The Athletic: Quietly, methodically, Jets GM Darren Mougey is having a moment

Quietly, methodically, Jets GM Darren Mougey is having a moment
By Zack Rosenblatt

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7127047/2026/03/18/darren-mougey-jets-gm-free-agency-trades/

The job of an NFL general manager is a practice in clairvoyance. That’s how Darren Mougey sees it, at least. He works to make decisions with foresight, not hindsight — to accurately predict which way the wind will blow.

Early last season, Mougey was already doing work on the 2026 free-agency class. He met weekly with his scouting and pro personnel staff in the days and weeks leading to November’s trade deadline. His process involved stacking up Jets players in terms of how he viewed their trade value relative to other players around the league — and what the minimum price would be if he were to entertain trade offers for anyone, even stars such as Sauce Gardner and Quinnen Williams.

Part of that process involved looking ahead, too; how will those players be valued in the offseason compared to now? So, that meant looking ahead to free agency, to figure out things such as where Alijah Vera-Tucker and John Simpson, both impending free agents, stacked up with other interior offensive linemen set to hit free agency.

Mougey’s approach can be better understood by looking at what the Jets have done — and not done — when it comes to the wide receiver position. The Jets haven’t added one yet this offseason, but that was always the likely plan, dating as far back as those trade-deadline discussions when Mougey was already drawing up his offseason plan at the position. He looked forward, and backward. He studied how much top receivers earned in past free-agency classes and how those signings panned out. The returns, he felt, were mostly a net negative considering the price. Last offseason, the Patriots signed Stefon Diggs to a huge contract ($63.5 million) and then cut him after a year. The Giants signed Darius Slayton for $36 million over three years and that already looks like a mistake. Even the receiver contracts at the middle of the market mostly failed: the Bills giving Josh Palmer $29 million over three years, or the Jaguars handing $10 million to Dyami Brown, two players the Jets had some level of interest in last offseason until their prices got too high for Mougey’s liking.

Remember in 2023 when the Jets made Allen Lazard the highest-paid free-agent wide receiver? Or when the Giants paid Kenny Golladay in 2021?

At one point during Mougey’s process of evaluation during the season, the Jets were intrigued at the idea of adding Colts wideout Alec Pierce down the line, but even then Mougey knew he’d probably wind up out of their price range once free agency started. During the season, he projected Pierce for around $20 million per season, which was already too much for the Jets’ liking — and the Colts wound up paying Pierce $28.5 million per season to return to Indianapolis.

Mougey was dead set on not making the mistake many GMs do at wide receiver in free agency, which helps to explain why he insisted the Colts include Adonai Mitchell in the Gardner trade last November, and for the Eagles to include John Metchie in the Michael Carter II deal. That was Mougey kicking the tires on two young players on low-cost contracts, at a position that can get pricey in free agency. Metchie didn’t show enough to stick around (he’s since signed with the Panthers) but Mitchell did. He’s a potential starting wideout under contract for a $1.4 million cap hit this year and $1.8 million in 2027.

The Jets still need at least one more wide receiver, if not two, but Mougey went into the offseason knowing he had four picks in the first 44 selections of the NFL Draft. The Jets also continue to explore the trade market at the position to look for value.

That’s been his approach all offseason — finding value between the margins, never overpaying someone so much it hurts the bottom line. That’s the best way to explain how the Jets operated in free agency and how Mougey operates on the trade market. While the Jets are rebuilding, and beyond, it’s all about finding value.

It hasn’t amounted to wins yet, but it is a winning approach.

Mougey’s meticulous approach to roster-building doesn’t come as a surprise to anyone who knew him when he was a high school and college quarterback in Arizona and at San Diego State, and as he worked his way up through the Denver Broncos’ organization over the course of 12 years.

When his playing days ended after failed attempts at making the Falcons’ and Cardinals’ rosters, he coached at his old school — Chaparral High School in Scottsdale, Ariz. — working with wide receivers and tight ends. He was known to work late watching film. Charlie Ragle, Chaparral’s head coach at the time, called him a “grinder” and a “diligent worker.” That word comes up a lot: diligent.

“Even looking back at like grade school and high school, you get a book report assigned, you know, and the due date is a month away,” said John Peel, Mougey’s longtime friend and a high school teammate. “Most of us are scrambling at midnight the night before it’s due. In the first week of a book report, he’s already got the thing done. That’s how proactive Darren is and how ahead of everything he’s always been — that’s who he is. He’s the most well-prepared human on the planet.”

Through those 12 years in the Broncos’ organization, Mougey worked in both the scouting and personnel departments and rose to become George Paton’s assistant general manager from 2022 to 2024 — a stretch when, Paton said last year, Mougey was “instrumental” in everything the Broncos did. Paton called Mougey his “go-to guy for everything. He was part of every decision we made.”

 

Mougey was in the Broncos’ organization long enough to witness a Super Bowl win and loss, an eight-year playoff drought, five head-coach firings and three failed quarterback draft picks in the first two rounds (Brock Osweiler, Paxton Lynch, Drew Lock). He was there when the Broncos traded for Russell Wilson, when they cut him and incurred an $85 million dead-money cap hit, and when they responded by successfully drafting his replacement (Bo Nix) in the first round in 2024. Mougey’s witnessed all phases of rebuilds, failures and success.
Mougey brought all of that into his interview with the Jets, the first (and only) team he interviewed with for a general manager job. The Jets’ search committee was impressed by his acumen, his assuredness and his plan. The Jets almost went down a different path initially (Lance Newmark), but after Aaron Glenn was hired as the head coach the Jets dug back in, brought Mougey back for a second interview, and he won Glenn over, too.

Jets owner Woody Johnson referred to Mougey as Glenn’s “sidekick” at their introductory news conference, and Glenn still wields significant power, but the truth is it’s a partnership, a true collaboration (contrary to what Mike Francesa would have you believe) — and by all accounts, the two complement each other well. Glenn is involved in every decision the Jets make with the roster and pushed this offseason to sign players he was familiar with, and Mougey was involved in Glenn’s process for hiring new coaches this offseason.

“To be able to have this marriage with a GM like that is probably one of the best things you can have as a head coach,” Glenn said on the Jets’ official team podcast in February. “We see it exactly alike. We understand the fire we go through when it comes to criticism, and we just put our heads down and keep moving forward. That’s what I love about him. He has that competitive fire just like I do. He wants to win just as bad as I do. He understands it’s going to take both of us to get this together and we’re going to make sure we get that done.”

As the Jets looked at potential quarterbacks to add this offseason, Mougey leaned on new offensive coordinator Frank Reich, a longtime NFL quarterback himself with nearly 20 years of professional coaching experience. When Reich arrived, Mougey laid out the quarterback landscape to Reich and what their thinking was. Reich brought his own opinions, his own connections, and Mougey checked in with him constantly throughout the process — and they eventually landed on Geno Smith as their best option, a quarterback the Jets actually looked into last year when the Seahawks were looking to trade him. Instead they settled on Justin Fields, a $40 million free-agent signing that wound up not working out. And yet, there Mougey was Monday, finding a trade partner for Fields, a quarterback he was eventually going to release anyway — getting not only a draft pick (2027 sixth-round selection) in return, but also more cap savings than the Jets would’ve received had they simply released Fields.

Yes, the Jets will carry dead-cap hits of $35 million (for Aaron Rodgers) and $19 million (for Fields) in 2026 while they play for other teams. But on the flip side — the value side — they will pay Smith only $3.3 million this season to be their starting quarterback. Which, it turns out, is about the same amount of money the Jets will be saving from that Fields trade with the Chiefs.

At this point, call him Trader Darren.

Since last year, Mougey has conducted 12 trades involving a player (excluding ones that involve only draft picks). The two biggest deals sent Gardner and Williams away and netted the Jets three first-round picks, one second-round pick, Mitchell and defensive tackle Mazi Smith. Not counting Mitchell, Mougey has also acquired six starting-caliber players — Smith, safety Minkah Fitzpatrick, defensive tackle Harrison Phillips, defensive tackle Jowon Briggs, defensive tackle T’Vondre Sweat and cornerback Jarvis Brownlee — without ever trading more than a sixth- or seventh-round pick.

The exception: When the Jets traded defensive end Jermaine Johnson II to the Titans for Sweat. Johnson no longer fit the Jets’ defensive scheme and was entering the last year of his contract — the Jets had no intention of signing him to a long-term deal. So, Mougey flipped him for Sweat, a promising 24-year-old nose tackle under team control for the next two seasons at $1.6 million and $2.1 million cap hits.

Mougey's work between the margins dates to August, when he saw a roster weakness — defensive tackle — and fixed it through two shrewd moves in one day: trading two sixth-round picks for Phillips, a veteran starter; and trading another sixth-round pick for Briggs and a seventh. Both Briggs ($1.075 million) and Phillips ($7.5 million) will be key pieces in 2026 at minimal cost. Mougey also traded a sixth-round pick to the Titans for Brownlee, a young, talented nickel cornerback under team control through 2027.

This offseason, the Jets wanted Geno Smith at quarterback and Fitzpatrick at safety. Rather than let the Raiders or Dolphins, respectively, release them and risk losing them to another team, Mougey instead traded Day 3 picks for them. He sent a 2026 seventh-round pick to the Dolphins for Fitzpatrick and sent a 2026 sixth-round pick to the Raiders for Smith and a seventh-round pick. He recouped a sixth in the Fields trade — it's in the 2027 draft, but that class is considered much deeper.

The plan heading into free agency was to add veterans and leadership, to raise the floor for a team that won three games last season and ended on a historically bad five-game losing streak. The Jets might not be a playoff team in 2026, but Mougey and Glenn put them in better position to compete this year and, in theory, make it to 2027, when they've put together a treasure trove of assets and flexibility. Fitzpatrick, linebacker Demario Davis and defensive tackle David Onyemata bring some level of professionalism, experience and talent to a defense that needs it.

"I think when you bring in guys like that into a football program, I think there's a level of calm and a level of discipline and not being scared of the unknown," Fitzpatrick said. "That's extremely important because when things go bad, people want to press the red button and completely change how to do things."

The Jets let Simpson and Vera-Tucker walk and signed a younger, cheaper replacement (Dylan Parham) with plenty of starting experience. They added two young edge rushers (Joseph Ossai, Kingsley Enagbare) who should make that position group instantly better, and they loaded up on starting-caliber safeties (Fitzpatrick, Dane Belton, re-signing Andre Cisco) to fix a weakness. The Jets intercepted zero passes last season — free-agent signee Nahshon Wright, a cornerback, had five for the Bears, and signed for just $3.5 million.

In total, the Jets have spent around $90 million in free agency, according to Over the Cap, and only two of those contracts (two years for Davis, three for Ossai) are for more than one season. In 2027, the Jets own three first-round picks, their own second-, third-, fourth- and fifth-round picks, plus a couple of sixth-round picks. Per Over the Cap, the Jets are currently projected for $160 million in cap space in 2027, the second most in the NFL.

The final judgment on Mougey, and Glenn, won’t come until — or unless — they find the right quarterback. They need to win more than three games in 2026. Mougey needs to ace this upcoming draft and, if he gets there, the next one, too.

There's something to be said for not rushing it, something the Jets' organization has done many times (sometimes pushed by Johnson) over many rebuilds — all of them failed. The Glenn-Mougey pairing might work out, it might not, but at least the Jets seem to have found a general manager who won't skip any steps.

 

To be fair, any GM in this league has accomplished something in their career to be chosen to be the GM. Somehow Moug seems like a feel good story you know. Coming from bottom of the ranks with his meticulous approach, gaining trust of his subordinates, doing well with trades etc. Most importantly, he is not a flashy, look at me type of guy. So for real, I have high hopes out of him.