New York Jets general manager Darren Mougey may have found real building blocks in Armand Membou and Mason Taylor from his 2025 NFL Draft class, but the picture gets a lot murkier once you get past the top of the board.
The Jets’ Day 3 group has not given them much reason to feel good about the future. In fact, there’s a strong chance that none of the four players Mougey took in the fourth round or later are still on the 53-man roster by the end of the 2026 season. At this point, it looks like only backup linebacker Kiko Mauigoa has any real shot to survive from that part of the haul.
EDGE Tyler Baron is the clearest disappointment. The Jets even traded up to get him, and he has done little to justify that move.
Baron played in just six games last season and finished with nine tackles and no sacks, which is a rough return even in a year when the Jets were scrambling for pass rush help. The team signed Kingsley Enagbare and Joseph Ossai specifically to keep Baron off the field more often, and now he is dealing with an injury on top of long odds to stick.
WR Arian Smith is in a similarly shaky spot. Jets fans questioned the pick immediately, with many feeling he belonged much later in the draft than the fourth round.
So far, he has done nothing to quiet that reaction. Smith caught only seven passes for 52 yards last season, and the drop issues that followed him out of Georgia are still there.
With Omar Cooper Jr. and Tim Patrick added and Isaiah Williams improving, Smith has slid even further down the depth chart. Undrafted rookie Malik McClain could even be in line for a roster spot because of special teams value and the investment the team already made in him.
Then there’s safety Malachi Moore, who looked like Mougey’s best Day 3 bet when he was drafted. Moore brought four years of experience in Nick Saban’s Alabama defense and the kind of versatility teams usually love, working as part nickel corner and part safety.
But the athletic upside never matched the versatility, and that has shown up at the pro level. The bigger issue now is that Dane Belton has clearly been better, while Andre Cisco, despite his flaws, is still ahead of Moore on the depth chart.
Moore is not in the mix the way he was a year ago, when he started most games for New York.
Moore could still make the 53-man roster simply because the Jets may not have better options. Even so, this season has already made one thing plain: he does not look like part of the team’s long-term future.
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