Anyone who follows the NFL draft, be it as a Jets fan or as a supporter of any other club, knows that there’s no such thing as a “sure thing” come draft time.
Your favorite player in the class, whose game you can’t manage to find a single hole in, could easily go down as a bust within a year or two and an afterthought beyond that. With the draft already being the crap shoot it is, can Gang Green afford to ignore some of the red flags that are in place for some of the draft’s top talent?
Perhaps the most noteworthy flag is that of Miami edge rusher Rueben Bain. One of the best defensive players in the country last season, Bain looked like a player whose arm length would be questionable come combine time. His 9.5 sacks and fifteen tackles for loss were put on the backburner when he measured in at 30 7/8”. Arms shorter than any high level pass rusher over the past two decades. In fact, it has generated so much concern that former Chargers defensive tackle Breiden Fehoko went on record in saying that drafting Bain will “get a GM fired“. Can the Jets current GM look past the trend and use the second overall pick on him?
One of the more popular projections for the Jets with the sixteenth pick is Arizona State wide receiver Jordyn Tyson. A incredibly talented receiver who would be a great addition to the Jets offense, but one who also has a scary injury history. During his time in college, Tyson shredded his knee, tearing his ACL, MCL and PCL before fracturing his clavicle and then missing a huge chunk of time with a pulled hamstring.
In all he would miss 1/3 of his college contests, but is still viewed as a top 20 pick and in the eyes of some, the best receiver in this class. The mock draft masses may be calling for the Jets to roll the dice on Tyson, but can a team with sixteen year playoff drought gamble such a high pick on a player that comes with such high risk?
Going back to edge rushers where the Jets undoubtedly need a boost, there’s a player who may be the best pure pass rusher in the class in Texas Tech’s David Bailey. An explosive athlete with an elite spin move who terrorizes opposing quarterbacks, but who can also be a liability against the run. This isn’t to say there aren’t flashes of being able to develop into a run stopper, but as of right now, the though of pairing Bailey and Will McDonald in any kind of running situation would be a nightmare. Now if they were deployed on 3rd & 10 it would be a different story.
Finally, we come to Florida defensive tackle Caleb Banks. An interior defender who is capable of taking over games at times, the 326 pound Banks has suffered multiple foot fractures. So while he may be a nice replacement for the departed Quinnen Williams in a perfect world, this is the real world, and that’s a world where Banks’ injuries should be too much for the Jets to consider him.
Darren Mougey has tons of premium picks to turn his team around with over the next two seasons. If he starts using them on players who carry a great deal of injury risk or with noticeable holes in their game, he’ll have a hard time hanging around for very long.
