While the average fan knows the Jets will have a tougher time on the field without Gardner and Williams, Mougey explained the negotiation process produced an offer that was simply too tempting to reject.
“Indianapolis kept getting richer and richer with their value, and eventually it was too good to pass up,” he said.
Still, even with a haul of three first-round picks — selections that carry the potential to add blue-chip talent to a roster that clearly wasn’t competitive through the first half of the 2025 season — it’s fair to wonder why the Jets signed Gardner to a deal that was scheduled to pay him an average of $30 million per year only to send him elsewhere four months later.
Such an outcome was always possible, according to Mougey, who ensured the Jets wouldn’t be burdened by such deals in the event they needed to adjust their course.
“You never know how the future is going to unfold, and we always wanted to be in a position to potentially trade these contracts … [in] case that you get into a situation where the value you think is just too good to pass up,” Mougey said. “And that happened to be the case here.”
It’s important to note that the Jets’ current regime didn’t sign Williams to his current four-year, $96 million contract. Emotionally, they were never tied to the 2019 first-round pick, and as Mougey said Tuesday, Williams’ financial outlook wasn’t a factor when deciding to trade him to Dallas. Like the Gardner deal, the Williams trade came down to return value.
Now that the deadline has passed, the GM can put down the phone and turn his attention toward roster management for the rest of the 2025 season while also preparing for a draft that has suddenly become even more important to the club’s future.