Well, we’re formally within the offseason. That means it’s time to carry just a little optimism again into the dialog.
Free company is thrilling for apparent causes. It’s a possibility to enhance the expertise on the roster, add new and intriguing names, and inject some much-needed hope into the fan base. Yes, NFL free company can completely harm groups that hand out reckless contracts. But 12 months after 12 months, among the league’s finest organizations use it to their benefit. Teams just like the Los Angeles Rams, New England Patriots, and Seattle Seahawks have all leveraged free company just lately so as to add underrated expertise at affordable value tags.
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The Jets have the chance to do the identical.
Now, among the gamers talked about on this sequence could not finally attain the open market. But in the intervening time, let’s function underneath the idea that they’ll. With that in thoughts, let’s take a deeper have a look at among the most intriguing free company choices for the Jets throughout a spread of value factors.
Alec Pierce
Let’s begin with one of many larger names: Alec Pierce.
Pierce suits the precise profile of the kind of participant the Jets must be focusing on. He fills a necessity, he’s coming into his prime (turning simply 26 earlier than the season begins), and he has a monitor file of success.
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After being chosen within the second spherical in 2022, Pierce’s first two seasons had been strong however unspectacular. However, he took a official step ahead in Years 3 and 4. This previous 12 months in 2025, he had his finest season to this point: 47 receptions, 1,003 yards, and 6 touchdowns. The catch whole could look modest, however the effectivity jumps off the web page.
Make no mistake, the Jets want a large receiver. Pierce wouldn’t simply fill that want, he would complement Garrett Wilson’s talent set in a significant method. While Wilson operates primarily as a volume-driven goal who can win in any respect ranges of the sphere and separate, Pierce is a real vertical risk.
At 6’3” with 4.41 velocity, he brings measurement and explosiveness down the sphere, together with excellent ball expertise. The superior metrics again it up:
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Yards Per Route Run during the last two seasons: 1.82 and a couple of.10 (rating fifteenth amongst 66 receivers with a minimum of 60 targets)
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Average Depth of Target (aDOT): 20.2 — by far the best within the league amongst receivers with comparable quantity
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Over 85% of his receptions have gone for first downs
When Pierce catches the ball, good issues occur.
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In some ways, his talent set is what the Jets and Colts hoped Adonai Mitchell would become. Mitchell will be the smoother athlete and has flashed extra separation expertise, however he hasn’t proven the identical downfield ball monitoring or contested catch capacity that Pierce has, which is a part of the rationale he couldn’t overtake Pierce in Indy.
Pierce would give the Jets one thing they haven’t had in fairly a while: a official, field-tilting vertical presence. And when the Jets inevitably add a younger quarterback within the subsequent couple of years, having a receiver who can constantly win downfield can be an enormous asset.
Of course, it gained’t come low-cost.
(*1*) at present values him at $18.62 million per 12 months. With the rising wage cap and league-wide demand for large receivers, I wouldn’t be shocked if that quantity climbed nearer to $25 million yearly. Something within the $20 to $25 million a 12 months vary probably makes probably the most sense for Pierce’s skillset.
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Still, if the Jets are critical about making a splash, that is the kind of funding that is smart. A younger receiver, a novel talent set, and a participant who ought to theoretically nonetheless be ascending. Detractors will say that the Jets shouldn’t make investments this a lot at one place (they’re already paying Garrett Wilson quite a bit), however should you’re going to spend your abundance of cap area, this can be a fairly robust method to do it. Let’s transfer on to our second intriguing choice who is also an enormous title:
Nakobe Dean
I count on Nakobe Dean to be considerably polarizing, however he’s a participant the Jets ought to completely be intrigued by for quite a lot of causes.
Like Alec Pierce, Dean comes with a robust pedigree courting again to his prospect days and simply as importantly, he’s younger. Dean turned 25 this previous 12 months, and there’s each cause to imagine his finest soccer continues to be forward of him.
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Full disclosure: his 2025 season isn’t going to wow anybody at first look.
After struggling a serious knee damage in January 2025, Dean missed the primary six weeks of the season. When he returned, his play was uneven. According to PFF, he graded thirty ninth out of 78 off-ball linebackers with a minimum of 400 snaps. That stated, he graded No. 1 as a go rusher on the place, which is notable.
Early within the 12 months, Dean appeared a step off. The explosiveness wasn’t totally again, and there have been stretches the place he was clearly working his method into type. But what’s encouraging and what I might argue issues most is how he completed. From Week 14 onward, Dean was the second-highest graded linebacker in soccer over a 150-snap pattern. That late-season surge suggests the knee was lastly behind him.
It’s additionally vital to recollect what he appeared like earlier than the damage.
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In 2024, Dean performed a serious position on the Philadelphia Eagles’ Super Bowl successful protection, which completed the 12 months ranked No. 1 within the league. He led the NFL in run stops and graded as one of many higher-ranked defenders in soccer general. That model of Dean was impactful and disruptive.
To me, he’s a traditional “buy-low” candidate.
There’s a really actual probability you’re getting an ascending participant at a slight low cost due to an uneven season coming off damage. He’s a official pass-rushing risk from the linebacker place (26 pressures during the last two years), has confirmed he generally is a high-level run defender, and possesses the athletic profile to keep away from being a legal responsibility in protection.
A latest report from Fox Sports urged Dean might signal for as little as $8 million per 12 months, which might put him round twenty third amongst off-ball linebackers coming into free company. I’d count on his deal to land someplace within the $8–12 million vary.
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For a Jets group that’s starved for defensive difference-makers, that’s the sort of calculated gamble price taking. Now let’s check out the ultimate participant:
Bryan Cook
This is a place the place it makes a ton of sense for the Jets to be aggressive in free company.
Safety was a serious subject defensively final 12 months. While I believed Malachi Moore confirmed sufficient as a rookie to earn one other 12 months as a starter, the Jets need to improve the spot subsequent to him. There are a number of intriguing choices in the marketplace, however I’ll begin with maybe probably the most engaging: Bryan Cook of the Kansas City Chiefs.
Cook (noticing a theme but?) is 26 years outdated and coming into the prime of his profession. A former second-round pick of Cincinnati in 2022, he was strong however unspectacular in 2023 and 2024. Then, in a contract 12 months in 2025, he broke out in an enormous method.
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Cook completed because the fourth-highest graded security in soccer this previous season. He was wonderful throughout the board: rating prime 5 as each a tackler and in go protection.
His versatility is what makes him particularly interesting for Aaron Glenn’s protection. Cook lined up within the field, performed nickel at occasions, and dealt with deep center-field tasks. That sort of flexibility provides to his worth.
He’s additionally a robust and dependable tackler. Over the previous two seasons, Cook has recorded 64 tackles in annually with simply 10 missed tackles whole—a missed deal with charge of roughly 6%, which is elite since 2024. On prime of that, he really blossomed in protection this previous season. He ranked prime 10 in each pressured incompletions and go breakups, constantly getting his fingers on the soccer.
When you mix high-level run protection, positional flexibility, all with robust protection manufacturing in addition, it’s no shock his general grade mirrored it.
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Projected Contract
Cook’s subsequent deal will probably land him inside the highest 15 highest-paid safeties within the league. PFF tasks him at round $12 million per 12 months, whereas Spotrac’s valuation sits nearer to $14.2 million yearly.
A contract within the $12–14 million vary would place him roughly round fifteenth on the place by way of common annual worth. Considering his age, versatility, and trajectory, that appears like a good quantity.
To me, security is a must-add this offseason. And a minimum of proper now, Cook is likely to be my favourite choice on the board.
Summary
These are three of the larger names the Jets might realistically goal in free company.
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While it’s all the time sensible to take advantage of the second wave of free company, all three of those gamers stand out for a easy cause: they’re younger, coming into (or already in) their primes, and trending upward.
If the Jets are going to spend, it must be on ascending expertise. Not ageing names residing off previous manufacturing which we now have seen earlier Jets regimes do fairly a bit. Each of those gamers suits that mould and will realistically blossom into core items for this group over the following a number of years.
Free company isn’t nearly including expertise. It’s about including the appropriate expertise on the proper time. These three examine a number of these bins.