Kicker Nick Folk is moving to a new team for his 19th NFL season.
Tom Pelissero of NFL Media reports that Folk has agreed to sign with the Falcons when the new league year opens on Wednesday. It is a two-year deal for the 41-year-old kicker.
Folk was 28-of-29 on field goals for the Jets last season and led the league in field goal percentage for the third straight season. He also connected on all 22 of his extra point attempts.
NFL Media also reports that tight end Austin Hooper has agreed to a one-year, $3.25 million deal with the Falcons. Hooper was a 2016 third-round pick in Atlanta and spent four seasons with the team. He spent 2025 with the Patriots and had 21 catches for 263 yards and two touchdowns for the AFC champions.
The Jets continued to revamp their defense on Monday by bringing back a former member of the team.
Linebacker Demario Davis is returning for a third stint with the AFC East club. Per multiple reports, he has agreed to a two-year, $22 million deal with $15 million fully guaranteed.
Davis was a Jets third-round pick in 2012 and spent four seasons with the team before playing in Cleveland in 2016. He returned for one year and then spent the last eight seasons with the Saints.
Davis started all 131 games he played in New Orleans and is coming off a season with 143 tackles, a half-sack, two forced fumbles and a fumble recovery.
The Jets have also agreed to sign defensive ends Joseph Ossai and Kingsley Enagbare on Monday. They are also set to add safety Minkah Fitzpatrick in a trade with the Dolphins once the 2026 league year opens on Wednesday.
The Jets have agreed to make a couple of additions to their defensive line early in free agency.
Defensive ends Joseph Ossai and Kingsley Enagbare have both agreed to deals with the team. According to multiple reports, Ossai has agreed to a three-year, $36 million deal with the team and Enagbare has agreed to sign a one-year, $10 million pact.
Ossai was a 2021 third-round pick in Cincinnati and he had 14.5 sacks while playing a rotational role with the Bengals over the last four seasons. He also had 116 tackles, 44 quarterback hits, four forced fumbles and two fumble recoveries.
Enagbare was a 2022 fifth-round pick and he appeared in every Packers game during his four years in Green Bay. He had 146 tackles, 11.5 sacks, 31 quarterback hits, three forced fumbles and a fumble recovery.
The Jets also agreed to trade for veteran safety Minkah Fitzpatrick on Monday as they work to remake one of the league’s worst defenses.
Minkah Fitzpatrick is on the move again.
The Dolphins are trading Fitzpatrick to the Jets, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
New York is sending a 2026 seventh-round pick from the Chargers to Miami to complete the deal.
Schefter also notes Fitzpatrick will sign a three-year $40 million deal with the Jets upon completion of the trade.
The Jets’ acquisition cannot become official until the start of the new league year on Wednesday.
Fitzpatrick was a Dolphins first-round pick back in 2018, but was traded to the Steelers in 2019. Pittsburgh traded him back to Miami last offseason, with the safety starting 14 games in 2025. He recorded 82 total tackles with four tackles for loss, a sack, six passes defensed, and an interception.
Fitzpatrick is a five-time Pro Bowler and three-time AP first-team All-Pro.
As the Jets cast a wide net at quarterback, they could be pursuing one who got away.
Rich Cimini of ESPN, in an item that reviews the many possibilities at the position, mentions a potential reunion with a player the Jets selected in the second round of the 2013 draft.
Yes, there’s a chance Geno Smith will be coming back to Broadway. (Or, technically, the state that adjoins it.)
Cimini notes that the Jets had “high grades” on Smith a year ago, when he was traded by the Seahawks to the Raiders for a third-round pick.
Smith’s two-year stint as the Jets’ starter ended in 2015, when he suffered a broken jaw after taking a locker-room sucker punch from IK Enemkpali in August. The former West Virginia standout stayed on the roster through the 2016 season, before embarking on a five-year run with three different teams (Giants, Chargers, Seahawks) as a backup.
Smith inherited the starting job in Seattle after the Russell Wilson trade, ending an eight-year gap as a full-time starter.
He’s due to be cut by the Raiders, unless a trade materializes. Smith is owed $18.5 million in 2026, with another $8 million fully vesting later this week.
Although Smith made $40 million last year, he’ll likely not receive an offer exceeding the $18 million he’s already guaranteed to make in 2026. He could take a one-year deal for the minimum of $1.3 million, making him a low-cost option for a team interested in his services.
Could that happen with the Jets? While the coach and G.M. have changed (multiple times) since Smith left, the Jets have the same owner — and the same fan base. If the guy who holds the pink slip and the folks who wear the green jerseys to games are fine with a reunion, a Geno revival could be a viable short-term option for coach Aaron Glenn and first-year offensive coordinator Frank Reich.
Stranger things have happened in New York sports. At a time when multiple failed Jets draft picks at quarterback have found success elsewhere, why not bring one of them back for another go?
While it could be a low-risk move from a cost standpoint, the P.R. hit could be more than the Jets are willing to endure. Last year in Las Vegas didn’t go well for Smith. If the Jets roll out the red carpet and the losses once again outpace the wins, the Jets would be welcoming even more scrutiny and criticism.
