The Importance of this Draft

This article is one of the main reasons why I started this blog. I legit talked to myself (quarantine does that to you) for a solid 5 minutes about why this draft is so important for the Jets future. Finally catching myself, I said, "Dude, start a blog to get this out there". And that my friends is how the Annoyed Jets Blog started to come about.

Anyway the NFL Draft is a week away (finally sports!), & as I was saying, this draft is HUGE for our beloved Jets. This is Joe Douglas' first draft & it is one he HAS to hit a homerun on. Now I know this is a lot to expect from a first year GM, but it's one that is needed. Thanks to previous GM's Mike Maccagnan, John Idzik (wow he sucked), & the tail end of the Mike Tannenbaum era, the Jets roster is a mess. Players that should be the veteran leaders on this team right now aren't even in the league anymore. That just goes to show you how poorly the Jets have been drafting for awhile.

Now where does the problem lie? Well, since the '06 draft where the Jets drafted cornerstones D'Brickashaw Ferguson & Nick Mangold, the Jets have drafted 3 offensive players since then. Those three are Mark Sanchez (out of the league), Dustin Keller (out of the league), & current QB Sam Darnold. So what have the Jets drafted then? Well the simple answer is: DEFENSE. These are the defensive positions drafted by Jets since '06 (12 total):

DL: 6

LB: 1

CB: 3

S: 2

Diving further into this list, one of these twelve had a HOF career (Revis), one is a consistent All-Pro (Adams), two are still in the league (Richardson/Lee), one had 2 good seasons (Mo) & one is in his second year (Williams). The rest were HUGE BUSTS! Looking at this list of players makes me want to violently puke. You see names like Vernon Gholston, Kyle Wilson, Quentin Coples, & Dee Millner. These players were horrendous & two of them were top 10 picks. You can't be a winning football team with making BIG mistakes like that.

Now who's to blame? To me it's a mix of the HC & GM. As much as everyone loved Rex Ryan, I truly believe he was a problem when it came to the draft. He was a fun coach with an old school offensive mentality. All he wanted was defense, defense, run the ball, & more defense. That's an early 00's mentality, one that wasn't working in the league then & especially now. Tannenbaum made some great choices early on in his tenure, but traded away far too many picks which began to deplete the roster. Once he started missing on 1st round picks (Gholston/Coples), it was over. Idzik was an absolute buffoon who should be nowhere near a NFL front office. Finally, Maccagnan just tried to make the flashy pick. He wanted the guy who was the, "best player in this draft that miraculously fell to them" (see Leo & Q). Again, these types of mentalities don't build a winning team.

Now what does Joe Douglas have to do? Well the easy answer is to draft players who will be superstars. Easier said than done. Many look at the '06 draft as one of the best drafts the Jets have had in some time, but I look at it differently. Yes they got guys like Brick, Mangold, Brad Smith, & Leon Washington but they also missed on their 2nd (Kellen Clemens) & 3rd round (Eric Smith) picks. Good teams don't miss on these picks & the Jets miss on them consistently. Also, when the Jets were making the playoffs what seemed like every other year, they hit on 4th round picks like Kerry Rhodes, Jerricho Cotchery (loved him), & Smith. When's the last time you saw that happen with this team? Joe Douglas cannot have this happen this year. He needs to hit on the first 4 picks. Now like I said before, I'm not saying all 4 need to be Superstars/HOF'ers, but they have to get guys that are here for a long time & big time contributors. We need to see them be like a 'Brick, Mangold, & Adams & not a Pryor/Wilson. Later in the draft, rounds 4-7 have to be guys who aren't just JAG's (Just A Guy). They need to be guys who are good, not great, but contribute to hopefully a winning team. Let's get another Cotchery/Rhodes & not another Chad Hansen/Shaq Evans (YUCK!).

As you can probably see, I'm beyond nervous about next weeks draft. I've easily done over 200 mock drafts on my iPhone & I stay up at night thinking about all the possibilities. Some say this is a problem, I see it as an diehard dedicated fan. I swear if Joe Douglas drafts defense in the 1st round, I will throw my TV through a window. Here's hoping that doesn't happen! #TakeFlight