New York traded up to get USC running back Joe McKnight, dealt the versatile and popular Leon Washington to Seattle and then cut nine-time Pro Bowl guard Alan Faneca on Saturday.
"I think the team knows that we're driven to win a championship here and that we're not wanting to be complacent," coach Rex Ryan said. "We kept the nucleus of our football team. We did lose some excellent football players, but we've added a lot of tremendous players."
Washington, coming off a broken right leg, was made expendable when the Jets moved up and acquired Carolina's fourth-round pick (No. 112). New York took McKnight, quarterback Mark Sanchez's former college teammate, with the pick, and sent its fourth-rounder (No. 124) and sixth-rounder (No. 198) to the Panthers.