3 struggling NFL units create desperation for Jets’ trade chips

At 1-7, the New York Jets would be remiss not to take calls for their valuable players, but they’re unlikely to open up new holes in their already porous roster unless the return is impossible to turn down.

It will take a desperate team to present New York with a juicy enough offer to part with players like Breece Hall or Jermaine Johnson. After Week 9’s events, a few of those desperate teams may have emerged.

Here are a few teams that may have become desperate enough to present a tantalizing offer for one of the Jets’ trade chips.

Indianapolis Colts: Quincy Williams

No team has a more shocking record at the trade deadline than the 7-2 Colts, who still own the AFC’s No. 1 seed after a humbling loss in Pittsburgh.

As surprise Super Bowl contenders, the Colts may look to capitalize on their lightning in a bottle by shopping for short-term hole-pluggers at the deadline. After Sunday’s defeat in western Pennsylvania, linebacker has emerged as one of their top needs.

The Colts have received abysmal linebacker play throughout the season, with starters Zaire Franklin and Germaine Pratt each rating among the league’s worst linebackers in various metrics. Their backups are even worse. Collectively, the Colts’ linebackers combined for a 47.7 overall grade at Pro Football Focus through Week 8, second-worst among linebacker units (ahead of only Dallas).

Due much in part to their linebackers’ porous coverage, the Colts have struggled immensely to stop tight ends. They have allowed the second-most receiving yards to tight ends (674), better than only the historically abysmal Bengals defense.

In a conference where they will have to go through Travis Kelce on their road to the Super Bowl, the Colts have to figure this out if they are serious about making an immediate push for the Lombardi.

This issue arose once again in Week 9. Indianapolis allowed the Steelers’ tight end trio of Pat Freiermuth, Darnell Washington, and Jonnu Smith to combine for 10 receptions, 95 receiving yards, and a touchdown. The Steelers’ tight ends were responsible for a whopping 42% of the team’s total offensive yards.

Perhaps this desperation could lead the Colts to make an offer for Jets linebacker Quincy Williams, who is on an expiring contract. Williams is having a shaky season, but he is only two years removed from an All-Pro season, and his elite athleticism still shows up on film.

For New York, it would be a coup to dupe a win-now team into coughing up long-term assets for a struggling player who likely won’t return in 2026.

Kansas City Chiefs: Breece Hall

Breece Hall and the Chiefs have been consistently linked in trade rumors. Kansas City has a mediocre running back unit and an urgency to boost its roster to make up ground in a stacked AFC West.

Sunday’s trip to Buffalo was Kansas City’s last chance to evaluate its running back unit before considering how aggressively it should attack the trade market. The results were certainly enough to ramp up the pressure on Chiefs general manager Brett Veach to go get another playmaker for Patrick Mahomes. Not only did the Chiefs’ desperation rise with a critical intra-conference loss, but the running backs were unimpressive.

With Isiah Pacheco sidelined, the Chiefs’ running backs did not move the needle against Buffalo’s defense in a pivotal AFC battle. Kareem Hunt, Brashard Smith, and Clyde Edwards-Helaire combined to rush for just 61 yards on 16 carries, a middling 3.8 yards per carry. They had six receiving yards on three targets.

New York shouldn’t be eager to move Hall, but as a player at a non-premium position on an expiring contract, he’s not someone the Jets should cling to. If the Chiefs come calling with the offer of a second-round pick or more, it could make sense for the Jets.

They’d net back the value initially used to draft Hall, while clearing the hypothetical space it would take to re-sign Hall in 2026. The trade isn’t as simple as Hall for a second-round pick with the hope that the second-rounder matches his impact; it’s Hall for a second-round pick and whoever you can buy with a Breece Hall-esque contract. The alternative could be letting Hall walk for nothing, and that’s not the type of business that a 1-7 team can risk entering when looking to rebuild its long-term roster health.

If the Jets do not trade Hall, they should ideally find a way to keep him on an affordable contract to avoid losing him for nothing. But the latter possibility is why they have to listen if teams come calling.

Jets general manager Darren Mougey has done a strong job on the trade market in the early goings of his tenure. He has a chance to keep that going by squeezing a great return out of the desperate Chiefs.

And with Isaiah Davis waiting in the wings behind Hall, it’s not as if the Jets don’t have additional upside at the position. Davis has averaged 6.0 yards per carry and 6.2 yards per target over a small sample size in his career. They also have Braelon Allen due to come back later in the season.

In a league where Rico Dowdle, J.K. Dobbins, and Javonte Williams are three of the top five rushers, running back remains the sport’s most replaceable position. Smart teams take advantage of this. They get what they can for their young running backs, throw another one in there for cheap, and keep the cycle moving.

Chicago Bears: Jermaine Johnson

This morning, the Miami Dolphins traded Jaelan Phillips to the Philadelphia Eagles for a 2026 third-round pick. This comes days after it was reported that Philadelphia talked to the Jets about Jermaine Johnson, with New York’s reported asking price being a second-round pick.

Phillips’ third-round return should confirm that a second-round value is fair for Johnson. They are both 26-year-old, first-round edge rushers with recent injury woes, although Phillips has suffered two major lower-body injuries to Johnson’s one, while Johnson has one year remaining on his contract to Phillips’ zero.

Philadelphia is off the board, but the Jets could still fetch a second-rounder out of another edge-needy team. The Chicago Bears could be one of them.

Chicago entered Week 8’s action with one of the weakest edge units in the NFL; their edge rushers ranked 29th in pressure rate as a unit. The Bears’ Week 9 shootout in Cincinnati further affirmed their weakness on the edge.

Bengals quarterback Joe Flacco dropped back 50 times, and the Bears’ defense only managed three sacks (6% sack rate; NFL average is 6.9%) and five QB hits on the immobile veteran. The edge unit combined for two sacks and four QB hits, with no individual edge rusher picking up more than one QB hit against a Bengals offensive line that entered the game ranked 27th in pass-blocking grade, per Pro Football Focus.

With Flacco facing little pressure from the Bears’ edge rushers, he managed to pass for 470 yards and four touchdowns in a 42-point explosion. It dropped Chicago to 29th in points per game allowed.

The Bears came out with the win, thanks to an offense that now ranks sixth-best in points per game, but they aren’t going to get very far in the stacked NFC playoff race with their sleepy pass rush.

Sitting at 5-3 with their first winning season since 2018 in arm’s reach, the Bears project as a team that could be aggressive ahead of Tuesday’s deadline. They also have Caleb Williams’ rookie contract to maximize.

If they choose to be aggressive, it’s hard to pinpoint a more desperate need than edge rusher. The Bears are scoring plenty of points; they just can’t stop people, and the main reason they can’t stop people is that they can’t apply pressure on the quarterback.

This is the formula for a team that could give New York an offer it can’t refuse for Johnson.

Like Hall, Johnson is not a player the Jets should be eager to trade. He’s a two-phase difference-maker for the defense and a mature, respected presence in the locker room. They also have very little talent on the edge outside of him, so trading him would open up a giant hole to be filled.

But when you’re a 1-7 NFL team, you have to take calls, and if a desperate team offers a package that cannot be refused, you take it.