Without Dante Moore in the 2026 NFL Draft, there’s no real incentive for the New York Jets to stay at pick No. 2. Unfortunately, other teams likely feel the same way about trading up.
Typically, you don’t see many trade-up scenarios in round one unless that team is looking to get a quarterback. Once you get past Fernando Mendoza, there’s not another quarterback worth selecting in the top 10 of this draft.
However, Arvell Reese and Rueben Bain Jr. are both phenomenal prospects as well. Based on my analysis, neither is worth trading up for, but it also wouldn’t be a ridiculous move.
In this Jets mock draft, we’ll be exploring the idea of them trading down from pick No. 2.
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New York Jets 2026 NFL Mock Draft
For this exercise, we used the PFSN Mock Draft Simulator to go through the first two rounds of a Jets mock draft.
New York Jets Trade Down: Washington Commanders
Due to the fact that there were no trade offers for pick No. 2, we used the proposal trade feature and tried to keep things reasonable.
The most realistic team to trade up would be the Washington Commanders. The mock trade idea had them giving up pick No. 7, their 2027 1st round pick, and a 2027 5th round pick.
First-Round Pick (7th Overall): David Bailey, Edge, Texas Tech
The Jets have holes all over their roster to the point where they shouldn’t hunt one player. Based on my analysis of David Bailey, he shouldn’t make it out of the top-10.
When taking the consensus into account as well, Bailey has a big board rank of five. Bailey may not be on the same level as Reese or Bain, but he’s not that far off either.
First-Round Pick (16th Overall): Jermod McCoy, CB, Tennessee
Landing Jermod McCoy would be huge for the Jets as he’s arguably the best cornerback in this class. Mansoor Delane is the consensus CB1 (11th overall), but it’s not by much, as McCoy is ranked 14th overall.
After trading away Sauce Gardner, McCoy has the tools to replace him and be the Jets’ lockdown CB1 for years to come.
Second-Round Pick (33rd Overall): Lee Hunter, DL, Texas Tech
The goal behind drafting Lee Hunter is to replace yet another defensive player they traded away. This time, Hunter would replace Quinnen Williams.
The calling card for Hunter is that he had a 11.9% run-stop rate in 2025 and an 84.5 PFF run defense grade. However, the reason that Hunter could jump up even higher than this is that he posted a 10.6% pass rush win rate (per PFF).
Getting to reunite Hunter and Bailey would be a phenomenal way to build up this defensive line.
Second-Round Pick (44th Overall): Anthony Hill Jr., LB, Texas
It’s not ideal, but the value for all four picks was on the defensive side of the ball. Although the Jets’ offense needs help, it’s not as if heavily attacking the defense is unnecessary.
This past year, the Jets allowed the second-most PPG in the NFL with 29.6. For that reason, Anthony Hill Jr. makes sense here.
These next few rounds should be heavily committed to offense, but assuming the Jets draft a quarterback in 2027, that’s also something they’ll likely prioritize then as well.
All things considered, the New York Jets absolutely should trade down if possible, it’s just tough to see another team trading up.
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