In order to properly grade the New York Jets and their draft, I will need to review what positions they needed help with. In my opinion, the Jets needed help with these 5 positions in no particular order.
- Safety
- O-Line
- Tight End
- Quarterback
- Cornerback
So the jets went into the draft with a game plan they had the 6th pick and everything was breaking their way. A QB and an RB went top 5 so the Jets knew they were going to get Jamal Adams. They even told him during the pre-draft visit don’t bother visiting any teams past 6 because you are not going to go any further than us. Clairvoyant, they must be because draft night came and the Jets snagged him at 6. The Jets went ahead and then drafted another safety in Marcus Maye from the University of Florida. So now they went from a questionable position to now one of their strengths.
Third round they went WR from Alabama ArDarius Stewart which was peculiar because he is a speed type and they already have a bunch of those. They went back to the WR pool for round 4 with Chad Hensen from University of Cal. Round 5 they finally addressed one of those positions I had said they needed help with Tight End. They selected Jordan Leggett from Clemson but they also picked Dylan Donohue from West Georgia. The Jets had 3 picks in the 6th round and used them on 2 Cornerbacks and 1 Running back.
First the Running back they selected Elijah Mcquire from Louisiana-Lafayette. He led the state of Louisiana his senior year with 2600 yards rushing in addition to throwing for 500 yards. So a good value pick there in the 6th round. 1st Cornerback taken for the Jets was Jeremy Clark out of Michigan. This kid is the tallest and heaviest CB in the draft at 6’3″ and 220 LBs. Todd Bowles loves size when it comes to Cornerback. And the last pick for the Jets was Derrick Jones out of Ole Miss. He was originally thought to be an undrafted free agent but the Jets took a chance on him because he does have the ability to be molded into a press-n-trail corner they are looking for.
So overall the New York Jets got 3 out of the 5 positions they were needing to improve. They hit homers with their first 2 picks and then just rode out the momentum for the rest of the draft. I give the Jets a B+ yes they didn’t address QB and O-Line but they went best available in every pick and didn’t reach.