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After a 2025 off-season that, in retrospect, perhaps wasn’t handled in the most ideal fashion, it looks like Mougey’s measured, pragmatic plan, devoid of profligate spending, made the Jets a lot better. Mougey did a good job of spreading the Jets’ cap space around, not only filling many starting roles with reasonable contracts but also providing the Jets with more depth, which they lacked last year.
Mougey’s college teammate at San Diego State, Minnesota Vikings QB Kevin O’Connell, made some news late last week with some complimentary comments about the Jets’ GM.
“I know there’s not a day Darren shows up to work that he doesn’t feel prepared — and I think that’s proving to be the case,” O’Connell said in a press conference promoting the American Century Golf Tournament. “He’s not afraid to make difficult decisions, and I think that’s because it’s in alignment with the process that he has. He’s attempting to execute a vision for that organization.”
Some will say that is just a guy praising his buddy, but based on what we saw transpire throughout the off-season in Florham Park, maybe this is beyond a rhetorical quote.
From trying to fix a defense that was broken last year, via trades, free agent signings, and draft picks, or getting long-term deals done, that didn’t break the bank, with two of the team’s better players – running back Breece Hall and guard Joe Tippmann, Mougey seemed to lord over an off-season plan to fix Gang Green that made a lot of sense.
It looks like the Jets might have nailed this GM hire.
“He is just someone that was really smart and detail-oriented,” said former Jets GM Mike Tannenbaum, who run a consulting firm, The 33rd Team, which assisted the Jets in their GM search in 2025. “He had a really interesting, detailed approach to the process. If you look at his background, he’s been in one organization, but has been around a lot of high-performing, high-achieving people and has been there through multiple ownerships.”
Mougey worked his way up the ranks with the Denver Broncos, impressing different regimes and two different ownership groups, with his hard work and scouting acumen. After a short stint in the NFL as a WR, he joined the Broncos as a scouting intern in 2012, and then was promoted to a scouting assistant, and then moved up to area scout to assistant college scouting director, and then to Jets GM.
He paid his dues, working in several different roles in the Broncos’ scouting department, making his way up the ladder, preparing him well for this moment.
And it looks like he lorded over a solid off-season for the Jets.
“Everything has been really well thought-out,” O’Connell said. “A lot of teams put the time and the energy into having as much good planning as you can — but it’s about the execution of those plans. The way Darren has gone about it doesn’t surprise me.”
July 6, 2026
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