New York Jets general manager Joe Douglas may not have figured out the formula to consistently win games yet, but he sure has figured out how to win trades.
Throughout his tenure as the head honcho on 1 Jets Drive, he has orchestrated deal after deal and the commonality among all of them is he has won by a landslide.
Normally it takes a few years to determine who really won a trade, but the latest one for the green and white is pretty clear.
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Deadline Buzzer Deal
Just when it looked like a ho-hum NFL trade deadline for the Jets, they pulled off a last-second buzzer deal with the Kansas City Chiefs.
It was a rare player-for-player swap:
- Jets received: offensive lineman Laurent Duvernay-Tardif
- Chiefs received: tight end Daniel Brown
Brown had played in the seven games with the Jets prior to the trade but didn’t register any stats. He was more so a special teams player.
While LDT is a former Super Bowl champion and started 57 games for the Chiefs over a five-year span.
It seemed obvious from the get-go that the Jets won this trade, but it became apparent this week.
Kansas City ended up releasing Brown and just a few days later he ended up rejoining the Jets on their practice squad.
The veteran tight end never played a snap for the Chiefs and on the other side of the coin Duvernay-Tardif quickly jumped into the starting lineup for Gang Green.
So not only did the Jets get a quality starting lineman in the middle of the season, which is incredibly rare, but they ended up getting him for free.
Douglas apparently wasn’t satisfied with just winning the trade outright, he wanted to rub it in the Chiefs’ face that he won it by re-acquiring the guy he traded away.
Now he has both players and a big smile on his face.
Jets Lineup Change Pays Immediate Dividends
Jets right guard Greg Van Roten has been hard to watch all year long.
In the nine games he started for the green and white he allowed 32 pressures, which is the highest total among right guards in the NFL this season, per Michael Nania of Jets X-Factor.
Although despite his struggles, it was unclear what they could do to remedy the situation until that last second trade came through and provided a light at the end of the tunnel.
Quite frankly any warm body would have been an upgrade over GVR, but LDT has proven to be far more than that.
He has been an elite run blocker during his two starts:
#Jets rushing YPC:
9 games before Laurent Duvernay-Tardif: 3.6
2 games with Laurent Duvernay-Tardif: 5.0
After initially struggling in pass pro in his first start in over two years, LDT bounced back in a major way by not allowing a single pressure versus the Houston Texans on Sunday:
After allowing 7 pressures in his first start, Laurent Duvernay-Tardif didn’t allow a single pressure in Week 12.
Dominant pass blocking performance for the #Jets RG.
At a minimum they found a stop-gap option to protect their rookie quarterback in 2021 for free. Although after some impressive tape, the Jets could end up re-signing him this offseason.
Regardless of what happens, the Jets have already won this trade, and everything else that happens after that is gravy.
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Jets’ Joe Douglas Trolls Chiefs With Epic Trade Heist of the Century