https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id...e-nfl-draft-history-2000-trades-chicken-wings How Bill Parcells used four first-round picks in 2000 to rebuild the Jets. In one franchise-altering afternoon, New York made four first-round picks - unprecedented in the modern era. Here's a look at the people involved.
A good read and a funny little snippet right near the end was typical Jets, I won't spoil it for anybody else reading it.
The draft was so much better when it was all Saturday afternoon and in NY. Thanks for sharing, that was probably my favorite draft ever because of all the Jets picks and big name players. Surprisingly though, the big name players didn’t really pan out. I thought I was seeing the next generational hall of fame stud in Lavar Arrington and I thought Peter Warrick was gonna be a superstar as well Oh- and Al Davis took a kicker Lol. That draft had it all
The only one who earned 1st round accolades is Abraham. He was often injured as a Jet. Too bad fans soured on him. Might be a HOF candidate. Ellis was a good DE but too big and slow to be a real sack threat. Becht turned out to be nothing more than a blocking TE whose equivalent they could have gotten in the 5th round, undoubtedly the worst of the 4 picks. Pennington had all the tools for greatness except the most important one, an arm. If only the Jets had looked harder at a QB playing at U. of Mich, talk about franchise altering. In hindsight, I would have given this draft a B-, but only because of Coles who was the second best player taken in this draft, but based on the 1st round, no more than a C. The hiring of Parcells as coach/GM was more franchise altering than this draft IMO.
I still feel the Ellis will go down as one of my favorite Jets-- Think of all the different coaches and systems that he played well in. Always super solid player, excellent teammate on and off the field and super productive. Also a hardy player. Give me a team full of Ellis quality players and it looks like the Ravens. Super underrated. Dbrick and Mangold fall into this camp as well, but had more popularity around the league.
It wasn't as franchise-altering as it could've been. This is one of the reasons I don't place Parcells on as high a pedestal as some. He was great in his way, but I don't think he was as good for the Jets as he was for the Giants or Patriots. He did turn the franchise around from the Kotite Disaster, and they did certainly improve, but while Parcells was a great motivator, and instilled discipline and an identity, I don't think he was a great evaluator of talent, particularly on the offense side.
one thing that stands out to me is that ellis and abraham were targeted as 3-4 scheme defensive players. Ellis being perfect as a 3-4 end and abraham perfect as the "LT" role...... so what happens....edwards comes in and runs that shit tampa D 4-3 which certainly didn't play to the strengths of the current players and high draft picks. yes they played well but IMO the jets screwed the pooch by changing the D system. they would have had a very good defense going forward.
Here's something you don't see very often, someone criticizing their own post. In looking back at the 2000 draft, it's pretty obvious that it was a weak one. Most of the players selected between 1-10 were pretty good players but those selected after Pennington at 18 didn't amount to much except one or two. The Jets didn't get to draft until 12 when they took Ellis. So based on that, I now feel the Jets did a pretty decent job at drafting given the available talent. Now, I think an A- would be a more appropriate grade.
Pennington, it hurts my heart to this day. Torn between oh, what could've have been and oh, what almost was. I guess I'll just settle for stabbing myself in the face with a picnic for like I did at the time. And Fat Parcells, slowly I turned, step by step inch by inch . . . That slob quitter gave me nothing, and then he went and quit somewhere else, which I obviously don't give a shit about. Miami still sucks, so that much is good.
Agreed 100%. Herm and Bradway let go Aaron Glenn and Marcus Coleman because Herms doofus scheme apparently didn't require decent cover corners. And they let James Farrior walk for NOTHING!! You look at that 2000 defense on paper it was absolutely stacked. To make things worse many depth guys that they decided to let go helped Belidouche win that SB in 2001 such as Victor Green, Anthony Pleasant, Bryan Cox, Rick Lyle, Roman Phifer, Otis Smith etc, etc. The Jets absolutely should've stuck with the 3-4 they had built up, and let a lot of talent walk because of Herm and his beloved Cover Who system. Herm was just a motivator, terrible Xs and Os guy.
Pennington run in 2002 was pure magic. After 1998 and everything that happened where we went from having one of the great coaching staffs in NFL history, on the cusp of a SB to Herm speaking frontier gibberish it was if the Jets were headed to the hell of the 1970's. When Pennington took over for Vinnie in 2002 it was magical and a moment of pure joy for Jets fans. It was really too bad what happened to him. In today's game if he had ended up in a dome and didn't kill his arm he was every bit as good as Drew Brees. I know that's crazy but a lot of teams play 10 to 12 games in domes and have only one or two games in weather. Pennington had the goods before his injury to be great in the right circumstance. In 2006 he could barely through the ball down the field outside the hash marks and still got us into the playoffs. Pennington was a warrior. He was made of glass but he was a warrior.
Perhaps the jets best picj that year was in the 3rd round I think Parcells best pick in that draft was in round 3 for WR L. Coles. He became the jets MVP in 2002 (voted by his teammates). Unfortunately, GM Bradway did not tender Coles correctly in 2003 and we lost him to the Redskins for their #1 pick. Bradway then packaged the Redskins #1 with the jets #1 pick and a 4th rounder, all for DT Robertson was a bust. Then they had to trade ANOTHER number 1 pick (Santana Moss) just to get Coles back. Good grief.
Ellis recorded 9 sacks as a rookie then Herm had him gain 40 lbs and moved him to the inside as a DT. When he was then told to drop down to his old playing weight and go back to DE he had 12.5 sacks and 11 sack seasons.
I still have my ticket stub from that glorious playoff game against the Colts, 41 zip. The crowd wasn't even that drunk. People were jumping up and down and hugging one another, total strangers, it was so great. We sat smack on the 50 Row Excellent (a day without a fuck you, Woody Johnson, is like a day without sunshine), but in the 4th quarter everybody moved down to the front row. The security guards didn't bother anyone, didn't even check tickets at that point to make sure you were in the right section. It was this mellow yet over the top at the same time mojo of joy. I chalk that up to disbelief and everyone wondering if they were really just high as fuck. I'll never forget watching the highlights over and over and over for about 4 days straight. Chad with a beautiful soft touch pass to Laveranues Coles for a TD, "Chad! It's not that easy!" Then came all of the early Joe Montana comparisons, and shortly thereafter Jets fans the world over felt like stepping in front of a semi. :/ I have a friend who used to call Pennington The Lord. Yeah, well, the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away. I loved Chad (and I still do); he was just an unfortunate victim of bad luck for the most part. "He's made of glass", from a ton of fans like it was a distasteful character trait that he should blamed for. How stupid. I honestly believe that if Chad didn't have all of those hideous injuries we would have had some serious magic with an extended shelf-life. Instead, it expired like a carton of milk . . . because Jets gonna Jet. :/ EDIT for nostalgic clarity: "Chad! It's not that easy!" was Warner Wolf, not me, lol.
I remember that draft like it was yesterday. Living in the city at the time. 20 years ago?? Yikes! Parcells just knew how to build and put a fun,competitive product on the field in short time. He was one of the elite of his generation.
Parcelle's brought legitimacy to the team we hadn't had since Namath. We were the joke of the NFL for YEARS, and he changed all that. I loved his move going back to the original Jets logo. If I had one gripe, it was his insistence to play vets over rookies to a fault. He seemed to hate rookies. Or even 2nd yr guys. If Parcelles drafted Revis, he wouldn't have played him for the first 3 years of his career (just like Chad was forced to sit for what seemed like a lifetime).
I'm watching The Chimp at the helm Jets vs Dallas at The New Dump 9/11/11 on NBC. I thought about starting a thread about it just to annoy @FJF , but I figured I'd put it here. Tony Romo for President, haha, and RIP Joe McKnight. : ( I still can't believe that poor dude died that way. No jokes, please. I'm actually watching the entire game for the fumble and the blocked punt/great play by McKnight on STs. The Cane was proud. This game is also reminding me how much the new uniforms truly suck balls.
