ESPN<\/a><\/p>\nSweat, a 2024 second-round pick, has been a solid starting nose tackle for Tennessee. He should help the Jets’ run defense and provide some pass rush from the nose. While his 6.5% pass rush win rate at defensive tackle is below average for the position, it’s not bad considering where he lines up. He’ll join a Jets interior group that includes Harrison Phillips and Jowon Briggs.<\/p>\n
As for Johnson, the Titans need help at edge. But that need doesn’t make it worth the cost.<\/p>\n
Johnson is playing on his fifth-year option and will cost Tennessee $13.4 million, per OverTheCap. By contrast, Sweat has two years left on his rookie deal and will cost the Jets just $1.6 and $2.1 million in each of those years, respectively. Sweat is also younger and, in my view, has a better chance to be a plus contributor than Johnson. That makes this deal well worth it for New York, especially considering the Jets will get a player with another year of team control for less money.<\/p>\n
Jets grade:\u00a0A-Titans grade:\u00a0C-<\/p>\n
Titans trade gradeIf Sweat wasn’t going to be a fit, then getting back a defensive end with some pass-rush potential seems like a really good idea. Johnson only notched three sacks in 14 games last season, but he’s played for Saleh — in that Pro Bowl 2023 season! — who might know how to get more out of Johnson.<\/p>\n
In short, it’s a pretty good return on a player that the Titans might not have wanted. No guarantee it totally pays off. GRADE: B<\/p>\n
I absolutely understand that the Titans need pass rush as well, but the top of the 2026 class is very 3-4 heavy with Bain being iffy when placed in a 4-3 role, then a profound drop off all the way to Keldric Faulk before you find a DE that\u2019s easy to project.<\/p>\n
Nevertheless, there\u2019s a significant talent delta between Johnson and Sweat, even if the deal makes sense on paper. Yes, they didn\u2019t\u00a0need\u00a0Sweat in a 4-3, but it feels like the Titans undervalued him as a result. Jermaine Johnson is solid, but unremarkable. He\u2019s a better run defender off the edge than a pure pass rusher, which is typified by the fact that he was pulled off the field on many third-down pass rush situations in 2025. Layer in the fact that Johnson had a season-ending injury in 2024, and he\u2019s the older player \u2014 man, I don\u2019t know, it just feels like the Titans could have put the screws to the Jets a little more and gotten a third round pick out of this deal as well.<\/p>\n
On the plus side this opens up the draft for them a lot. That is the saving grace of this deal. If the Titans roll the dice on Bain projecting to a 4-3 end they have their starters set at the position. They could dangle the No. 4 pick in a trade to move back, potentially landing someone like Faulk at a spot that makes more sense or go deeper down for DT Peter Woods, who would fit their 4-3 front while adding significant draft capital in the process.<\/p>\n
The Titans have a lot of options, but they still should have been able to wrestle a pick away from the Jets in this deal.<\/p>\n
Grade: B-<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Feb. 27, 2026, 11:35 a.m. ET The Tennessee Titans and New York Jets kicked off the trading season…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":780371,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2061],"tags":[95878,7,6,96009,96010,95882,110243,95896,96747,95888,95899,95975,96008,95883,101547,95889,526,394,2411,527,95881],"class_list":{"0":"post-780370","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennessee-titans","8":"tag-accessfree","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-nfl","11":"tag-sstssportsnfltitans","12":"tag-sstsntitans","13":"tag-tagamerican-football","14":"tag-tagjermaine-johnson","15":"tag-tagnational-sports","16":"tag-tagnew-york-jets","17":"tag-tagnfl","18":"tag-tagoverall-neutral","19":"tag-tagrobert-saleh","20":"tag-tagsmg-listicle","21":"tag-tagsports-news","22":"tag-tagtvondre-sweat","23":"tag-tagtennessee-titans","24":"tag-tennessee","25":"tag-tennessee-titans","26":"tag-tennesseetitans","27":"tag-titans","28":"tag-typestory"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116143923813514165","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/780370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=780370"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/780370\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/780371"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=780370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=780370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=780370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}