The New York Jets wanted to add to their pass rush, and they accomplished that during the 2025 NFL draft.
In the latter stages of day two, the Jets made an aggressive trade to move up the board.
New York Jets receive: a 2025 fifth-round pick (No. 176 overall) and a 2026 sixth-round pick
Baltimore Ravens receive: a 2025 sixth-round pick (No. 186 overall) and a 2026 fifth-round pick
The Jets moved up to select Miami pass rusher Tyler Baron. During his five collegiate seasons, the talented defender finished with 19 sacks, 38 tackles for loss, and totaled 139 tackles.
General manager Darren Mougey explained his thought process behind making trades during the draft.
“We look at the board, we see how we think it’s going to fall by position, [and] some guys we may have targeted. You start looking at teams that are going to have the same needs, and we definitely view those players maybe higher than where we think this board falls. We might get this lesser player where we can give up a minimal pick swap and go get this player that really fits us,” Mougey explained.
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Jets Get Much Needed Insurance at EDGE
Baron, 23, measured in at 6-foot-5 and tipped the scales at 258 pounds. The first four years of his collegiate career were spent at Tennessee. This past season, he finished his run in college with Miami.
This past season, Baron recorded 5.5 sacks. However, NBC draft analyst Connor Rogers said that stat isn’t what it appears to be.
“3 of his 5.5 sacks this year were against Florida A&M in Week 2, so there’s a little bit of inflated production,” Rogers said.
Welcome Miami EDGE Tyler Baron! He had 5.5 sacks last year, not too shabby!
@ConnorJRogers: ‘3 of his 5.5 sacks this year were against Florida A&M in Week 2 so there’s a little bit of inflated production.’ 😅 @DP_NFL is“When you get to this part of the draft, traits is really what you’re looking for. Size, speed, length, things like that, so we felt like if we can get a player with traits, then we can have our coaches go out there and coach them to help them to be able to improve and be a good player in this league,” head coach Aaron Glenn said on Saturday, April 26. “So absolutely, he is that but if you watch him on tape he actually showed really good pass rush ability so now it is just nudging him a little bit more to get him over the hump to be a really good player for us and we expect that player to do that for us.”
The Jets have two really good pass rushers in Will McDonald and Jermaine Johnson. However, Johnson is coming off a torn Achilles last season. It is unclear how he and, more specifically, his body will respond to that very serious injury.
Even if both were fully healthy, the Jets still would have needed another pass rusher. Baron adds some insurance and another guy who can develop.
Jets Strike Trade With Ravens for 19-Sack Pass Rusher