Jets Hoping To Unearth Hidden Gems With Free Agency Signings
The Jets Facebook page posted a photo on Friday of Andre Cisco signing his free agent contract under the caption “The hometown kid is officially a Jet!”
Except the social media team neglected to tag the team’s new safety in the photo. So while half the comments were congratulatory well wishes, the other half, as you can imagine, leaped at the trolling opportunity. “Who is this guy?”, led the chorus.
Get used to it, because this promises to be a year where Jets fans won’t be able to tell many of the players apart without a scorecard, like a veritable “Who’s at defensive tackle, what’s the tight end, and I don’t know is the right tackle,” to repurpose the legendary Abbott and Costello baseball routine. The free agents New York signed during the first week of free agency are the proverbial misfit toys, with quarterback Justin Fields the most widely-known acquisition—and not for good reasons.
Which is exactly how the new regime led by General Manager Darren Mougey and Head Coach Aaron Glenn should have approached this market. While it’s way too soon to wonder whether this team should be all in on a tank for a top quarterback in the supposedly superior 2026 NFL Draft class, what my son Jack calls a “March for Arch” Manning, the Texas QB, the organization required a hard reality check.
The first step, recognizing that the franchise isn’t a plug-in free agent or three away from glory, is always the toughest to sell. The fan base has become used to the Jets “winning” offseasons. You know, to take the edge off the distasteful performances on the actual football fields that preceded them. Many then yearn for their fix of splash signings, even if those big-name players tend to be at high risk of injury or are already washed.
Such a process has yielded exactly zero playoff appearances—and just one winning season--since 2010. This is the year to try something else, like saving the cap space to re-sign their homegrown core. (Note: The 3-year, $45 million contract to retain linebacker Jamien Sherwood looks overly rich at the moment, but I get the organization’s motivation. Now let’s see them extend wide receiver Garrett Wilson and cornerback Sauce Gardner before their demands go further into the stratosphere.)
Obviously, the Mougey/Glenn prior pronouncements that this is a “win-now” team is merely aspirational. No one should expect the Jets to suddenly be good after a 5-12 campaign with Aaron Rodgers at quarterback. The statement’s true meaning should instead be interpreted as the organization is immediately taking steps to develop a winning operation, even if game results won’t reflect NFL scoreboard success for another season or two.
That’s why nearly all of the signings, from Fields to Cisco to guys like cornerback Brnadon Stephens, center Josh Myers tackle Chukwuma Okorafor, tight end Stone Smartt, defensive tackles Byron Cowart and Jay Tufele, and edge rusher Rashad Weaver all fit the same profile: 25-28 years old, once highly-regarded, and coming off down or nonproductive years. In some cases, VERY down years. (Note: As I’m editing this, the Jets reportedly added wide receiver Tyler Johnson and cornerback Kris Boyd, two more under-the-radar players in the same age range as those above, to presumably low-cost, short-commitment deals.)
Okorafor started for New England on opening day, got mauled by Cincinnati, benched himself after 12 plays, and walked away from the team. It doesn’t get any more down than that.
However, Okorafor was a Steelers 2018 third-round pick and had some decent seasons playing right tackle (the Patriots had him on the left side). Details of the new contract have not been released, but one should assume that it’s a one-year, show-me deal for minimal money (though with the Jets, I guess one should never assume). It’s going to be a test for the fresh coaching staff to get him back to competency. And if they can’t, it’s an easy bait to cut.
Cisco, Myers, Smartt, Cowart, Tufele, and Weaver are also all on 1-year contracts, with Cisco the only one reported with earning an eight-figure top number, and that’s because he registered seven interceptions from 2022-23 with Jacksonville. The former Packer Myers will hopefully prove to be an upgrade in the interior offensive line depth while Smartt showed some intriguing flashes as a pass receiver while with the Chargers. Weaver had 5.5 sacks for Tennessee in 2022; ESPN’s Rich Cimini called him a “low-risk reclamation project”, which I believe applies to the Jets’ whole free agent class.
The only contract that I felt was potentially awful was to Stephens, a 2021 third-rounder who was toasted in Baltimore last season to the tune of 806 passing yards allowed, the second-most among all cornerbacks, per ProFootballFocus.com. Three years for $36 million, with $23 million guaranteed, seems like a wild overpay for a guy who has a history of trouble playing balls in the air.
Then again, that was once a charge thrown at Glenn in his first two seasons after his first-round selection by the Jets, when he totaled one interception in 31 games. A few years later, he was coached by Bill Parcells and went to the first of three Pro Bowls.
Coaching does matter, perhaps more so in football than in any other sport. Preparing players to perform properly can offset talent discrepancies, thereby reducing the temptation to throw money at the problem. Don’t fans ever wonder why they have gotten used to seeing the Jets’ trash contribute to other teams while the highly-paid guys they bring in often underachieve? Have they forgotten that some of their prior GM’s best moves came about by shopping in the bargain bins?
Give me the young and the hungry to fill out the depth chart and then coach them to step up when called upon. Ideally, you want these guys to be your own Draft picks, but when those have the Jets’ historical bust rate, this is what you do.
I’m not saying that any of the above flyers are going to develop into a special player, but this digging for hidden treasure process is a sound one for this team at this stage. Maybe we’ll at least know a few of their names by the end of the year. And if the new staff can’t coach them up, they probably would have failed if given the more expensive options too.