Dalvin Cook, Carl Lawson are unhappy: Will Jets actually trade them?

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FLORHAM PARK, N.J. — Another year, another couple of Jets players unhappy with their roles. Last year, receivers Elijah Moore and Denzel Mims requested trades. Ultimately nothing materialized in-season — both have since been traded — and Jets coach Robert Saleh found a way to keep it from being a real distraction.

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At least he has experience in that area.

This year, the two unhappy Jets — running back Dalvin Cook and defensive end Carl Lawson — are two veterans who have fallen out of the rotation in their position groups and haven’t been playing much in recent games. Neither has officially requested a trade, but both made it clear on Thursday that they’d be open to moving to another team if it meant they’d get on the field more.

The trade deadline is on Tuesday. Early indications are that there isn’t much interest in either Cook or Lawson around the league — at least not enough that there’d be a deal worth taking for general manager Joe Douglas — so it shouldn’t come as a surprise if they aren’t ultimately dealt before the deadline. If they aren’t dealt and their roles don’t grow?

That’s an issue for another day.

Here is everything to know about their two situations, their performance — and what they said on Thursday.

Dalvin Cook: I need the ball more

Think back to training camp when Cook, a free agent, showed up to Jets practice and fans cheered his name from the crowd. There hasn’t been much of that since the season started. Cook has been one of the least productive running backs in the NFL, averaging 2.8 yards per carry — which ranks 51st of 53 running backs with at least 30 carries. Per TruMedia, 23.1 percent of his rushes have gone for zero or negative yards, the seventh-highest total. Pro Football Focus has him ranked 49th overall of 53 running backs with 30 carries.

He hasn’t quite looked like the running back who rushed for 1,000 yards in four straight seasons for the Vikings before this year. But Cook said his numbers this season don’t accurately depict how he’s playing — or how he could be playing with more touches.

“With the touches I get, I think I get what I need to get” in terms of production, Cook said. “For me, if you watch my career you know the type of back I am. I get better and better as the game goes. More touches, feeling the defense out. The more touches I get the better I get as the game goes. I’m still adjusting to that. But the carries I get, I do what I can.”

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Cook led the Jets with 16 touches against the Bills in Week 1, though he only gained 59 yards, or 3.7 yards per touch. He had five touches in Week 2, 11 in Week 3, and then six, six and four in each of the last three games, respectively. His playing time has progressively gone down too: 50 percent of the snaps in Week 1, to 14 percent in Week 6 against the Eagles before the bye.

In September, Saleh told a story about how the Jets told Cook the worst-case scenario for him, the idea that Breece Hall would get healthy and Cook might not get the ball much some weeks.

“When (Cook) left, I was like: There is no way after that he is going to want to play here, and he still wanted to be here,” Saleh said at the time. “He is all in. It gives us faith that he is all in on this process and he is ready to do anything that we need to do to win football games, whether it is 25 carries, whether its one carry, whatever it is, he is ready to roll.”

Cook’s comments on Thursday indicate that he wasn’t as OK with it as Saleh indicated. The money might have something to do with it: The Jets gave Cook a one-year contract worth up to $7 million, with $5.8 million of it guaranteed, more than any other team was offering.

The Athletic’s Dianna Russini reported that Cook was available in a trade, though it’s unclear how much interest there would be in a 28-year-old back who appears to be on the decline. Cook said he’d meet with his agent and Douglas.

“For me, I’ll let the business side handle the business side. I’ll be ready. I go in every day, I bust my ass, I do the things to be ready when my number is called,” Cook said. “It’s a different scenario for me, but something I can’t control is having my name floated around in trade rumors. It might be a good thing. Maybe a bad thing. You never know.”

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Saleh said he doesn’t blame Cook for being upset.

“I’m actually happy he’s a little frustrated,” Saleh said on Friday. “It means he’s all in and he wants to be a part of it, he wants to get reps, he wants to play, he’s not just here to collect a paycheck. So yeah, if he wasn’t frustrated, then I’d think something was wrong.”

Saleh also said the Jets are always going to ride the hot hand and right now Hall — who is averaging 6.5 yards per carry for the season and rushed for 177 yards against the Broncos — has the hot hand.

“There’s one ball,” Saleh said.

Carl Lawson: I’m a football player, not a cheerleader

In training camp, Lawson made a bold declaration: “Double-digit sacks, it’s going to happen.”

Lawson finally felt completely healthy after tearing his Achilles in 2021 and was feeling confident after a productive 2022 season (seven sacks, 16 QB hits, per PFF) during which he wasn’t 100 percent. Not long after Lawson made that comment about sacks, he injured his lower back and missed most of camp. He was inactive in Week 1 as part of his ramp-up period and by the time he was a full-go, second-year defensive end Jermaine Johnson had overtaken him in the starting lineup and Bryce Huff, a backup, was playing more than him too. The Jets also drafted defensive end Will McDonald IV in the first round in April.

Lawson was a healthy scratch in Week 5 and hasn’t played more than 30 percent of the defensive snaps in any game after playing 58 percent of them as a starter last year.

The 28-year-old took a pay cut to stay with the Jets this offseason and it hasn’t quite panned out as he expected as he’s taken a backseat to the team’s youth movement at defensive end. Lawson signed a three-year, $45 million deal as a free agent in 2021.

“I definitely want to play and contribute because I know I can,” Lawson said. “I’ve definitely proven that. I always want to contribute but right now I’m with the Jets. I definitely want to play more, I want to do what I did last year and then some.”

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Lawson has also been made available in a trade, but so far his performance this season hasn’t been good enough to warrant another team trading away valuable assets for him. Lawson has two pressures in 73 defensive snaps. There are 127 edge rushers to play at least 70 snaps, and only four have gotten less pressure. He has no sacks or QB hits either.

Lawson said he feels completely healthy coming out of the bye, so maybe that will make a difference — but he only has one game to prove to other teams he’s healthy enough that he’d be worth getting traded for. McDonald (back) was added to the injury report and is questionable for Sunday’s game against the Giants, so perhaps Lawson will have a bigger role coming out of the bye.

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If not, he is open to a trade, it seems.

“I’ve always wanted to help the Jets win,” Lawson said. “I’ve always wanted to be the best version of myself for the team. But at the end of the day, I do want to be a football player, I do want to produce and I do want to help because I’m a football player, not a cheerleader. So that’s where my head is at.”

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(Top photo of Dalvin Cook: Elsa / Getty Images)

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