Perhaps someday we’ll look back at Nov. 4, 2025, as the day Jets general manager Darren Mougey planted the seeds of a turnaround.
That Election Day afternoon, Mougey traded two of the team’s biggest stars, Sauce Gardner and Quinnen Williams. He got a haul in return — an additional first-round pick in 2026 and two more in 2027, plus a second-round pick in 2026 and players.
It was a bold swing by the first-year GM and it became clear that day that the Jets were banking on having five first-round picks in the next two years to jump-start a turnaround for a franchise that has not been to the playoffs since 2010.
Now comes the hard part: turning picks into players and potential into production.