I'm back to where I started. Its still gotta be Devonta Smith. I mean, I've tried to rationalize several other players at #2, but none of them improve the Jets the way Devonta will. He may be the best college WR prospect ever. The guy has no weakness's and cant be covered. He can kill you on every route in the tree. Long, short, in between - he can separate on all of them and still kill the defense in YAC. Not to mention he is so complete he is ready to be a star week 1 of his rookie season. We always complain about our WRs not getting enough separation. The answer is Devonta Smith (and in a big way over Chase). If he would have played 14 games like Chase did during his big season Smith would have had like 125 catches, 25+ TDs, and over 2000 yards. The guy also thrives in big games and small games alike, and especially in pressure situations. A complete clutch player. Add to that he is a superstar who keeps his head down, practices hard, and leads by example. He is a champion. How do you pass on a guy like this? Remember when he was a freshman and made that amazing 43 yard TD to win the national championship in OT? Now remember this years national championship. It is safe to say this WR almost single handedly won 2 national championship games. Just think about that for a second. How many WRs can you say that about? Again - Devonta Smith is a champion. How do you pass up a guy like that? Are we against drafting champion caliber players because they are skinny? We need not just superstars, but players with the heart of a champion on this team. There is no better culture player then Smith. I remember all the hits the 49ers took after their second SB. They were expected to really drop off, and all the "its too hard to repeat" talk, which was especially true back then. However, when they got Rice he changed their fortunes, not just that season but for the next 12 years. But man, Rice in the 80s, when he really couldn't be covered, was devastating. Teams would know the ball was going to him and they still couldn't stop him. To really shut Rice down meant the rest of the offense was completely opened up. What Jet fan from that era didn't fantasize how great it would be to have Jerry Rice on the Jets. Well, now is our chance. Smith is the next Jerry Rice. Maybe even better then Rice. Don't believe me: How do you pass on a guy like that and still justify it? To the people sweating the QB position - here is what we look for. Smith will make Sam look considerably better (he'll make any QB look much better). He is increased production and TDs on two legs. Look what he did for Tua and Mac Jones. So after the first 4-5 games when Sam is near the top in the rankings and a playoff hopeful team loses their starter Sam suddenly looks promising. Like first rounder promising. Smith will dramatically increase Sam's trade value and to a desperate team with playoff hopes - who knows how big a haul JD could get? Devonta Smith will improve the Jets for years to come, more then any other player in this draft. Landing him should be JD's top priority.
To be fair Red he makes WAY more sense at #2 then Zack Wilson. Wilson is an unproven dice roll while Smith has a HOF ceiling. Its an easy decision. There is no comparison. We need him on the Jets.
I'm not quite sold on this idea, but it does have a lot of merit. In fact, I just did a mock draft with the simulator game in another thread in this forum and took Smith at #2 and then got Mac Jones at #23. If this happened in real life I think it would be a win for the Jets. That said, I'm still hoping JD takes Wilson with the #2, but there are a lot of possibilities that could end up being good for the Jets.
Smith is a better prospect than Wilson but QB is way more important than WR and we are currently relatively worse at QB than WR. We don't have good WR's but we literally have the worst starting QB in the league. Good QB's make WR's look better more than good WR's make QB's look better.
If QB is so important then why reach with an over hyped and unproven guy with the #2 pick. That is Sam Darnold all over again, except at least Darnold played against D1 defenses and went to the championship. Wilson reeks of fools gold. If we rush to get our FQB we will likely be set back. This draft should be for blue chips.
If they follow your plan, let's hope we find that FQB before Smith's rookie contract is up because I'm sure he won't want to be saddled with a shitty QB.
Wilson being overhyped is your opinion and I don't agree with it. There are a lot of reasons to think he's a very good QB prospect. Many scouts and QB coaches who probably know more than either of us are quite high on Wilson.
Darnold with an actual team surrounding him may surprise. I still think trading back to around 6-10 would be better then getting him at 2. More capital and another top tier piece waiting for us. All mocks have a run at QBs
Waddle is also better than Smith... People are going to be dumbfounded when Smith falls out of the top 10.
Smith scored 6 more TDs this season then Waddle did in his 34 game college career, and the same amount (23) as Chase has in his 24 games as a college starter. These guys aren't at the same level.
In what way is Chase better? I've studied them both at length and the only comparison Chase wins is maybe at the point of catch. He doesn't rate higher then Smith in any other category.
I think the argument for Waddle is that he was leading the team in production before he got hurt. Smith took over after that, but when Waddle was healthy he was producing more.
Smith is faster, but I don’t trust him to be able to beat press at his size. Also smith wasn’t the top option until injuries. Chase was the best wide out on the team with the 2020 rookie of the year. I’m sure you took your time to form your opinion, but a team with out a qb doesn’t spend the 2 pick on a lightweight wr.
Completely agree. In fact, I think it’s possible Jets go Wilson at 2. Then trade Darnold to Niners for a swap of 1st round picks (plus additional 3rd or 4th from 9ers) and then take a falling Smith at 12.
All three of them are potential HR hitting WRs. However, only one of them put on an amazing performance on the biggest stage of NCAA football and that was Smith. He would be my choice and I would take him at #2, but would hope to move down and take him..
I don't think Smith is going to fall much past the Jets pick. He might get to 5 or 6 but he's the guy who has "it" among the WR's. He's the Baker Mayfield of that group of WR's and I suspect somebody is going to jump on him fairly fast after the draft opens. By Baker Mayfield I mean he has stepped up to every opportunity he has been given and despite physically more talented people around him he has had the spotlight more often than not. You could argue that he's gotten a lot of soft coverage given who has been on the field alongside him. That argument falls apart however when you see Waddle go down for the year and then once again Smith steps up and becomes a completely dominant playmaker.
If it came down to it Waddle would be a better fit on the Jets then Chase. He can run so much more of the route tree then Chase and we already have a big WR in Mims. We have Mims for the medium/deep routes outside the numbers. Crowder for the short/medium routes inside the numbers. Now we need someone who can do it all, which would be Smith or Waddle. Not sure we would want 2 big WRs that struggle inside the numbers. We need a guy who can separate.
