NFL trade deadline: Jets have NFL’s longest playoff drought, which just got longer but might be worth it

The most powerful team in the NFL has a 1-7 record and hasn’t been to the playoffs in 14 years, which is not only the league’s longest drought but also tied for the longest active postseason drought in any of the four major professional American sports.

That’s right — after a trade-deadline-day teardown of epic and historic proportions, the New York Jets have the chance to control what the future holds for the next two offseasons in the NFL.

First-year general manager Darren Mougey made seismic moves Tuesday, trading cornerback Sauce Gardner to the Colts and defensive lineman Quinnen Williams to the Cowboys. The Jets received two first-round picks and wide receiver Adonai Mitchell from Indianapolis, and first- and second-round picks — as well as defensive lineman Mazi Smith — from Dallas.

Gardner, 25, is one of three players to be on the All-Pro First Team each of his first two NFL seasons. The Jets rightfully viewed him as a cornerstone of the franchise just four months ago when they made him the NFL’s highest-paid cornerback with a four-year, $120.4 million contract extension.

Williams, 27, who has made each of the last three Pro Bowls, also seemed to be part of that formula. His contract runs through 2027.

The Jets had to get appropriate return for these players, and they did. It’s the first time this millennium that a team has made multiple in-season trades for first-round picks. New York now has two 2026 first-rounders, two 2026 second-rounders and three 2027 first-rounders.

There’s plenty of chatter already about what New York could do with that haul. Quarterback is atop the list after Justin Fields has become the latest in a series of experiments that didn’t work.

Restocking the defense — which was near the bottom of the league even before these trades and also struggled last year — will be a major priority, too. The same will be said for filling skill position players beyond Garrett Wilson, whom the Jets were reportedly resolute in not trading.

Perhaps that’s the greatest advantage, though. The Jets are a blank slate. They don’t have to address one position or another. If they’re not satisfied with what’s available to them at quarterback in the 2026 draft — where they could pick first — they don’t have to go with one. They can build in the trenches or in the secondary or at wide receiver or … anywhere. They could bring in a bridge quarterback and refocus on 2027.

And my goodness, what a loaded 2027 class it is. The names there are enough to pique the interested of even the most curmudgeonly — and they have plenty of reasons to be curmudgeonly — Jets fan. Wide receivers Jeremiah Smith (Ohio State) and Ryan Williams (Alabama). Edge rushers Dylan Stewart (South Carolina) and Colin Simmons (Texas). Maybe suddenly resurgent Texas quarterback Arch Manning, gets there, too.

Again, the excitement shouldn’t be focusing on whom, exactly, the Jets will draft, but the simple fact that they’ll have ample opportunities to choose a direction here. The world is their oyster. Adding to their power is an important note: The 2027 first-round pick acquired from Dallas is the better of the Cowboys’ own 2027 selection, and the one it acquired from the Packers in the Micah Parsons deal.

There’s a real chance that it’s a top-half-of-the-first-round pick. This is a seemingly minor detail that could be a major difference. It’s an NBA-esque trade where the “first-round pick” notation requires much more detail.

Returning to the curmudgeonly Jets fan, they may point out that this has happened before. In fact, the Jets are the most recent team to make five picks in a two-year span, doing so in 2021-22.

That stretch is looked at as a failure because they missed on Zach Wilson, but they also hit on Gardner, Wilson and potentially still Jermaine Johnson II.

“The Jets are doomed to repeat mistakes forever and ever until the end of time,” our hypothetical Jets fan says.

That’s wrong. The Jets of today and tomorrow aren’t doomed to make the mistakes of the Jets of yesterday simply because of the name on the front of the jersey. If that were true, no bad team would ever get better.

Mougey deserves some leash, benefit of the doubt and perhaps even credit — I know that’s hard to grasp, Jets fans — for his savvy moves. If the Jets stand pat with their five first-round picks — again, a big “if” considering how many paths they could take — it will be the 13th time since the merger that a team makes five first-round picks in a two-year span. The Dolphins, Raiders and Browns also did it in the past decade, and all three made the postseason shortly thereafter. Cleveland even ended a playoff drought longer than the Jets’ current one.

The blueprint would be the 1991-92 Cowboys, who added foundational pieces to their 1990s dynasty in first-round picks Russell Maryland, Alvin Harper, Kevin Smith and Robert Jones and second-rounder Darren Woodson.

In all likelihood, the Jets will fall somewhere in between. There will be hits, and there will be misses. Where they can’t miss is quarterback. The “With great power comes great responsibility” quote applies here. Mougey, coach Aaron Glenn and the rest of the Jets have great power. They also have great responsibility to get it right.

At least they’re giving themselves a legitimate chance. The Jets asking for more patience when they already own the NFL’s longest active playoff drought is difficult but necessary. The days of trying to make Fields work or acceding to Aaron Rodgers‘ every wish — impatient, one-foot-in, one-foot-out moves that put the Jets in this spot in the first place — or hoping for Sam Darnold or Wilson to be the franchise savior amid hopeless conditions are over.

The board has been wiped clean. There are no excuses, and there can be no looking back. Trades like these don’t happen without an owner’s permission, either; Woody Johnson seemingly being on board and in line with the patient approach is massively important, too.

New York can transform its organization. It can select a highly drafted quarterback and provide a viable ecosystem around him. It can replenish a defense badly in need of talent all over. It can bring in veterans to help: New York is projected to have the third-most salary cap this offseason. All of these things weren’t possible before Tuesday’s deadline deals.

The teardown is near complete. The rebuild can begin in earnest. The Jets’ playoff drought will continue this year. Maybe it’s not over next year or the year after.

But the Jets are finally doing things the right way, finally trying to build a team from the ground up rather than plugging in holes here or there. For an impatient franchise and fan base, patience isn’t easy. But it might just be worth it.