A recent mock trade has the New York Jets trading for one of the NFL’s best wide receivers at the expense of one of their most valued contributors.
Bleacher Report’s Kristopher Knox concocted an internet-breaking deal that would gift the Jets with Las Vegas Raiders wideout DaVante Adams and cost them offensive tackle Tyron Smith. Here is the full scope of the three-team deal (h/t Evan Massey of Fan Nation’s Jets Country):
“New York Jets Receive: Davante Adams
Cleveland Browns Receive: Tyron Smith, 2025 Third-Round Pick
Las Vegas Raiders Receive: Amari Cooper, 2025 First-Round Pick from Jets”
The Jets’ most pressing need may be protecting Aaron Rodgers in 2024
The biggest question surrounding this trade is whether or not the Jets would want to compromise the strength of their offensive line for an elite pass-catcher.
Priority No. 1 should be protecting starting quarterback Aaron Rodgers in the pocket next season. The four-time NFL MVP missed all but four plays of the 2023 campaign with a torn Achilles. The Jets went 7-10 without him, even though their defense was top grade and their offensive weapons showed flashes of brilliance around QBs Zach Wilson and Trevor Siemian.
The Jets’ receiving unit is one of the strongest in the NFL as presently constructed
The Jets have a roster that is being propped up as a potential 14-win team as is. Additionally, their receiving game is strong with 1,000-yard receiver Garrett Wilson and former 1,000-yard wideout and big play dynamo Mike Williams set to man the receiver slots on the outsides, along with rookie Malachi Corley, who was college football’s best screen-play slot receiver in 2023.
The mock trade would add Adams to the mix without giving up any of those three pass-catchers. The Jets would have a hoard of talent in that department next season and reunite Adams with his former Green Bay Packers teammate Rodgers. Adams, 31, has an age advantage over Smith, 33. Yet, redundancy at wide receiver and depleting the offensive line are valid concerns that New York would have to weigh in the balance.
Jets: The risk-reward factors for trading Tyron Smith for DaVante Adams
Adams did his part for the Raiders in 2023. The Fresno State product finished No. 15 in the league with 1,144 REC yards last season, which would have made him the Jets’ leading receiver in 2023. Though his eight receiving touchdowns fell short of the double-digits he’s been accustomed to bringing down in recent memory and his catch percentage fell below 60 percent for only the second time in the last eight years, the NFL world knows that Adams is as dangerous a receiver as their is in the league today.
As for Smith, the reigning Second Team All-Pro honoree earned a 83.8 player grade from Pro Football Focus after allowing only one sack and committing three penalties in 847 offensive snaps played last season. PFF also named him as the seventh-best offensive tackle heading into the 2024 campaign thanks to his position-leading 89.3 pass blocking grade by the analytical entity, as Gang Green Nation relayed. Albeit, the USC product is advancing in age, which has prompted the Jets to manage his workload this offseason to limit attrition.
New York has Morgan Moses and Alijah Vera-Tucker rounding out their offensive line, but Smith, along with rookie Olu Fashanu, will be necessary to ensure that Rodgers has enough time to throw and doesn’t go down with another injury when he doesn’t. It would be tough for any team to pass on Adams’ services, but unless the Jets do not have enough confidence in Wilson, Williams and Corley as legitimate No. 1, 2 and 3 options, they will need to take all factors into consideration if a deal like this were to gain any steam, which at this juncture is more of a pipe dream than reality.