Jets need to be ready to pounce on NFC team’s potential mistake

A lot can happen between the dog days of June and July and Week one of the NFL season. Players get hurt. Players lose starting jobs. Players get cut. Players get signed. That’s why training camps and preseason games don’t count, but they do matter.

The Jets are boasting one of the best rosters on paper as we get ready to enter the final phases of the offseason. But having the best roster on paper doesn’t win championship. Teams are constantly tinkering with their roster and their depth chart. Which is why some surprising names wind up as free agents just before the season starts.

With that in mind, AtoZSports beat writers compiled a list of surprising cut candidates and one name stood out as perfect fit for the New York Jets: Darrell Taylor of Seattle Seahawks.

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Taylor is an edge defender who knows how to get to the quarterback. He was drafted 48 ^th overall in the second round of the 2020 NFL draft. In 49 career games with the Seahawks, Taylor has 21.5 sacks and 67 tackles in only 13 games started.

On October 17, 2021, in a Sunday Night Football game against the Pittsburgh Steelers, Taylor suffered what appeared to be a serious neck injury and left the field on a stretcher. After the game, the Seahawks confirmed that Taylor had feeling in all his extremities. He returned to action and continued to be a pass rushing force for the Seahawks.

AtoZ’s Wendell Ferreira writes of Taylor, “He's been a solid player, but regressed to a 5.5-sack season in 2023. With Boye Mafe progressing and with the expensive addition of Dre'Mont Jones becoming more expensive cap-wise in year 2, cutting Taylor could be a viable, yet not likely, outcome for Seattle. The move can make sense especially because there's basically no dead money left, and the Seahawks would save $3.1 million.”

Taylor is a fantastic situational pass rusher, which is just the type of player the New York Jets and Robert Saleh love. Taylor would provide insurance if Haason Reddick continues to hold out , especially after thing appear to be growing contentious between him and the Jets front office. He could also be insurance if Will McDonald IV doesn’t reach his full potential.

The Jets are obviously still in the market for a pass rusher on the outside after inviting Takk McKinley to minicamp and then offering him a contract after the tryout. Taylor would be an upgrade over McKinley and in Jeff Ulbrich’s defense, might even be a star in the making.

The Jets are in win-now mode and can’t afford to play games with Haason Reddick as he continues to try and get a new deal from Joe Douglas. If Taylor becomes available, the Jets should pounce immediately.

Related: Three players the Jets need to immediately lock up for the foreseeable future