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Jets Plan to Actively Pursue a Trade up in the NFL Draft

New York Jets’ general manager Mike Maccagnan is in charge of his first NFL draft, which is quickly approaching.

As it stands today, the Jets have the sixth-overall pick in the first round of the draft. In an act of due diligence, Maccagnan has announced that he will attempt to contact every team picking ahead of the Jets to see what it might cost to trade up (via NFL.com).

We’re going to reach out to every team ahead of us and gauge the value of what they’re looking for in compensation to move up in the draft. That doesn’t mean we’re actually trying to go up necessarily and get a player but you hear what the market value is basically, and then what you do is see what unfolds with the first few picks and who is available. We’ll have that discussion when we get to the draft — if we want to move up in the draft.

This means that Maccagnan will be reaching out to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Tennessee Titans, Jacksonville Jaguars, Oakland Raiders and Washington Redskins who possess picks 1-5.

Maccagnan further elaborated on his plan:

Philosophically, I’m not opposed to moving up in the draft to get a player if you feel if a player is going to be an extremely good player. … I would personally want to (acquire more talent).

This could potentially translate to the Jets moving up to have a shot at drafting quarterback Marcus Mariota.

What the Jets might offer is the million-dollar question here. The franchise has not kept it too much of a secret that it is ready to move on from quarterback Geno Smith.

Smith has not been impressive in his first two NFL seasons. He’s achieved a quarterback rating of 71.5 and has thrown more interceptions (34) than touchdowns (25). This obviously doesn’t bode well for Smith’s future in New Jersey.

While news of the Jets reaching out to other teams is not earth-shattering, it is interesting that Maccagnan revealed his hand versus keeping management’s plans on the down-low. Of course, it could all be a ploy to pit those teams picking ahead of the Jets against one another in trade discussions.

Photo: USA Today Sports

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