Reframing the Future and Why the Jets Trades Aren’t a Tank Job
The New York Jets made massive news at the NFL trade deadline in trading away two of their biggest stars in cornerback Sauce Gardener and defensive tackle Quinnen Williams who were both former top 5 draft picks for the team. In exchange for giving away their two best defensive players, the Jets received multiple future first round draft picks. From an outside perspective, it was easy for the media and outside attention to come up with the narrative that the Jets are tanking and that they have given up. Since the team has had an underperforming season with a current record of 2-8 and little to no chance at a playoff berth, the narrative of the team tanking gained a lot of traction. But as talked about in Week 11 of Sport, Fitness and the Media, there is rarely one absolute truth in sports. Instead, sports stories in most cases are built through interpretation, perspective, and context and these massive trades by the Jets are no different. While these two stars for the Jets had a bi...