The New York Jets currently have arguably the league’s worst quarterback room.
Justin Fields proved unplayable over the first half of the 2025 season, Tyrod Taylor can’t stay healthy enough to be a long-term starting option, and Brady Cook looks exactly what he is: an undrafted free agent rookie quarterback.
It’s abundantly clear that they’ll be on the hunt for a new signal caller this offseason, and while some may have reservations about dropping a first-year player onto this team, it may be the Jets’ best way to turn the franchise around.
The problem is, they likely won’t be picking high enough to have first dibs on a quarterback of their choosing.
As of December 23, the New York Giants currently hold the No. 1 overall pick, and if the Jets want to make a move for that draft slot, one insider says they’re going to have to pay up.
Giants Would Hold No. 1 Pick for Ransom Over Jets
According to SNY’s New York football insider Connor Hughes, the New York Giants would force the New York Jets to “pay a premium” in any trade for the No. 1 overall pick in the 2026 NFL Draft.
On Jets Final Drive with Hughes and The Athletic’s Zack Rosenblatt, the insider laid out the groundwork of what a potential trade may look like for the Jets to move up to the first overall pick.
He claimed it would cost this year’s No. 4 overall pick, No. 18, and a 2027 first-round pick.
A fan responded with absolute dismay, confused at the high cost for moving up only three spots in the first round.
But Hughes highlighted how much it took for the Jacksonville Jaguars to trade up three spots in this past April’s draft, for a non-quarterback nonetheless.
While the Jets are one of four teams with two first-round picks in the 2026 draft, their selections will arguably be worth the most among the Cleveland Browns, Los Angeles Rams, and Dallas Cowboys.
But according to Hughes, if the Giants receive similar offers from the Jets and another team looking to move up for a quarterback of their choosing, they would spurn their crosstown rival.
Fair or not, the Jets and Giants do not have a great history in terms of trading with one another.
And if Gang Green is going to land their franchise quarterback via Big Blue, it’s going to cost them.
Jets-Giants Trade History
Throughout the long and storied history of both the New York Giants and New York Jets, you can count on one hand how many times both teams have traded with one another.
Despite almost 50 years in the same league, the only times the two teams have come together in trades were in the past six years.
In 2019, the Jets shipped former first-round pick Leonard Williams to the Giants in exchange for a 2020 third-round pick and a 2021 fourth-round pick, marking the first time a deal had ever been completed between the two New York teams.
In 2022, the two clubs made a trade on Day 2 of the NFL Draft, with the Jets trading up to No. 36 for the chance to select Breece Hall. The Giants received No. 38 overall and the 146th overall pick.
Clearly, the two teams do their best to avoid transactions with one another, likely to prevent one team from taking advantage of the other.
If the Giants end up holding onto the No. 1 pick over the final two games of the 2025 season, that mindset will remain the same, according to Hughes.
After all, Big Blue being the reason the Jets land their first franchise quarterback in what feels like a millennium would be talked about in New York sports lore for the rest of time.
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