Interesting signings by the Jets so far. Taiwan Jones LB - MSU - Two down thumper who reminds many of David Harris. Jake Heaps - #1 rated QB coming out of high school. Starred at BYU before Coaching staff was fired. Transferred around after that, but never regained a starting job. Average arm & size. Wes Saxton Jr. - Mocked as high as the 2nd round, a dominant type athlete. DE/OLB Julian Howsare - Clarion - a monster against lesser competition, the question is can he do it against the big boys Durell Eskridge S - Syracuse - a young kid who came out a year too early. Got the tools if he can develop.
Deion Barnes - DE - Penn State - Potential 3-4 OLB, but not the highest rated kid out there. Jordan Williams DE - Tennessee - don't know much about his skills, but he seems like a good kid we can all root for...
I like the focus on LBs-- which reinforces the notion that GM wants to create a developmental LB pipeline, and the trend is towards bigger LBs, which I think I recall hearing is the HC's preference for his defense. My concerns with our current LBs corps is its athleticism. I'm not sure we've got anyone who is above average as either an edge rusher or in space against TEs or RBs out of the backfield. The TE/ RB passing game within our division will be our big challenge I think. Hope a couple of these young LBs pans out like the Ravens / Steelers have had in the past.
I think the big question here is how do you pronounce Taiwan? Is it like the city or is it like Tywin? As in Lannister. If we have a guy on our defense that I can refer to as Tywin I think I've seen all I need to see. Sign him up.
If Wes Saxon bulks up some and really focuses on improving his run blocking and route running he could be a nice piece for us.
Posted this in draft forum but I guess more appropriate here. Wes Saxton! Glad we got him. He's a huge target who struggled with injuries but has good catch radius and hands. He's 6'4, 235 and runs a 4.6. Played with Brandon Bridge.think he will make team and contribute as an H-back or a move TE. I am going to sound crazy here but I think he has more upside than Amaro. Thought we could take him in the 7th in my mock. Not sure about his blocking abilities though.
I like what I see from the class but I never put too much stock into UDFA's; I always wait to see them pan out or not because 99% of the time it's not. Scouts and general managers who have invested months in this draft class had 256 chances to pick these guys up and passed every single time.
Taiwan is not a city... C'mon. Okay, it's History Time with your host, Jets Esq. Taiwan is the Republic of China, recognized as a country by many countries but it's officially claimed by China as one of their provinces. Taiwan's government claims to be the legitimate government of all China (the other 1.3 billion people; they have 22 million people.) During the revolution in China, the anti-communist forces fled to Taiwan and never officially gave up. China periodically threatens to invade them, and the U.S. keeps some Navy ships near the islands of Taiwan. His dad might've been in the Navy and served on one of those ships (just a guess.) Edit: As for the pronunciation, it sounds like "Tie-wan."
Still never hurts for a team to do their full diligence on UDFA's...especially ones who were ranked and fell.
I like the Barnes pick up. PSU does a good job with 3-4 type guys the past few years. They had a damn good defense last year and Barnes was a solid piece. I think he could become a nice rotational player down the road.
