If the New York Jets had to play a game tomorrow, their starting five along the offensive line would be intact following the signing of Tyron Smith at left tackle.
With Joe Douglas having reshaped the offensive line in just a handful of days, this unlocks options for the Jets’ in the upcoming draft, which includes potentially trading down from the 10th pick to acquire more draft capital.
The Jets currently hold eight total selections, but only two of them are within the top 100–picks 10 and 72. According to Tankathon, the Jets rank 27th in draft capital value and are one of only two teams – along with Carolina – to be in the bottom 10 of the NFL in this category that didn’t make the playoffs last season.
Continuing to build depth along the offensive line should still be on Douglas’ to-do list, along with finding a secondary wide receiver option to pair with Garrett Wilson. Also, safety depth and pass rush depth are two other positions that could be added to as well. Finding immediate impact players in the draft at each of those positions is a tall task with only two top-100 selections.
Now, of course, trading down from the 10th overall pick is dependent upon how the board falls and how Douglas views the prospects that are available at key positions.
For example, perhaps both Joe Alt and Taliese Fuaga are off the board and with this being a loaded offensive tackle class, which includes Daniel Jeremiah having seven of his top 22 overall prospects playing that position, maybe the Jets would choose to move down, take an offensive tackle a few picks later and acquire some additional draft capital along the way.
The same idea could be applied to the receiver position. Like offensive tackle, this is a very deep draft class at the position, and if Malik Nabers and Rome Odunze aren’t available at 10, maybe the Jets will look to move back.
To get an idea of what the Jets could acquire by trading down, let’s take a look at the 2024 trade value chart. While there are a few different models out there today, this general concept was created by Jimmy Johnson when he was the head coach of the Dallas Cowboys. The chart assigns a value to each selection in the draft to help quantify whether a trade is fair or not.
Let’s say the Raiders want to trade up from pick 13. Using the value chart as our guide, the Jets would have to give up pick 135 in addition to moving from pick 10 to 13, but could potentially acquire the Raider’s 77th overall pick, now giving the Jets two third-rounders.
If the Jets were to drop back to 15th overall in a swap with the Colts, they could possibly acquire picks 82 and 117, giving the Jets two third-round selections and three in the fourth-round, which could then be used to trade back up at some point.
Lastly, I’m not sure how willing the Jets would be to move back to 18, but for the sake of getting an idea of what they could get in return, let’s take a look. This move could get the Jets back into the second-round, landing the 49th pick overall in return from Cincinnati.
As I mentioned, whether or not this happens is dependent upon a number of variables that are currently unknown.
However, with how Douglas has addressed the offensive line in free agency, the Jets now have an immense amount of flexibility and options in regard to how they go about the draft. Considering that they still have somewhat limited draft capital, trading back from pick 10 should be one of those options.