FLORHAM PARK, N.J. (AP) — New York Jets general manager Darren Mougey said Monday the team will exercise the fifth-year contract options for cornerback Sauce Gardner, wide receiver Garrett Wilson and edge rusher Jermaine Johnson.
Gardner, Wilson and Johnson are considered foundation-type players for the new-look Jets, who have a new GM in Mougey and coach in Aaron Glenn.
The three were first-round picks in 2022 and have been bright spots during a rough stretch for a franchise that has the NFL's longest active playoff drought at 14 seasons. Gardner is a two-time All-Pro selection, Wilson has more than 1,000 yards receiving in each of his first three seasons and Johnson was a Pro Bowl pick in 2023 before tearing his right Achilles tendon in Week 2 last year.
“We have time to make that decision, but I do anticipate those fifth-year options on those players,” Mougey said during the team's pre-draft news conference.
According to Over the Cap's projections of fifth-year options that kick in during the 2026 season, Gardner would receive $20.2 million, Wilson $16.8 million and Johnson $13.4 million — with all of those salaries guaranteed.
The deadline for NFL teams to exercise the options is May 1, and Mougey indicated the Jets are focused right now on the draft. New York has the seventh overall pick Thursday night, when the three-day draft begins.
Mougey declined to say whether he and the team are open to having talks about contract extensions for the trio.
“I'm going to get through the draft,” Mougey said. “But in terms of contracts and extensions on any players, I'll always keep that in-house. We'll keep those dealings and discussions in-house.”
Former Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers, who was released last month, revealed some of the conversations he had with the team during his appearance last week on “The Pat McAfee Show” and was critical of the way the Jets — particularly Glenn — handled the situation.
Rodgers, who said he is keeping both playing and retirement on the table, said he felt disrespected by Glenn during the brief but somewhat contentious meeting on Feb. 6 at the team's facility. Mougey, who was at that meeting, declined to address Rodgers' comments.
“I understand the question and I addressed that at the (NFL) combine,” Mougey said of the team's conversations with Rodgers. “Today, I just want to talk about the draft and current Jets players.”
He repeated that when he was asked if he has any regrets about that meeting with Rodgers. During the combine in Indianapolis in February, Mougey said he has “a lot of respect for Aaron Rodgers as a player and a person, first-ballot Hall of Famer," but the Jets made the decision to move forward without Rodgers and "look forward to kind of moving past that and into this next process here with free agency and the draft.”
The Jets signed Justin Fields last month as a free agent. Fields, who played in Pittsburgh last season after three years in Chicago, is set to be New York's starting quarterback this upcoming season.
“Yeah, we feel really good about Justin as our starter moving forward and believe in Justin, that we can win with Justin,” Mougey said. “He was a priority in free agency and we’re glad we got him here.”
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New York Jets general manager Darren Mougey speaks to reporters at the team's facility in Florham Park, New Jersey, on Monday, April 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Dennis Waszak Jr.)
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stock indexes are falling on Wednesday following mixed profit reports from several big banks.
The S&P 500 sank 0.8% and was on track for a second straight loss after setting its all-time high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 177 points, or 0.4%, as of 2:18 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 1.5% lower.
Wells Fargo helped pull the market lower after falling 5%. The San Francisco-based bank reported weaker profit and revenue for the latest quarter than expected, with analysts citing lower trading fees and other miscellaneous items.
Bank of America fell 4.3% despite reporting a stronger profit than analysts expected, with some consternation about the size of its upcoming expenses. Citigroup, which is in the midst of a turnaround under Chair and CEO Jane Fraser, fell 4.2% following its own profit report.
Companies across industries need to report strong growth in profits to justify how high their stock prices have run recently. Analysts are looking for businesses across the S&P 500 to report earnings per share for the final three months of 2025 that are roughly 8% higher than a year earlier, according to FactSet.
Biogen sank 5.2% after the biotechnology company said it expects to take a hit to its profit for the fourth quarter of 2025 due to research and development expenses and other costs that it acquired.
The heaviest weights on the market were tech stocks, which gave back some of their huge gains made over recent years from the frenzy around artificial-intelligence technology. Nvidia fell 2.1%, and Broadcom sank 4.6%.
Still, nearly as many stocks on Wall Street rose as fell, and the strongest forces keeping the S&P 500 from steeper losses were Exxon Mobil and other oil companies.
Exxon Mobil rose 3.5%, and Chevron climbed 2.7% as the price of a barrel of benchmark U.S. crude added 1.3% to bring its gain for the year to more than 7%.
Oil prices have rallied as protests have swept Iran, which is a member of the OPEC group that helps set crude prices. The protests could lead to disruptions in production and squeeze supplies of crude.
Besides the rise in oil prices, gold's price also rose 0.9% toward a record in another signal of nervousness across financial markets.
In the bond market, Treasury yields sank as investors sought investments seen as safer. Several reports on the U.S. economy also came in mixed.
One said that shoppers spent more at U.S. retailers in November than economists expected. That could be an encouraging signal about the main engine of the U.S. economy, but economists pointed to some concerning signals were underneath the surface.
A separate report said prices rose modestly at the U.S. wholesale level in November. It followed a report on Tuesday that said inflation at the U.S. consumer level was close last month to economists’ expectations, though it remained above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target.
A third report said sales of occupied homes were stronger last month than economists expected. Taken altogether, the data did little to change Wall Street's expectation that the Federal Reserve will cut its main interest rate at least twice this year to shore up the job market, likely beginning around June, according to CME Group.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.14% from 4.18% late Tuesday.
In stock markets abroad, Japan’s Nikkei 225 rallied 1.5% to another record expectations grew that Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi may call general elections soon.
Indexes were mixed elsewhere. Stocks rose 0.6% in Hong Kong but fell 0.3% in Shanghai after a report showed China’s trade surplus surged 20% in 2025 to a record despite President Donald Trump’s tariffs.
AP Business Writers Yuri Kageyama and Matt Ott contributed.
Specialist Michael Pistillo works at his post on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Friday, Jan. 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
A dealer watches computer monitors near the screens showing the foreign exchange rates at a dealing room of Hana Bank in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
The screens show the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), left, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won are seen at a dealing room of Hana Bank in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
A dealer walks past near the screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) at a dealing room of Hana Bank in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
A dealer stands near the screens showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), left, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won at a dealing room of Hana Bank in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
