Nahshon Wright came through with a big contract year, doing so after being previously discarded. Wright’s market did not heat up to the point teams are completely sold, but the veteran cornerback will see a 2026 raise.
The Jets are adding Wright on a one-year deal worth up to $5.5MM, NFL insider Jordan Schultz tweets. It certainly seems teams expressed considerable skepticism at Wright’s five-interception Bears season, as this amounts to a “prove it” contract.
A former Cowboys third-round pick, Wright played a key role for a division-winning Bears team. The 6-foot-4 corner benefited from Jaylon Johnson’s early-season injury, starting 16 games. Once Johnson returned from injury, the Bears continued to deploy Wright as a starter by reducing former second-round pick Tyrique Stevenson‘s role. But Wright’s past looks to have made a big investment a tough sell for some teams. Wright was interested in re-signing with the Bears, but it does not appear the interest was mutual.
The Cowboys gave up on Wright during their 2024 training camp, trading him straight up for Vikings second-round corner Andrew Booth. The latter is now in the UFL. Minnesota also released Wright in April 2025, leading to his Chicago stop. The would-be Bears depth piece impressed with his coverage instincts, compensating for suboptimal speed. The Bears used the reclamation project on 97% of their snaps, far outpacing Stevenson’s workload.
This represents a raise for Wright, who played for just $1.1MM in 2025, but it also may be costly. Wright is heading into his age-28 season; the Oregon State will need to submit a quality Jets campaign to drive a market in 2027 — or through an extension — and he is running out of time on that front.
New York has disbanded its strong CB trio from the Robert Saleh years, trading both Sauce Gardner and Michael Carter II and letting D.J. Reed walk (to the Lions) last year in free agency. Aaron Glenn‘s team acquired Jarvis Brownlee from the Titans early last season, doing so after signing ex-Ravens CB2 Brandon Stephens to a $12MM-per-year deal. The team used a third-round pick on Azareye’h Thomas last year as well. This setup did not deliver much in Year 1, as the Jets’ defense cratered, but Wright should bring some upside — especially at this low price.
At $5.5 million for one year, might as well take a look. When I saw the headline without the number, I was very worried. When a corner makes a few big splash plays, but also gets beat a ton, be very careful not to pay too much for the splash plays, because they’re *way* less likely to be repeated than the getting beat part. Seems like the league agrees.
Wouldn’t have minded bears bringing him back at that price. There were some absurd projections out there saying 3/30MM. For this price though seems like an easy gamble to make.