Why the Jets’ stunning trade deadline was a gamble they didn’t have to take

The Jets made two blockbuster trades on Tuesday, shipping off Sauce Gardner and Quinnen Williams in separate trades that brought back three first-round picks and a second-round pick, plus two players. 

I’m going to start off the newsletter this week with some thoughts on these moves:

1. I get the allure of draft picks. But here is the problem, the Jets will have nailed the picks if they get players as good as Gardner and Williams. Think about this — will you be happy if a player taken with one of these picks wins Rookie of the Year and is named All-Pro in each of his first two seasons? Of course you would. That’s what Gardner did. I highly doubt that the Jets will land a player who pulls that off. 

This is why I hate trading away good players for picks. You just don’t know what the picks will be. I get the argument for stockpiling picks and how much flexibility the Jets will now have in the draft. But the Jets are a weaker team now than they were before these trades. It is a gamble that they will hit on these picks. They’ll be lucky if they land players as good as Gardner and Williams.