Jets just blew it all up with jaw-dropping Quinnen Williams trade fleece

The New York Jets didn’t just shake up the NFL on Tuesday. They detonated it. In one surreal afternoon, the team traded away both of its franchise pillars, sending Sauce Gardner to the Colts and Quinnen Williams to the Cowboys in back-to-back blockbusters that no one saw coming.

Within hours, two of the league’s premier defenders, both homegrown, both All-Pros in their prime, were gone. First Gardner, now Williams. It's a full-on fire sale tank job that has somehow netted the Jets five first-round picks over the next two years.

These are moves that almost feel impossible to comprehend. Gardner and Williams were supposed to be the cornerstones of Aaron Glenn’s rebuild, the untouchables you build around, not the ones you cash in.

Instead, the Jets now own a mountain of future capital — five first-round picks over the next two years, plus multiple seconds — positioning them to finally swing big on a quarterback.

Jets complete fire sale with shocking Quinnen Williams trade

And somehow, the Williams deal might go down as one of the more lopsided trades in recent memory — in favor of the Jets. The Jets received a haul no one thought was possible for a player with just $5 million in guarantees remaining on his contract and due for a massive new deal this offseason.

Most around the league believed the best they could hope for was a second-rounder. Instead, they landed the higher of the Cowboys’ two 2027 first-round picks — Dallas’ own or Green Bay’s, acquired in the Micah Parsons trade — plus a 2026 second-round pick and former first-round defensive tackle Mazi Smith, a 2023 first-rounder who never found his footing in Dallas.

It’s an extraordinary return for a player who was nearing the end of his deal, and it suggests the Jets’ front office, led by general manager Darren Mougey, might be operating with a much longer-term vision than anyone realized. The Williams trade is about maximizing every asset before a massive reset at quarterback.

With Gardner and Williams gone, the Jets have effectively turned two foundational pieces into future building blocks. Whether this is the start of a genius rebuild or an all-time implosion depends entirely on what they do next.

One thing, however, is clear — this isn’t your typical midseason retool. This is a franchise ripping off the bandage, burning it down, and daring everyone to doubt the plan. Welcome to the Darren Mougey era.