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Looking to end over a decade of struggle, the New York Jets begin a new era in 2025. Once the new league year officially begins, the Jets will enter free agency and the NFL Draft under new general manager Darren Mougey and head coach Aaron Glenn.
Without Aaron Rodgers or Davante Adams returning, the team will also begin a new chapter on the field. Glenn opted not to go with Rodgers in his first year, putting the Jets in a familiar situation without a surefire answer at quarterback. Entering free agency, quarterback will undoubtedly be New York's No. 1 priority.
Unfortunately, with the quarterback market as dry as it currently is, Mougey does not have a ton of options. Only three players who started the majority of 2024 will be available, causing the demand of teams in desperate need of a new signal-caller to significantly outweigh the supply.
New York will have the No. 7 pick of the 2025 NFL Draft, but incoming quarterback class is nearly as stale as the free agency market. Only Cam Ward and Shedeur Sanders are currently projected to go in the top 10, and both are expected to be gone by the time Mougey's pick is on the clock. The Jets will almost certainly have to address its quarterback needs in free agency during the 2025 NFL offseason.
In free agency, the Jets are expected to have over $51 million in cap space, the 12th-most in the league, per Over The Cap. A lot of time and effort will assuredly be spent on the quarterback situation, but New York has more than just a few issues to fix over in NFL free agency.
QB Sam Darnold
Given the amount of teams aggressively attacking the quarterback market, Sam Darnold is getting a lot of attention in free agency. Coming off the best year of his career, Darnold is viewed by most as the top quarterback on the market, especially after it was reported that the Minnesota Vikings no longer wish to bring him back.
Yet, Darnold, who was drafted by the Jets in 2018, cannot be their answer again. By letting Rodgers walk, Glenn made it clear he does not wish to begin his regime by working with an aging veteran. Though Darnold is 27, he would still be a downgrade from Rodgers, even in 2025.
As good as Darnold looked in 2024, his track record is still very off-putting. He entered the year as a placeholder for injured rookie J.J. McCarthy, only to shockingly explode, ending the year with a career highs in passing yards (4,319) and touchdowns (35). Still, 2024 was not just a second chance; it was his fifth season as a starter. The USC alum still has four years of lackluster production to his name, opposed to one good year.
Perhaps at 27, Darnold finally put everything together. The more logical conclusion is he benefitted from working with Kevin O'Connell and his uniquely quarterback-friendly offense. O'Connell's offense is the same system that gave Kirk Cousins the best years of his career before flaming out with the Atlanta Falcons in 2024. For all of his accomplishments, Glenn is a defensive-minded coach and nowhere near the offensive guru that O'Connell is.
Aside from Darnold, Justin Fields and Russell Wilson are the other two best available players. Either one of them would be a better option for Glenn to work with in his first season.
CB Kendall Fuller
The Jets will return Sauce Gardner in 2025, who continues to look more like a generational talent each year. However, they will potentially lose D.J. Reed in free agency, leaving a vacancy on the other half of the field opposite of Gardner.
The free agency market will be flooded with cornerbacks, topped by Carlton Davis III and Charvarius Ward. Both could find their way to the Jets in the offseason with their connections to the coaching staff. Glenn recently coached Davis on the Detroit Lions, while defensive coordinator Steve Wilks worked with Ward on the San Francisco 49ers in 2023.
Both Davis and Ward will communicate with dozens of teams before signing a lucrative deal, creating the real possibility that Mougey will have to look elsewhere. Kendall Fuller will be another former Pro Bowler on the market, but not one that New York should pursue. While Davis and Ward have familiarity with either coach, Fuller might be the Jets' worst-case scenario of 2025 NFL free agency.
Even at 30, there is no denying Fuller's obvious talent. He paired excellently with Jalen Ramsey and the Miami Dolphins for the previous two seasons, making him one of the top available players in 2025. But where Fuller does his best work is in zone coverage and not in the man-heavy scheme Glenn loves.
Under Dan Campbell, Glenn ran man-to-man coverage with the Lions at the highest rate in the NFL in 2024. In such set-ups, Fuller had just a 50.8 percent man coverage success rate in 2024. He was elite covering the flat in zone schemes, but barely league-average when forced to shadow in man-to-man.
If the Jets acquire Fuller in the offseason, they are going to have to pay him. The expected salary would not match his value in Glenn's system.
