I've been meaning to post one for awhile and haven't got around to it yet. I have definitely made comments on other people's mocks (positive and negative) and I encourage people to do the same here, I won't be offended. I will say that I don't really watch much college football so most of my information comes from a combination of reading multiple analyst reports and watching YouTube highlights which, admittedly, are not the best thing to work off of as you could make a kick ass highlight video of just about anyone. It also makes it hard when you get into the later rounds as a lot of the names are overly familiar to me. As far as availability goes that is always going to be something of a contention between individuals. I'm basing my thoughts of availability through a combination of looking at various mocks as well as using fanspeak's mock draft simulations. Also I am not doing any trades because it's impossible to know who wants to trade up or down and whatever. Here we go! Round 1 18th - Calvin Pryor, FS from Louisville. Okay, so this might be a bit bizarre as people always talk about CB being our number one need. That is definitely an area of need but so is FS and there are a lot of really good CBs later in the draft and I definitely intend to address that position later on, I'm less confident we'll get a good enough FS later in the draft. This provides us a massive upgrade at this position and should help our secondary tremendously for years to come and allow a young secondary to develop together. Our passing defence is notably bad, hopefully this helps. He also straight up kills guys on the field, love the big hits. Some people might say he's a reach at 18 but I don't think so, most mocks I've seen put him around 20-22 range with some having him and Clinton-Dix off the board before we pick. Note: if Clinton-Dix somehow falls to this spot then I would pick him instead, he did fall to me in the fanspeak draft (Pryor went earlier) but that doesn't seem realistic to me. Round 2 49th - Jordan Matthews, WR from Vanderbilt. Big bodied receiver with good speed, albeit not a burner. I could see him out wide opposite Decker with Kerley in the slot. Sounds good to me. He might not be catching a lot of deep balls for 50 yard gains but I could see a lot of 3rd and long situations where his frame along the sideline comes in handy. He's not huge but could also be a red zone threat given the attention that would be placed elsewhere. Round 3 80th - Troy Niklas, TE from Notre Dame. One of those massive mismatch type receiving TEs that still seem to be able to take care of the blocking side of things as well. Could be a good safety blanket for Geno (or whoever) alongside Cumberland. Round 4 104th - Paul Richardson, WR from Colorado. Considering how weak we are at receiver double-dipping seems like a given. This early might catch some off guard but the way the fanspeak draft fell this player just fell in my lap. He's definitely not without his question marks but I think a lot of people are sleeping on him and if he can bulk up a bit and stay healthy he could be one of those picks people look back on and ask "how did he fall that far?" and that seems like the type of guy Idzik loves. On the flip side he could get pushed around at the line or just succumb to injury and never be much of an impact. That's the gamble with a lot of draft picks, I just feel like the pay off could be huge with Richardson. Everyone has one of those prospects they just inexplicably fall in love with and he's one of mine for sure. 115th - Loucheiz Purifoy, CB from Florida. Great in man to man, even able to chip in on special teams. Got good speed but can still lay some pretty big hits. Will he come in day one and play 90% of the snaps? Maybe, maybe not. If he can't steal the starting role he can split time with Walls and Wilson while Milliner gets pretty steady duty on the other side. 137th - Prince Shembo, OLB from Notre Dame. A bit earlier than I had hoped but all the OLBs were coming off the board so had to act. Shembo in particular seems to be pretty consistent at getting in the backfield, with the attention the rest of our front 7 draws he should draw less attention and hopefully make some noise. Round 5 154th - Yawin Smallwood, ILB from UConn. Harris is getting old and is pretty slow chasing anyone down (decent on stopping the run though), if we're going to be playing base 3-4 it won't hurt to have a decent stable of ILBs. Bellore and Davis are decent, hopefully Smallwood can contribute. Round 6 195th - David Fales, QB from San Jose State. Best QB still available on the board, can't hurt to add to the fold and in the 6th round. Basically spells the end for Simms unless he kills it at camp. 209th - Kirby Van Der Kamp, P from Iowa State. Honestly doesn't have to be KVDK but I think we do need to actually draft a P and get one of the top two. Special teams hasn't been the strongest for us and a really good punter should help with field position issues. 210th - Seantrel Henderson, OT from Miami. Pretty much BPA at where I was picking. A huge individual, ranked to go in the 5th by CBS Sports so he may not be available or he's good value here. 213th - Daniel Sorensen, SS from BYU. Don't know much about the guy but we need help at SS, he has decent speed and could maybe chip in on special teams. A pick this late I don't mind going for a gamble and a possible special teams guy. Round 7 233rd - Jerick McKinnon, RB from Georgia Southern. Was roughly BPA and can't hurt to have another RB in the system. Considering we seem pretty set with CJ2K, Ivory and Powell for the time being having a bit of a project guy isn't the worst thing in the world.
Love this draft. Feel like it's a little bit of a reach in the 1st round but if the rest of it fell to the Jets that way I'd take it in a heartbeat.
That is definitely a possibility, if anything he might be a bit of a hybrid but that's still not necessarily a bad thing. As mentioned if Clinton-Dix did fall to us at 18 I would pick him over Pryor as he's more of your proto-typical FS. If the team has reason to believe that Pryor would be unable to play the FS role though then I could see why they would pass him over.
I think a lot of people would see Pryor as a reach at 18th, personally I don't but I can appreciate why many people would think that way. I could also see both him and Clinton-Dix both being off the board at 18 (which means someone else will fall to us). That's why the draft is so unpredictable.
Nicely done. I think people are slipping on Matthews. Pryor I'm not too thrilled with but you never know how the draft will fall. I like him better than Ha-Ha. If we can get Purifoy in the 4th that will be huge.
Rex has run two SS for most of his time on the Jets. HCD is a great player and would be used in certain ways if the Jets got him, but CP actually fits the mold of the "FS's" we have used the most in the past, a.k.a Eric Smith and Yeremiah Bell. In 2009 we had more of a true FS in Kerry Rhodes, but he was inherited from Mangini's days and was traded after the 2009 season to start Eric Smith. in 2013, Antonio Allen (more of a SS) started most games until we brought in Ed Reed to end the season.
Is Purifuoy really likely still available in the fourth round? Had no idea his stock was so poor- he was considered a top talent a year ago.
Pryor plays a little too aggressive and gambles, but the talent is there to be the best safety in the draft. Jets will need to get him to channel that aggressive energy into making positive plays, and if the game slows down for him, the Jets secondary will be one hard hitting secondary with 2 safeties that can lower the boom.
A few places I looked had him around there but you never know. If not then there will likely be another relatively valuable CB worth picking with one of our 4th rounders.
Honestly wasn't really trying, just wanted to nab some good players at positions of need. Considering we have so many needs I guess it just worked out that way
If that or something like that happens I don't think you'll be alone...metaphorically I mean. This just got weird.
