Barely a half-hour after agreeing to send Bradley Chubb to the Dolphins, the Broncos are acquiring another edge player. They will land Jacob Martin from the Jets, Ian Rapoport of NFL.com tweets.
This is a pick-swap agreement, with Rapoport adding the Broncos will send a 2024 fourth-rounder to the Jets in exchange for Martin and a 2024 fifth. This is Martin’s second time being traded; he was part of the Seahawks and Texans’ 2019 Jadeveon Clowney deal.
Martin, 26, is a Denver-area native under contract through 2024. The Jets signed the former Seahawks and Texans edge defender to a three-year, $13.5MM deal this offseason. In eight Jets games as a backup, Martin registered 1.5 sacks and four quarterback hits. Martin’s departure figures to free up more playing time for first-round pick Jermaine Johnson.
A former Seahawks sixth-round pick in 2018, Martin has been a decent backup rusher. He has 15 career sacks and seven forced fumbles. In his lone starter season (2021 in Houston), the Temple alum registered a career-high four sacks and forced four fumbles. Martin will be asked to contribute to a pass rush that has seen injuries and today’s Chubb trade deplete it.
Denver has Randy Gregory on IR with a knee injury and Baron Browning on the mend due to a hip ailment. With Chubb gone, the AFC West team that possessed a training camp edge surplus needed bodies. Nik Bonitto and 2021 seventh-round pick Jonathon Cooper stand as Denver’s top available rushers. Martin, who is owed less than $700K the rest of the way this year, stands to contribute going forward. Martin is tied to $4.25MM and $3.5MM base salaries in 2023 and ’24, respectively.
The Jets feature a deep pass-rushing contingent, with Carl Lawson and John Franklin-Myers operating as the team’s starting D-ends. Chosen 26th overall after the Jets traded back into Round 1, Johnson has yet to play more than 34% of the team’s defensive snaps in a game. Johnson (1.5 sacks) and Vinny Curry reside as Gang Green’s backup edges.
bad trade
For whom? The Jets traded a rotational player who’s been moving down the defensive pecking order to a team that just had a bunch of pass rushing snaps open up in exchange for modest compensation.
Good trade. The Chubb deal was in my opinion the result of mismanagement due to the Gregory signing, but Denver is getting an experienced rotational player to help fill in that gap.
Chubb may not have been worth the deal that he’ll eventually get (and that Gregory got, despite being a shorter term bet than Chubb), but his departure and Gregory’s unavailability creates a spot for someone to start temporarily. Denver’s reliance on its defense and the inexperience of its currently available group made edge rusher a priority. Swapping picks for a fill-in is not a bad idea, and shows commitment to that spot.
Chubb is a bad long term signing with his injury history. Broncos get a first (albeit likely a low first rounder due to 49’ers original spot?) and a RB for a player that they weren’t going to sign long term. He’s (Chubb) at his peak value currently.
They flip late round picks AND get a rotational player with no red flags with a couple years left on contract from the Jets? Hard to see how this is a loser for the Broncos. Sure he’s not a starter, but I trust Paton’s scouting abilities.
This should be a good deal for both teams. The Jets will give Jermaine Johnson more playing time and gain a little cap space this year, albeit with some dead money next year, that they could use to sign a player. They’ll probably wait for Fant and Mitchell to return to improve the o-line, but they could look for other backup options. I’m not sure what else would be available at tackle other than the two they already signed to the roster – Ogbuehi and Remmers – but they could look to see if Dr. Duvernay-Tardif wants to return if they’re concerned about Herbig at guard.
Expensive and Expendable. Glad to have the 4th
They could of made a swap trade plus picks to the Broncos for Chubbs. But, then again The Jets make no sense when it comes to their trades anyway