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Jets' GM Darren Mougey's To-Do List: 'Keep Good Young Players on the Team' ...

Open to Moving Up and Moving Back in the NFL Draft 

New York Jets general manager Darren Mougey speaks during a press conference at the 2025 NFL Scouting Combine on Tuesday, February 25, 2025 in Indianapolis, Indiana. (Brooke Sutton/NFL)

As he detailed from the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis on Tuesday, Jets General manager Darren Mougey said that he, HC Aaron Glenn, the team's new group of assistant coaches, scouts and analytics folks have been sequestered for the past month at 1 Jets Drive as they plot their strategy for free agency, the draft, and beyond them, the coming 2025 season.

The team's new football leadership hit the ground running since they first appeared at a joint press conference in late January.

"It's been a whirlwind blur, but it's been really good and just getting more and more comfortable every day in the building, around the people and getting to know the coaches," Mougey said on the "Jets Live From the Combine" show. "So, it's been really good."

He added: "I mean, it's what I love to do. It's my passion. So when I get to jump into the football stuff with the staff and the scouting, I kind of get lost in it. And I just, I forget that I'm in Jersey, I forget that I'm away from the family, and I'm just in the work with the staff, and getting to know them, and just kind of buried in the football is what I love. So, it's been awesome"

Mougey, 39, was hired by the Jets after serving as the Denver Broncos' assistant GM for the past two years. His path to his current important position began as a 27-year-old scouting intern in 2012. Now one of the youngest general managers in the league, Mougey stressed his admiration for and determination to keep hold of the team's young talent.

"Yeah, I'm well aware of their contract situations, and those are things we'll address in the coming weeks," he said from the podium. "The To-Do list is to keep good young players on the team and add good players ... young, good players, talented players."

With the NFL Draft nearly two months away (April 24-26 in Green Bay), this week's focus is on the more than 300 players invited to the Combine. It's time to meet, greet and measure.

"It's a great opportunity to get around these young players," he said. "Any touch point we get with these guys, we should take advantage, and we're doing that with the formal interviews that started last night [Monday] and the informals. As I said, every chance we get to get around these young players and learn them as people and kind of get into their mind and how they think and their capacity is a great opportunity, and I'm glad we're here."

Once the Combine concludes this week, Mouge and his staff will focus on free agency, which begins on March 12. The Jets have more than 20 players eligible to sign new deals with the club or to consider offers from elsewhere including LB Jamien Sherwood, CB D.J. Reed, TE Tyler Conklin and RT Morgan Moses.

"It's a process, and I'm excited about a lot of the guys we have here on this Jets team and the potential free agents," he said. "But, you know, I just said at the podium, part of that process was letting the coaches evolve the roster, the scouts diving into it, and then getting together collectively as a group, both the coaches, the pro scouts, the analytics department, and talking about our roster, our potential jets, free agents, the market, what that looks like, and how it'll piece together. And you have a preliminary plan, but you know, we'll just see how the market unfolds."

Beyond the Combine and free agency, the draft looms, seemingly each day bringing a new collection of mock drafts, predictions and speculation. What is certain -- for now -- is that the Jets hold the No. 7 overall selection and have 8 total picks (again, for now).

"I'm excited about being at seven," he said. "There's a lot of good players in this draft. You never know how it's going to fall, but definitely open where we stand today to potentially moving up, potentially moving back, just depending on the type of player that's there and where we're at."

He added: "There's a lot of intriguing players in this draft, some good, talented players in the draft, at quarterback as well. I think it's a good draft class. I think in particular, the D-line is strong, stronger than years past. The running back group is good, but there's good players at every position, kind of throughout the draft."

Check out the top photos of Jets HC Aaron Glenn and GM Darren Mougey as they address the media at the 2025 NFL Scouting Combine.

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