After weeks of trade speculation, Darron Lee is now one year away from free agency.

The linebacker inched closer to the open market after word emerged early Thursday that the Jets will not exercise the fifth-year option on his contract, according to the New York Daily News. The Jets had the chance to pick up that extra year — at a set salary figure — because Lee was a first-round draft pick. General manager Mike Maccagnan selected him No. 20 overall in 2016.

Instead of adding a year to Lee’s contract, though, Maccagnan made it clear that he is not in the team’s future plans by turning down the option. The fact that Lee has no long-term role with the Jets comes as no surprise after the team signed C.J. Mosley in free agency, then added linebacker Blake Cashman in the fifth round of the 2019 NFL Draft.

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Picking up the option still could have benefited the Jets, though. Had Maccagnan made the decision to do so, it could have added to Lee’s value, with potential trade partners knowing they could keep him under contract for an extra year with little risk involved.

The salary attached to a fifth-year option does not become fully guaranteed until the start of that league year, meaning Lee’s 2020 salary wouldn’t have become fully guaranteed until next March. So, if the Jets — or Lee’s new team — set him free any time between now and then, his 2020 salary would have come off the books anyway.