The Jets have placed the franchise tag on running back Breece Hall.
Hall was slated to become an unrestricted free agent next week, but the tag means the Jets are planning to hold onto him.
If Hall wants to, he can now sign a one-year, $14.293 million contract for the Jets to play for them in 2026 and then hit free agency again in 2027, or get franchised again, which would increase his salary to $17.152 million.
Or Hall can continue to negotiate a long-term contract with the Jets. A deal beyond 2026 would have to get done by the July 15 deadline; otherwise he can only sign a one-year contract this year.
The Jets could also work out a trade with another team that wants Hall and is willing to pay him what he’s asking for. Or another team could sign Hall to an offer sheet, but in that case, if the Jets didn’t match the offer, the team would have to send the Jets two first-round draft picks. Which means it’s not going to happen.
Most likely, Hall and the Jets will work something out, and he’ll remain with them in 2026 and beyond.
The NFL is a deadline-driven business. And an important annual deadline arrives today.
The two-week window for applying the franchise or transition tag closes at 4:00 p.m. ET on Tuesday.
There’s really no reason for a two-week period. All that matters is the end, not the beginning. And while there’s some value in applying the tag before the Scouting Combine as a way to short-circuit tampering efforts, only two teams put the word out before things got rolling in Indianapolis that key players would be off-limits — Falcons tight end Kyle Pitts Sr. and Cowboys receiver George Pickens.
Will there be more? Obviously, if any will happen, it will happen today.
The players to watch are Colts quarterback Daniel Jones (and, if they work out a deal with him today, Colts receiver Alec Pierce), Jets running back Breece Hall, and Bengals defensive end Trey Hendrickson.
If no additional tags are applied, it will be the second straight year with only two. And the two applied in 2025 were the fewest since 2006.
Time will tell. And the clock is ticking. We’ll know at 4:00 p.m. ET who is, and isn’t, blocked from the open market by the franchise or transition tag.
Everyone expects the Raiders to take Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza with the first overall pick in the 2026 NFL draft. The No. 2 pick is where the draft gets interesting.
Ohio State edge rusher Arvell Reese is currently the favorite to go with the No. 2 pick, which is owned by the Jets. Reese’s odds to go second overall are -140.
The next-best odds are for Texas Tech outside linebacker David Bailey, at +160, followed by Miami defensive end Rueben Bain at +800, Ohio State safety Caleb Downs at +1400 and Ohio State linebacker Sonny Styles at +1500.
An interesting long shot is Alabama quarterback Ty Simpson at +4000. Most draft analysts don’t view Simpson as the kind of talent worthy of the second overall pick, but the Jets desperately need a quarterback, and if they think Simpson is going to be an NFL starter, he might make sense as the pick at No. 2.
The Jets didn’t have much to say about their plans at the quarterback position at the Scouting Combine last week, but things should come into clearer view in the near future.
They opened the 2025 season with Justin Fields in the job, cycled through Tyrod Taylor and lost their final four games with undrafted rookie Brady Cook getting his first taste of NFL action. Fields signed a two-year deal, but General Manager Darren Mougey said only that he’s under contract while saying the team would evaluate the position “through every landscape” as they head toward the 2026 campaign.
Free agency and the trade market are the first landscapes up on the calendar and Rich Cimini of ESPN.com had a report about the team’s potential path through those phases over the weekend. Cimini reported that there’s a feeling that the team could look to add a pair of veteran options to the roster as they try to improve on last year’s 3-14 record.
Cimini adds that the options they are not expected to focus on options at the top end of the market and mentions names like Tyson Bagent, Tanner McKee, Spencer Rattler, and Jarrett Stidham as the kind of players that the team could work to acquire.
There’s also the draft, but the Raiders aren’t expected to trade them the No. 1 pick so they can take Fernando Mendoza and there’s no quarterback that would make sense at No. 2. The Jets have another first-rounder and two second-round picks, but they also have three 2027 first-round picks and going the stop-gap route could signal that they’ll wait to go all in on another young quarterback.
The Jets have the misfortune of needing a quarterback, and having the No. 2 overall pick, in a year when there’s only one elite quarterback prospect in the draft. Jets General Manager Darren Mougey would love to trade up and draft Fernando Mendoza, but he doesn’t expect the Raiders to be interested.
Mougey said he would talk to his friend Raiders GM John Spytek about the No. 1 overall pick, but he thinks Spytek will tell him there’s no chance.
“Absolutely, we’ll talk about all those things, but I don’t think that’s happening,” Mougey said, via Rich Cimini of ESPN.
If they wanted to, the Jets could put together a massive package of picks to get Mendoza. In addition to their own picks, the Jets have the Colts’ first-round picks in 2026 and 2027, plus the higher of the Cowboys’ or Packers’ first-round pick in 2027. Teams can trade first-round picks up to three years in advance, so the Jets could call the Raiders right now and offer them a total of six first-round picks for the No. 1 pick.
That would be one of the biggest trades in NFL history, and a trade Mougey doesn’t think is realistic.
