Report: Jets Owner Nixed WR-for-WR Trade With Broncos

A Denver Broncos trade that never was.

East Rutherford, NJ -- September 29 -- Allen Lazard of the Jetsduring pre game warm ups as the Denver Broncos and New York Jets meet at MetLife Stadium. / Chris Pedota, NorthJersey.com / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Amid the fallout from the New York Jets, who recently fired GM Joe Douglas after relieving head coach Robert Saleh of his duties earlier this season, nuggets of information about the inner workings of a dysfunctional organization are beginning to trickle out. Good ownership groups empower the football people in an organization with the tools to succeed but leave football decisions to the football people.

In a recent bombshell by Dianna Russini of The Athletic, Jets owner Woody Johnson, irate after the team's 10-9 loss in the Week 4 slop-fest vs. the Denver Broncos, reportedly demanded quarterback Aaron Rodgers be benched for backup quarterback Tyrod Taylor. Team leaders talked him down at the time, but this incident paints a picture of the overreaching nature of the Jets’ ownership.

Russini's report also leaked that the Jets had a trade in place for former Broncos’ wide receiver Jerry Jeudy this past offseason — before he was dealt to the Cleveland Browns. But Johnson torpedoed it.

“Douglas pursued a trade with the Denver Broncos for wide receiver Jerry Jeudy, offering Allen Lazard and a Day 2 draft pick, according to a league source, but Johnson nixed it. Jeudy was instead traded to the Cleveland Browns," Russini wrote.

This wasn't the first time the Broncos were rumored to be interested in Lazard, reportedly making an aggressive pursuit of the wideout prior to the 2023 season, per Aaron Schultz. Sean Payton is obviously intrigued by the athletic profile offered by Lazard at 6-foot-5 and 230 pounds, as this nixed trade by the Jets’ owner is the second time Denver pursued the former Iowa State wide receiver.

The trade sending Jeudy to the Jets for Lazard and a Day 2 pick ostensibly had to involve the Broncos eating a large portion of Lazard’s remaining contract that runs through 2026 with a $13 million-per-year cap hit. Eating the contract and creating cap space for the Jets is why the draft pick compensation of a Day 2 pick differed vastly from what Denver ultimately received from the Browns in a 2024 fifth and sixth-round pick.

The large takeaway from this trade from a Denver perspective is that the “big slot” role occupied by Lazard is one that Payton wants to deploy. Payton was reportedly very impressed by Las Vegas Raiders tight end Brock Bowers, who operates in the slot as much as inline coming out of Georgia.

The Broncos also hoped for tight end Greg Dulcich to operate as a hybrid receiver/tight end before his untrustworthiness cost him reps. Lil'Jordan Humphrey now occupies the role on the offense, accumulating the third-most skill-position snaps on offense this season, behind only Courtland Sutton and Javonte Williams.

Denver may not have the big body physical wide receiver/tight end athlete that can block from the slot and inline, be a yards-after-catch threat, and stress defenses like Payton wants just yet, but the consistent hunt for that prototype of player should dictate possible directions the Broncos could go this upcoming offseason to build a Super Bowl contender around Bo Nix.