Clock ticking on Jets still here; what does the future hold for Breece Hall, others?

Breece Hall said he woke up from a nap Tuesday afternoon and his phone was blowing up with texts about the mammoth trades the Jets made. Hall could have been the next to go.

The Jets’ decision to trade their two biggest stars, Sauce Gardner and Quinnen Williams, sent a message to the players that anyone is expendable. Or as Garrett Wilson put it, “replaceable as hell.”

Now the clock is truly ticking on many current Jets, including Hall, Quincy Williams and Jermaine Johnson. All three were mentioned in trade talks before Tuesday’s deadline. They probably would have been moved if the Jets had gotten the draft capital they wanted, as they did for Gardner and Quinnen Williams.

The Jets received two first-round picks from Indianapolis for Gardner and a first- and second-rounder from Dallas for Williams.

These were deals that general manager Darren Mougey and coach Aaron Glenn couldn’t pass up. The Jets are 1-7 and need to dramatically change things. Their plan clearly is not working and hasn’t been for a long time.

The franchise is headed for a 15th consecutive year of no playoff football.

“More than anything,” Glenn said, “we want to make sure we build this team in our vision, the way we see it.”

The Jets have nine games left, starting with Sunday’s against the Cleveland Browns at MetLife Stadium. Each team is coming off its bye week, and for the first time all season, the Jets are coming off a win.

For many players, this could be the start of the final nine games of their Jets careers. For some with expiring contracts, it might be even less than that. The Jets could release them to give them a chance to sign with a contender.

Hall, 24, is an interesting case because of his age and skill level as a running back. His future with the Jets is cloudy at best. The Jets could let him walk after the season, sign him to an extension or place the franchise tag on him to keep him.

After the trade deadline passed, Glenn said, “Breece was not a guy that I want to get rid of. Man, he’s a damn good player.”

Kansas City reportedly offered a fourth-round pick for Hall, but the Jets wanted a third-rounder. Kansas City didn’t budge and Hall remained a Jet.

It’s also unclear whether that’s what he wanted.

There were rumblings before the deadline that Hall would have welcomed a trade. He said he did not request one. When asked on multiple occasions, he also never formally denied that he was hoping he would be dealt, and he sent some mixed signals.

Hall said there’s “a lot of stuff that’s true and false. I just let that be what it is. It’s out there. It is what it is, but I’m here and I’m worried about playing Cleveland this week.”

When asked a different way, he said, “I don’t think it’s up to a player to be traded. I think in my situation, it was if I was going to be traded, it was going to be whether I wanted to be or not.”

Hall then was asked if he was hoping he would be moved. He responded, “Nah. It was going to happen whether I wanted it to or not. It was one of those things where I was like, I can’t control what’s going to go on. It’s going to be what it’s going to be.”

Regarding his future, Hall said there have been no extension talks, but he sounded open to being a Jet next season.

“If they’ll have me, yeah,” he said.

Johnson is under contract for next season and has openly said he wants to return and help turn around the franchise. Quincy Williams will be a free agent and surprisingly just lost his starting job for performance reasons, so the ground he’s on is shaky.

Losing has taken its toll on many Jets. Gardner didn’t want to get traded. He just signed a four-year, $120.4 million extension in July. But when he found out he was going to the first-place Colts, Gardner said, “I was dancing in circles in the house.”

Williams, a Jet since 2019 and someone who played on the 2-14 team five years ago, definitely welcomed a change of scenery. After he was traded, he said the Jets “knew I was frustrated. I think the world knew I was frustrated being there so long and still losing.”

Hall, in his fourth season as a Jet, also has expressed frustration over losing and the effect it’s having on his career and ability to get a lucrative new contract.

“It’s very frustrating,” he said. “I don’t like to compare myself to other people, but I do feel like I’m one of the better running backs in the league. But losing games and getting down early, you can’t always show that. You get down early, you actually have to throw the ball a little more to try to get back in it, and that restricts some of your ops for getting carries and little things like that.

“At the end of the day, I’m here. I love the coaching staff. I love what AG is doing. So at the end of the day, I’m worried about showing up on Sundays and being a good dude to my teammates, and that’s just what it is.”

It might be for only Sunday’s game and eight more. The Jets are truly a team in transition. Some of their most prominent and productive players might not be around when — and if — things turn around.

By Al Iannazzone

al.iannazzone@newsday.comAl_Iannazzone

Al Iannazzone covers the Jets for Newsday after spending nearly two decades on the NBA beat with Knicks and Nets.