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The Jets potentially made one of the better trades of the NFL off-season, acquiring massive nose tackle T’Vondre Sweat from the Tennessee Titans for defensive end Jermaine Johnson in March.
Trading Johnson was not a tough decision, despite the media hype for the player. The edge-rusher had only three sacks last season, and is not a game-wrecking pass rusher, but more of a #2 end, and he’s getting close to that second contract, and it’s unlikely the Jets were going to pay him big bucks.
His effort is good, but he doesn’t have the hip flexion to dip under offensive tackles, a key part of being a great edge-rusher, so he usually has to rely on a bull rush.
“Face-up rusher with some hip tightness when bending the edge, wrote NFL.com’s Lance Zierlein when Johnson came out of Florida State in 2022.
So when the Titans offered 6-4, 366-pound nose tackle T’Vondre Sweat for Johnson, making the trade was a no-brainer for the Jets.
Titans star defensive tackle Jeffrey Simmons could not believe Tennessee traded Sweat.
“It was a surprise to me,” Simmons told CBS Sports recently. “Just trying to get a feel for why.”
While Sweat has been a little inconsistent in Tennessee, who hasn’t on that team, aside from perhaps Simmons.
“I hate it, but it’s a business,” Simmons said about the Sweat trade.
Sweat could benefit from slimming down a little, perhaps playing in the 340s instead of the 360s, but he is right out of Central Casting for what the Jets need: a massive, athletic run-stuffer to help fix their run defense issues up the middle.
The Jets got gashed up the middle quite a bit by runs up the middle, where their defensive tackles could not get off blocks, with the last time we saw the Jets play in a game being a perfect example.
With the Bills playing four backups on the offensive line, and with reserve running back Ray Davis as the main ball carrier, the Jets’ defense was dominated on the ground.
Davis rushed 21 times for 151 yards in Buffalo’s 35-8 win.
Something had to change, and Jets GM Darren Mougey went out and attempted to upgrade the Jets’ defensive tackle position, trading for Sweat and signing free agent DT David Onyemata, who will both start.
Harrison Phillips is a great human being, and very good with the press (which should not factor into the media’s evaluation of his play), but he’s best served at this point of his career as a rotationed DT spelling the starters, and there is nothing wrong with that, and it’s very important to have good rotational DTs. You gotta spell the starters at the position quite a bit due to their size.
Saleh didn’t think Sweat was a good fit for his defensive scheme, which generally calls for small, quicker defensive tackles who are good at shooting gaps and running sideline-to-sideline.
A couple of weeks before trading Sweat to the Jets, Saleh said at the 2026 combine that playing in his system would be challenging for the massive Texan:
“Is it going to be easy for him? It’s not. It is a lot of work. It is physically demanding to play D-line in our system. But I do think he’s up to the task. I’ve had great conversations with him and I’m excited to see him get to work.”
Perhaps he wasn’t that excited, because two weeks later, he traded him.
Saleh’s run defense up the middle was never great with the Jets using his system, consistently getting gashed up the middle, with undersized defensive tackles like Quinnen Williams and Solomon Thomas, often getting enveloped by offensive linemen who often outweighed them by 30-40 pounds.
The issues continued last year under defensive coordinator Steve Wilks, and then the interim defensive coordinator Chris Harris, who took over in December.
Sweat is so perfect for what they need.
This trade could be a major steal.
Understandably, Simmons was confused by the deal.
May 19, 2026
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