, the Jets aren’t even close to done. Many holes are still waiting to be filled, including a few that opened up with Monday’s free agency losses.
Here are three must-have targets for the Jets as we enter Day 2 of free agency.
Packers IOL Elgton Jenkins
The Packers released two-time Pro Bowl interior offensive lineman Elgton Jenkins on Monday, clearing $19.5 million in cap space. Jenkins is 30 years old and coming off a season-ending lower leg fracture in Week 9 of the 2025 season, so the release is understandable from Green Bay’s perspective.
However, Jenkins still projects as a quality starter for another team, assuming he is fully healthy in time for the 2026 season.
One of the sport’s premier interior pass-blockers of the past decade, Jenkins was still thriving before his injury in 2025. He finished the season with a 72.5 pass-blocking grade at Pro Football Focus, fourth-best among 34 qualified centers (min. 500 offensive snaps).
In 2024, Jenkins played left guard for the Packers, and he led all NFL guards with an 83.1 pass-blocking grade.
What makes Jenkins particularly appealing for the Jets is his versatility across the two weakest spots on New York’s offensive line.
The Jets have a vacancy at left guard after losing John Simpson to the Baltimore Ravens, while their projected starting center, Josh Myers, is a weak link. Jenkins has ample experience at both spots, logging 4,161 career snaps at left guard and 906 snaps at center, with over half of his snaps at center coming in 2025.
On the wrong side of 30 and coming off a significant injury, Jenkins can be had on the cheap, allowing New York to buy low on a versatile and talented lineman who can compete for two different spots in the starting lineup.
K Jason Sanders
The Jets questionably allowed Nick Folk to walk to the Atlanta Falcons for a modest two-year, $9 million deal with just $4 million guaranteed, which is only the 14th-ranked guaranteed total among kickers.
Perhaps Folk was intent on leaving for a more favorable kicking climate at 41 years old. We have no idea how things went down. However, Folk seemed to love New York. It would be mildly shocking to hear that the Jets did not match or exceed that offer for a player who made one mistake in 17 games last season.
It leaves the Jets searching for a replacement who can come anywhere close to Folk’s league-leading 96.6% field goal percentage and perfect 100% performance on extra points.
Well, after taking Miami’s best defensive back in Minkah Fitzpatrick, why not take it a step further and steal their kicker, too?
Jason Sanders was recently released by the Dolphins after eight years with the team. He missed the entire 2025 season with a hip injury.
Prior to that, though, Sanders was one of the league’s best kickers. In 2024, he not only made an impressive 90.2% of his field goal attempts on a high volume (37 for 41), but he was incredible from long distance, canning 12 of his 14 attempts from 50+ yards.
A first-team All-Pro in 2020 (highlighted by an 8 for 9 performance from 50+ yards), Sanders has a high ceiling. He’s had his ups and downs, as the 2020 All-Pro season was followed by a 74.2% conversion rate in 2021, but at his best, he is one of the league’s best long-distance kickers. The main question is his health.
If the Jets feel good about that, they should buy low on a 30-year-old kicker who can be their answer for a decade, potentially halting the kicking carousel that has overshadowed the franchise for too long.
WR Brian Thomas Jr. (Trade)
The free agent wide receiver market was already uninspiring to start. Now that most of the top options are off the board, each resetting the market with contracts that vastly exceeded all projections, there aren’t many players left who would appeal to even the most receiver-needy teams.
There are fascinating players available, like Jauan Jennings and Romeo Doubs. But in a world where Jalen Nailor (444 yards) earned $11.7 million per year, Rashid Shaheed (687 yards) earned $17 million per year, and Alec Pierce (1,003 yards) earned $28.5 million per year, this does not feel like a market that the Jets’ value-conscious general manager, Darren Mougey, would want to touch.
Jennings (643 yards/9 TD) and Doubs (724 yards/6 TD) will likely earn well north of $20 million per year. Yes, they would certainly be upgrades for the Jets, but New York’s general manager has yet to sign a non-quarterback outside free agent to a contract worth more than $12 million per year across his two offseasons at the helm (if you toss in the Minkah Fitzpatrick trade-and-sign, the ceiling rises slightly to $13.3 million). Would he really soar far beyond that number to sign a non-superstar wideout like Jennings or Doubs?
That leaves New York scouring the trade market. Parting ways with a draft pick might be worthwhile for the Jets if they can land a better combination of talent and value than they would by overpaying for one of the players left on the open market.
Jacksonville Jaguars wideout Brian Thomas Jr. has been reported as a player that the Jets are interested in.
A 2024 first-round pick, Thomas still has two years and a fifth-year option remaining on his rookie deal, making him an affordable player to acquire.
Thomas’ rookie season had him on a superstar trajectory. In 2024 (17 games), Thomas caught 87 passes for 1,282 yards and 10 touchdowns despite struggles at the quarterback position.
Strangely, Thomas fell off the map in 2025. Even with quarterback Trevor Lawrence playing much better football, Thomas stooped to 48 receptions for 707 yards and two touchdowns (14 games). He struggled to find a niche in head coach Liam Coen’s offense, even being usurped by mid-season trade pickup Jakobi Meyers.
Jacksonville signed Meyers to a three-year, $60 million extension before the season concluded, showing their commitment to him as a long-term focal point of the offense. Even Parker Washington, a 2023 sixth-round pick who played a minimal role in 2024, finished ahead of Thomas in receptions, yards, and touchdowns.
With the Jaguars also having 2025 first-round pick Travis Hunter in the mix, Thomas feels like the odd man out. It provides other teams with a golden opportunity to buy low on an extremely talented player and see if he can return to his rookie-year peak with a change of scenery.
For the Jets, given their need at wide receiver and the unappealing makeup of the free agent market, tossing a draft pick to Jacksonville for a flier on Thomas makes all the sense in the world.
