NY Jets’ free agency moves reveal exactly what Darren Mougey is building

NFL free agency is in full swing, and over the last week, the New York Jets have made a handful of moves on offense and defense. For Darren Mougey and Aaron Glenn, this past week has been their first opportunity to build up this roster for 2025 and beyond.

After making two big moves in signing Justin Fields and re-signing Jamien Sherwood to start free agency, Mougey and the Jets have since taken a conservative approach.

Even with the signing of Fields and re-signing of Sherwood, New York has followed one common theme this entire first week of free agency. Mougey and Glenn are looking for young players with upside, which differs from what the previous regime tried last offseason.

The NY Jets are adding young players with upside

During the 2024 offseason, Joe Douglas and the previous Jets regime tried to run it back with Aaron Rodgers one more time, which resulted in a handful of all-in moves.

New York signed two big-name veterans, Tyron Smith and Mike Williams, and traded for Haason Reddick. Not only did these moves fail for the Jets, but they were also additions where New York was relying too much on the resume of these players instead of their potential.

At the time of these moves, Smith, Williams, and Reddick were an average age of 30 years old and played a combined 27 seasons. Jets fans also can't forget about trading for Davante Adams in a desperate move to try and save the season when the team was 2-4.

Through one week of free agency this year, Mougey and Glenn have done the complete opposite of what took place at Florham Park this time last year. While this shouldn't come as much of a surprise given the different set of circumstances that this team finds itself in, this approach is still noteworthy.

The Jets' 10 new free agent additions that have been signed through the first week so far are an average age of 26 years old. Six of the ten signings are also members of the 2021 draft class. The five re-signings that the Jets have made also have an average age of 26 years old.

While having veteran talent and leadership on your roster is an integral part of building a winner and a culture, having young talent to develop is also a key piece to the puzzle. It's clear that the Jets are going with a youth movement, which is also shown by the cuts that they have made in Aaron Rodgers, Davante Adams, and C.J. Mosley.

Only time will tell how this free-agent class plays out for Mougey and Glenn. There will be questions and unknowns around a lot of these players, especially those who are looking to bounce back after down seasons in 2024.

New York is going with the low-risk, high reward approach, hoping that some of these new young additions with high upside turn into what John Simpson has turned into for the green & white.

Expect Mougey and Glenn to continue this trend by building heavily through the draft in April.

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