The Jets use the franchise tag on Brees Hall, and it's 100% the correct decision.

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Welcome, this is the Locked-on Jets podcast, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day.

It is Wednesday, March 4th, 2026, and I'm your host, John B from gangreneation.com. Thank you so much for making the show your first listen or first watch every day. And for making locked on the number one sports podcast network. A big shout out to you every day. Or if you're new to the show, this is a daily podcast covering the New York Jets with new episodes each day through the week, Monday, through Friday. On today's show, we have our weekly mailbag Each Wednesday, we do a mailbag with listener questions. On today's show, we'll talk about some of the Jets' options at quarterback this offseason, both conventional and unconventional. We'll talk about Ohio State prospect, Sunny Stiles, who has risen up draft boards after a stellar performance at the Combine. We'll compare him to his Ohio State State teammate R. Val Reese. But before we get to the mailbag, we've got to talk about some big Jets news. The Jets placed the franchise tag on running back Brees Hall yesterday. And I think

that this is 100% the correct move for the Jets. Breast now will no longer be a free agent when the new league year begins next week.

Instead, he gets a one-year contract worth $14.293 million.

Now, that's a lot of money, particularly for a running back.

But I don't think the Jets could let Fries Hall leave and receive nothing in return. And that was the risk that

they ran if they did not put the franchise tag on him. This is a Jets team that is lacking

talent. Sometimes when we talk about team building in the NFL, answers aren't simple.

This is not one of those cases. I think it comes down to this. The Jets need more

good players. The Jets are not in position to let good players leave, particularly when they're going

to enter the offseason with a ton of cap space. And this is looking like a pretty weak free agent

class, generally speaking. There's not going to be a lot of players you're going to want to throw a ton of money at.

So I don't see how you let a player like Brees Hall leave your building.

Is it ideal to pay Brees over $14.2 million on a one-year deal?

No, it's not.

But it's less ideal to let him leave.

Particularly, and I think this is also important because there's the small picture stuff, but there's also the big picture stuff, and we have to zoom out a little bit. You may remember the trade deadline. The Jets were one of the most active teams, and they were big time sellers. They traded Sauce Gardner to the Indianapolis Colts. They traded Quinn and Williams to the Dallas Cowboys.

They did not, however, trade Breece Hall, even though they reportedly had an offer on the table from the Kansas City Chiefs for a fourth round pick. And if you were going to turn down a fourth

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