While the average fan knows the Jets will have a tougher time on the field without Gardner and Williams, Mougey explained that the negotiation process created an offer that was simply too tempting to turn down.
“Indianapolis got richer and richer with their value, and eventually it was too good to pass up,” he said.
Still, even with three first-round picks — a pick that has the potential to add some talented talent to a roster that clearly wasn’t competitive in the first half of the 2025 season — it’s fair to wonder why the Jets gave Gardner a deal that was supposed to pay him an average of $30 million a year only to send him elsewhere four months later.
Such an outcome was always possible, according to Mougey, who ensured the Jets would not be burdened by such agreements if they had to change their course.
“You never know how the future is going to play out and we always wanted to be in a position to trade these deals… [in] cases where you find yourself in a situation where the value you think is just too good to pass up,” Mougey said. “And that was the case here.”
It’s important to note that the current Jets management did not sign Williams to his current four-year, $96 million deal. Emotionally, they were never committed to the 2019 first-round pick, and as Mougey said Tuesday, Williams’ financial outlook was not a factor in the decision to trade him to Dallas. Like the Gardner deal, the Williams trade came down to delivering value.
Now that the deadline has passed, the GM can put down the phone and turn his attention to roster management for the rest of the 2025 season while preparing for a draft that has suddenly become even more important to the club’s future.