{"id":880515,"date":"2026-05-02T14:24:18","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T14:24:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/880515\/"},"modified":"2026-05-02T14:24:18","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T14:24:18","slug":"new-york-jets-make-decision-on-mazi-smiths-fifth-year-option","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/880515\/","title":{"rendered":"New York Jets make decision on Mazi Smith&#8217;s fifth-year option"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>With the deadline having passed on Friday, the New York Jets have made their decisions on fifth-year options.<\/p>\n<p>After <a href=\"https:\/\/jetsxfactor.com\/2026\/04\/29\/new-york-jets-will-mcdonald-fifth-year-option-2\/\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">exercising<\/a> Will McDonald\u2019s option, the Jets decided not to pick up the option of defensive tackle Mazi Smith. The Michigan native was a 2023 first-round pick by the Dallas Cowboys, whom the Jets acquired in the Quinnen Williams trade last season.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Nine 1st-round picks from the 2023 NFL Draft had their fifth-year options declined:<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 No. 4: Anthony Richardson<br \/>\u2022 No. 7: Tyree Wilson<br \/>\u2022 No. 14: Broderick Jones<br \/>\u2022 No. 16: Emmanuel Forbes<br \/>\u2022 No. 18: Jack Campbell<br \/>\u2022 No. 24: Deonte Banks<br \/>\u2022 No. 26: Mazi Smith<br \/>\u2022 No. 28: Myles\u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/ZCHjReIoSd\" data-wpel-link=\"external\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/ZCHjReIoSd<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MySportsUpdate\/status\/2050312766393823473?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" data-wpel-link=\"external\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">May 1, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Selected No. 26 overall out of Michigan, Smith never lived up to his first-round pedigree. Over two seasons with the Cowboys, he appeared in 34 games, finishing his tenure with two sacks, six quarterback hits, and 16 total pressures.<\/p>\n<p>Even more worrisome was his run defense, which was his calling card in college. In each of his NFL seasons, he has logged a sub-40.0 run-defense grade from Pro Football Focus.<\/p>\n<p>After being traded to the Jets, he appeared in just three games with the team (54 total snaps) and struggled to crack a weak defensive line rotation, being listed as a healthy inactive on multiple occasions.<\/p>\n<p>Declining to exercise Smith\u2019s fifth-year option was an easy decision by the Jets. It was estimated to be worth around $13.9 million.<\/p>\n<p>Following the additions of David Onyemata, T\u2019Vondre Sweat, and Darrell Jackson Jr. this offseason, there is a high chance that Smith doesn\u2019t earn a spot on the team\u2019s 53-man roster for the 2026 season.<\/p>\n<p>As the Jets shift towards more of a 3-4 base defense this season, they need multiple nose tackles, and Smith could potentially fit that bill as a rotational NT. However, players like Sweat, Jackson Jr., and Harrison Phillips make much more sense for that role.<\/p>\n<p>Ultimately, it would be surprising to see Smith on Gang Green\u2019s roster after cutdown day.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With the deadline having passed on Friday, the New York Jets have made their decisions on fifth-year options.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":880516,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2051],"tags":[48922,11413,7,3228,18453,226,7541,1917,255,2321,2097,6,3231,3916,3232,30016,3234,20209,20113],"class_list":["post-880515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-jets","tag-darrell-jackson-jr","tag-david-onyemata","tag-football","tag-free-content","tag-harrison-phillips","tag-jets","tag-mazi-smith","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-jets","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkjets","tag-nfl","tag-ny-jets-news","tag-ny-jets-players","tag-ny-jets-roster-depth-chart","tag-ny-jets-salaries","tag-standard","tag-tvondre-sweat","tag-will-mcdonald"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116505441960400008","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/880515","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=880515"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/880515\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/880516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=880515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=880515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=880515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}