Despite his request to be traded, Elijah Moore is still a member of the New York Jets. The disgruntled wide receiver was not moved before the NFL trade deadline Tuesday and general manager Joe Douglas said no one should be surprised by that.

“Elijah was always going to be a New York Jet,” Douglas said.

Moore has just 16 catches in seven games played this season and hasn’t scored a touchdown. After a blow up with offensive coordinator Mike LaFleur two weeks ago, Moore asked to be traded. He was inactive for New York’s win against the Denver Broncos in Week 7 and returned last week but played just 10 offensive snaps in a disheartening 22-17 loss to the New England Patriots.

“Obviously, we’re a football family,” Douglas explained. “Anytime there’s an issue, we like to handle that in-house. I was able to have a really good one-on-one conversation with Elijah. Again, we think the world of him. We think he has a bright future as a New York Jet.”

Elijah Moore was selected in the second-round of the 2021 NFL Draft. He caught 43 passes on 77 targets and had five touchdowns in 11 games as a rookie. The 22-year-old was expected to break out this season but instead has seen reduced targets with the emergence of rookie Garrett Wilson, who leads the Jets with 34 catches.

“We love Elijah,” Douglas stated. “We all stood on the table to take him high in the second round last year. We think the world of him.”

Douglas said the Jets “had some calls” on Moore before the deadline. But they didn’t trade him and now must find a way to make it work with the talented receiver.

Part of the rub with Moore is his seeming on-field disconnect with quarterback Zach Wilson, the No. 2 overall pick in last year’s draft. Since Wilson returned from arthroscopic knee surgery in Week 4, Moore has four catches on nine targets for 64 yards. He did not receive a single target in Week 6 against the Green Bay Packers. He was targeted only once – a deflected pass that fell incomplete – against the Patriots.

To make matters worse, Wilson threw three terrible picks against New England. And after the game, Moore seemed to throw shade at Wilson when asked what his relationship is with the Jets QB.

“I don’t even know, I can’t even tell you,” Elijah Moore answered. “I don’t get the ball. I don’t know.”

Denzel Mims also stays, Jacob Martin traded before deadline

New York also did not trade Denzel Mims. The third-year receiver, a second-round pick in 2020, asked to be dealt during training camp. He was inactive the first six games before playing against the Broncos and Patriots. Mims had a pretty 64-yard catch-and run hookup with Wilson against the Patriots.

The Jets did thin the surplus on their defensive line. They traded Jacob Martin to the Broncos along with a fifth-round pick in the 2024 draft in exchange for a fourth-rounder the same year.

Last week, the Jets acquired running back James Robinson from the Jacksonville Jaguars for a conditional sixth-round draft pick in the 2023 NFL Draft. Robinson carried five times for 17 yards in his Jets debut against the Patriots.