One of the worst trades of the Joe Douglas era as New York Jets GM was trading John Franklin-Myers to the Denver Broncos.
In 2024, the Jets shipped off JFM for a 2026 sixth-round pick. The Jets were forced to make that move after trading for Philadelphia Eagles pass rusher Haason Reddick, Douglas said.
A year later, the Jets could attempt to trade with the Broncos to bring him back home.
Franklin-Myers has not been at OTAs for the Broncos. According to his agent Cliff Brady, this isn’t a “contract issue” and he has been skipping OTAs “for a few years now.”
Brady told Broncos reporter 9NEWS Mike Klis that JFM will be there for “mini-camp. He’s currently working his [expletive] off to have the best season of his career.”
However, that shouldn’t stop the Jets from trying to make a trade.
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The Jets traded for Reddick last offseason. He wasn’t productive in 2024, held out for the entire offseason and half of the season, and then left in free agency in 2025.
“When we made the trade for Haason [Reddick], we knew it was going to be next to impossible to keep JFM at his salary,’ then general manager Joe Douglas said on April 27, 2024.
The team attempted to convince JFM to take a pay cut; however, “it got to the point where the gap was too far for us to bridge,” Douglas said.
JFM, on the other hand, had a career year for the Broncos in 2024. He finished with seven sacks, 18 quarterback hits, and eight tackles for loss.
Plain and simple, the Jets screwed the pooch on this one. Now it’s time to correct a wrong.
A Trade Proposal for the Broncos to Consider
Franklin-Myers, 28, has one year left on his $15 million contract he signed last offseason.
The Jets’ depth is questionable at both defensive tackle and defensive end. JFM could hit two birds with one stone with his versatility.
It took a 2026 sixth-round pick to acquire JFM from the Jets. What if the Jets flipped a 2026 fifth-round pick to Denver for him?
Sure, the Jets would drop a round in the draft with this trade and have the embarrassment of what transpired last season. However, that would be a small price to pay to solve one of the biggest issues remaining with the Jets ahead of training camp.
Jets general manager Darren Mougey spent the last 13 years with the Broncos organization. He crossed over with Denver’s GM George Paton for four seasons from 2021-24.
Those two are incredibly close.
According to Zack Kelberman of Sports Illustrated, the Broncos have several defenders who are “extension-eligible players.”
That list includes defensive lineman Zach Allen, linebacker Nik Bonitto, and JFM. You can’t pay everyone.
Mougey can do Paton a favor by giving him a pick for a player he could lose anyway in a year. The ultimate win-win scenario.
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