Darren Mougey just pulled off another Jets masterstroke with Minkah Fitzpatrick trade

The jury might still be out on how New York Jets general manager Darren Mougey performs in the draft and in free agency, but one thing has become clear. The man knows how to pull some strings when it comes to working the trade market.

The trade deadline blockbusters ended up getting most of the sizzle as Mougey sold off assets to better position the team for the future. But now, trading for superstar safety Minkah Fitzpatrick, the even more impressive part of how he works the trade market is coming into focus again.

Fitzpatrick was PFF's seventh-highest graded safety in 2025. He's been one of the best safeties in the league and a turnover machine for many years. To get him for a seventh-round pick is a steal. To get him from a divisional rival for such a low cost is insane.

Safety has long been a sore spot for the Jets, and now Fitzpatrick represents the best they've had at the position since Jamal Adams. Maybe longer, because unlike Adams, Fitzpatrick can actually cover.

In the grand scheme of things, this shows us something about the way Mougey thinks about team building. The 29-year-old might be the biggest star he's acquired via trade, but he's now made a habit of trading his late-round picks for starting-caliber players. It could pay huge dividends.

Darren Mougey is proving to be a master at navigating the trade market, yielding several solid starters for next to nothing

Once might have been a fluke. Twice, you can't be sure. But now this is the fourth time Mougey has leveraged late-round picks to acquire quality starters.

In the lead-up to the 2025 season opener, Gang Green was in need of reinforcements in the middle of the defensive line. Byron Cowart had gotten hurt, and the depth next to Quinnen Williams was thin. Mougey went out and struck deals for Harrison Phillips and Jowon Briggs to fill the void.

For Phillips, a rock-solid starter who does the dirty things on the defensive line, he swapped two sixth-round picks in exchange for the veteran defensive tackle and a 2027 seventh. For Briggs, he sent a 2026 sixth-rounder to Cleveland for the then-second-year lineman and a 2026 seventh-rounder.

Phillips continued his steady play for New York, while Briggs ascended to a full-time starter following the deal that shipped Quinnen Williams to the Dallas Cowboys. He'd finish the year graded as the 17th-best defensive tackle by PFF and posted an 85.6 pass rushing grade, good for fourth-best at the position.

In season, Mougey went back to the same formula at the end of September, giving up a sixth to get back Jarvis Brownlee and a seventh. Brownlee would end up getting hurt and missing the final six weeks of the season, but in his time in New York, he's shown that he could be a potential solution as the slot corner.

Fitzpatrick is just the latest feather in his cap, and he likely won't be the last one. The difference here is that the former Miami Dolphins standout is an established superstar, whereas the others were role players who either maintained the same level of play or improved upon their arrivals in the Big Apple.

Either way, it's a ridiculously cost-effective way to build out a roster, and one that proves the second-year general manager has a very good grasp of how to read the trade market and will use it to fill important holes at low costs.