With reports that Murray was headed to the Minnesota Vikings and Tua Tagovailoa almost immediately signing with the Atlanta Falcons after being released, the options were dwindling fast.\u00a0 Rather than wait for their answer at quarterback to be released and losing him to another team, the Jets chose to be proactive and acquired old friend Geno Smith from the Las Vegas Raiders for a 2026 pick swap between sixth and seventh round selections.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Smith returns to the team that selected him with their second-round pick in the 2013 draft, well-traveled and more mature.\u00a0 Despite a rough 2025 season with the Raiders where he threw 17 interceptions, Geno still completed over 60% of his passes and threw for over 3,000 yards.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He makes his return to Florham Park with plenty of playmakers in the Jets offense under new offensive coordinator Frank Reich.\u00a0 Garrett Wilson will be fully healthy after missing nine games last year and Breece Hall should be back as well with both sides working on an extension.\u00a0\u00a0Tight end Mason Taylor will be looking to build off a promising rookie season and Adonai Mitchell will play a bigger role in the offense after being acquired in the Sauce Gardner trade during November’s deadline.<\/p>\n
Smith is walking into a good situation on the offensive side of the football.\u00a0 His last two years have been a little disappointing, but he\u2019s still a better quarterback than what the Jets had last season and the perfect bridge quarterback to whoever the team chooses to lead them in the future.<\/p>\n
![\"Feb](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/88919690007-usatsi-28330735.jpg\")
Mougey and Glenn\u2019s strategy out of the gate was to fix a defense that ranked second to last in sacks last season as well as a secondary that didn\u2019t force one interception against an opposing quarterback.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The secondary was immediately addressed when the Jets acquired Minkah Fitzpatrick from the Miami Dolphins and signed him to a three-year extension worth $40 million.\u00a0 Fitzpatrick has familiarity playing for new defensive coordinator Brian Duker and while his numbers dropped a little from previous years, he\u2019s only 29 and brings plenty of leadership to this unit.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Jets weren\u2019t done, adding former Giants safety Dane Belton as well as former Bears Cornerback Nahshon Wright.\u00a0 Belton is a sure tackler with 65 last year and will compete with Malachi Moore to start opposite Fitzpatrick.\u00a0 Wright has a nose for the football with eight takeaways, including five interceptions last season for Chicago.\u00a0<\/p>\n
As for the front seven, Glenn brought in veterans he\u2019s familiar with from his time in New Orleans as well as a few younger players who could have breakout seasons.\u00a0 Demario Davis returns to the Jets for his third stint with the team after signing a two-year contract.\u00a0 He’s 37 years old, but he’s been a consistently good player for his entire career and the leadership he brings will be vital to the defense. He’ll also serve as an excellent mentor to Jamien Sherwood, who struggled last year after signing a three-year extension to stay in New York.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Jets also added David Onyemata who is exceptional against the run, an area where the Jets struggled all last season.\u00a0 Onyemata was with the Atlanta Falcons last year where he finished with 42 tackles, 21 pressures and a PFF grade of 78.2, eighth among all interior defenders.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Rounding out the defensive additions are Joseph Ossai, who had five sacks and two forced fumbles last year for the Cincinnati Bengals and former Green Bay Packer Kingsley Enagbare, who is a solid run defender who had three sacks last season.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A Few Returns and A Few Losses<\/p>\n
One of the bigger questions surrounding the Jets offensive line was whether they planned to keep John Simpson or Alijah Vera-Tucker.\u00a0 Panic started to set in after not only did Simpson return to the Baltimore Ravens on a three-year contract, but Vera-Tucker decided to join the New England Patriots on a three-year deal for up to $48 million.\u00a0 There were reports that Vera-Tucker didn’t want to return and even if he did, Mougey was never going to match the contract he received from New England.<\/p>\n
The Jets didn\u2019t waste too much time replacing either lineman after signing former Raider Dylan Parham to a two-year contract.\u00a0 Parham actually graded out better last year than Simpson according to PFF and was only penalized five times last season.\u00a0 He immediately slides into Simpson\u2019s left guard spot with Joe Tippmann most likely remaining at right guard.<\/p>\n
In a bit of a surprise (and perhaps not a good one), kicker Nick Folk left the Jets to sign with Atlanta on a two-year contract.\u00a0 Folk was automatic last season, missing only one field goal and making all his extra points.\u00a0 Former Cleveland kicker Cade York was signed to replace Folk and while his numbers aren\u2019t very impressive, he\u2019ll work with Chris Banjo, who did an excellent job with the special teams last season.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Where Do The Jets Go From Here?<\/p>\n
The Jets had a strategy on how to attack free agency and they executed it very well.\u00a0 They added key veteran players familiar with Aaron Glenn and used their day three draft capital to find their starting quarterback and improve the secondary.\u00a0 They still have plenty of cap space with roughly $37 million left to spend and should see that number go up once they release Justin Fields.<\/p>\n
The big wave of free agency is over and while there is still some talent available, they\u2019ll probably wait until the NFL Draft to continue building the roster.\u00a0 They could use another veteran wide receiver and San Francisco\u2019s Jauan Jennings and Houston\u2019s Christian Kirk are still available.\u00a0 But Mougey is not going to overspend at this point of free agency and will wait for the price to come down before adding another player.<\/p>\n
It was an impressive first week of free agency for the Jets as the roster looks vastly improved on paper compared to last season. \u00a0Only time will tell if the Jets will be a better team on Gameday.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"March 19, 2026, 7:45 a.m. ET The new 2026 league year is officially underway in the NFL, and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":168197,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[679,9,11,10,1673,1674,948,68965,64810,68963,64782,7313,68966,68964,65582,950,932,12216,1328,949,682],"class_list":["post-168196","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-accessfree","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-sstssportsnfljets","tag-sstsnjets","tag-tagamerican-football","tag-tagcade-york","tag-tagdavid-onyemata","tag-tagdemario-davis","tag-taggeno-smith","tag-tagjamien-sherwood","tag-tagjoseph-ossai","tag-tagminkah-fitzpatrick","tag-tagnahshon-wright","tag-tagnational-sports","tag-tagnfl","tag-tagnick-folk","tag-tagoverall-positive","tag-tagsports-news","tag-typestory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168196","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168196"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168196\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/168197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}