On Sunday, Aaron Glenn’s New York Jets faced off against the Cleveland Browns only days after the team shockingly traded its defensive stars and began its long-term rebuild.
At the trading deadline on Tuesday, the Jets amassed draft picks to construct its future by moving former first round draft picks Sauce Gardner and Quinnen Williams to the Colts and Cowboys, respectively.
While it’s not “The Purge” former Jets GM Mike Maccagnan put head coach Todd Bowles through after the 2015 season by releasing a slew of veterans and drafting poorly, the trades made by GM Darren Mougey signaled the reality of where the team is and what they have to do to get to where they want to be.
The Jets’ trades netted them three additional first-round picks and one second-round pick in the next two drafts, which means the team now has eight total picks in the first two rounds in the 2026 and 2027 NFL Drafts.
The moves also mean that this season is a non-playoff one (again) and scouts will be logging many, many miles traveling to college football games across the country this year.
But most significantly, the trades present an opportunity for head coach Aaron Glenn to actually construct a team through the draft, a chance rarely afforded to Black head coaches in the NFL.
While some Black coaches, like Tony Dungy and Mike Tomlin, were given the time and chance to build and develop a team, many others were placed in the “clean-up” role where they stewarded the ship until another (white) coach replaced him and was bestowed with the chance denied to his predecessor.
Oftentimes, those Black coaches were denied the chance to draft and develop star players, especially quarterbacks.
Glenn, as it stands right now, appears to have been given this chance despite his team being 2-7 after Sunday’s win over Cleveland.
