The Jets may have just handed Breece Hall a new deal, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re locked into keeping him.
That’s the crux of the latest chatter around New York, where general manager Darren Mougey has already shown he’s willing to move on from a player even after paying him. Fans saw that play out last November when the Jets traded cornerback Ahmad “Sauce” Gardner to the Indianapolis Colts after signing him to a four-year, $120.4M extension the previous summer.
Now Hall is in a similar spot. Aaron Glenn said Monday that the running back will remain with the team through the Nov.
10 NFL trade deadline, and Hall and the Jets agreed to a three-year deal reportedly worth up to $47.75M this past spring. But Zack Rosenblatt of The Athletic laid out on Tuesday why that contract may not be as much of an obstacle as it looks.
“The fact that Mougey just signed Hall to a new contract would not (or should not) be a deterrent to trading him,” Rosenblatt wrote. “As with Gardner last year, Mougey smartly structured Hall’s contract in a way that doesn’t make it especially costly if the Jets decide to move on now or in the offseason. The contract only includes guaranteed money on the first two years of the deal ($24M in total); the Jets would only incur somewhere in the range of a $5M dead cap hit in 2026 and $4M in 2027, while gaining around $10M back in cap space over the next two seasons.”
There’s also the football side of it. Hall has missed the Jets’ last five games because of a quad injury, while Braelon Allen has shown since Week 1 that he can handle RB1 duties and be solid, if not good. And with the 2026 Jets sitting at 2-6 after Sunday’s loss, the possibility of a move doesn’t look far-fetched.
That said, Rosenblatt made clear New York wouldn’t just hand Hall away. “That’s not to say the Jets should simply give Hall away,” he continued. “It wouldn’t be worth it for anything less than the offer the Chiefs made a year ago (a third-round pick), and the value might depend on whatever the Colts are able to get in a deal for Jonathan Taylor before the deadline.”
There’s already been some smoke around Hall’s market. It was suggested last November that Hall was interested in joining the Kansas City Chiefs before negotiations between the Chiefs and Jets reportedly “broke down over the compensation.”
And if the Jets do decide to listen, there may be no shortage of teams willing to check in. Per Parker Abate of Heavy, NFL insider Jordan Schultz said on a recent edition of “The Pivot” that the New York Giants, Green Bay Packers, Denver Broncos, Seattle Seahawks, Cincinnati Bengals and the Minnesota Vikings could all be looking for a proven ball-carrier. One of those teams, especially if it misses out on Jonathan Taylor, could end up turning to Hall instead.
In Other News...
Rex Ryan Is Suddenly Back In The Middle Of NFL Drama
Rex Ryan found himself back in the NFL conversation this week after a rough Cowboys loss to the Arizona Cardinals sparked fresh criticism of Jerry Jones and the state of Dallas coaching staff. Stephen A. Smith led the charge, arguing Jones missed an opportunity by not bringing Ryan in to run the defense, while former Cowboy Michael Irvin and analyst Dan Orlovsky also voiced concern about how the team is being coached and how it is playing.
For Jets fans, it is a familiar name suddenly attached to a very public football debate again, the kind that tends to follow Ryan whenever a defense is under the microscope. Jones, for his part, has signaled he is not looking to make a change in the middle of the season, which leaves the noise around Dallas in place for now and keeps Ryans name in the middle of it. [Read more 🡒]
Jets Loss Turns Into Another Ugly Accountability Problem
The Jets loss to the Raiders in Week 8 only added to the sense that the problems in Florham Park are bigger than one bad afternoon. The offense showed some improvement, but the defense did not hold up its end, and the result left New York at 2-6 with the same old questions hanging over a team that keeps finding new ways to make life harder on itself.
Minkah Fitzpatrick was among the defenders who drew attention afterward, and his postgame comments only sharpened the conversation around accountability. The teams PR staff even stepped in with a lighthearted attempt to clarify the remark, a small footnote in a bigger issue that has followed the Jets all season: when things go wrong, the explanations can be almost as messy as the play on the field. [Read more 🡒]
Jets Disaster Could Still Become One Of The NFLs Best Jobs
The Jets have spent this season looking like a mess on the field, with the coaching staff under fire and the defense failing to hold up its end. Still, the roster is not starting from zero. There is offensive talent in place, and the team has enough pieces that the next person in charge wont be walking into a full teardown.
What makes this opening so intriguing is the chance to pair that foundation with real draft capital. New York is positioned to add premium talent in a class that evaluators already view as one of the strongest in years, which gives the front office a path to accelerate the turnaround if it makes the right hire. Darren Mougey is expected to steer that search, and the decision he makes could determine whether this remains a cautionary tale or becomes one of the leagues quickest resets. [Read more 🡒]