It's worth noting that PFF grades AVT at 64.4, which is mediocre. https://www.pff.com/nfl/players/alijah-vera-tucker/57107 And for all PFF's flaws, on this one I'd trust them over a fanbase determined to overrate their own players at all costs.
Tackles are higher draft picks and get more money because there are less players capable of playing the position. It still doesn't change the importance of having high quality guard play. Who would the Jets guards be if they didn't draft AVT? They'd have Feeney and GVR starting, yikes.
Wilson got the yips because he holds the ball for too long and takes some massive hits as a result. Yeah the turnstile at RG did not help but holding the ball for 2.5-3 seconds was the main problem.
I know why you make this claim but it's not true. We don't know what JD might've been offered to trade back, and we don't know what QB might've been there at the point he wound up. But even if it was true, let's say he traded back for the two 3rds, then where and how does he find a FQB without using up even more draft capital or other assets? First, there has to be a QB with high potential available, and in many years there's only one or at most two and they get snagged withing the first 2-3 picks usually. If the Jets don't wind up with one of those "naturally", then it's going to cost them a boatload to trade up, and that introduces the second problem: one of those teams has to be willing to trade back for what you're offering. As for the trade up for Sam, in theory it wasn't a bad thing to do. Had Darnold actually been as good as touted, it would've been a fair price to pay. But he wasn't, and further the Jets didn't know how to develop him, both under Bowles and Gase. But what makes that trade up franchise-altering bad was the fact that had Macc simply taken Mahomes (or Watson) the previous year, he wouldn't have had to burn any picks to get his QB the next year. Trading up isn't a bad thing - if a GM knows how to evaluate talent. Here's a hypothetical: What if the Jets had traded up to get Brett Favre in 1991? They actually tried, and had a deal with the Cardinals to swap spots and would've picked ahead of Atlanta who wound up taking him, but then the Cardinals backed out and so Atlanta got him. But what if Steinberg had been more aggressive in his trade up efforts, maybe even giving up more to move into the 1st round? Wouldn't that have been worth it? Douglas has a blueprint that he's building to and is willing to use assets to get the players that best that. You might not agree with the plan, but at least he has one based upon other successful teams that he's worked for. I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.
Do you know what the difference in hit rate for players is statistically between the 3rd and 4th round is? RB 3rd: 16% 4th: 11% TE 3rd: 39% 4th: 33% Etc… some positional differences are larger, but some positions actually have a slightly higher hit percentage in the 4th than the 3rd, ie. D-Line. I understand not wanting to give up a 3rd outright, but dropping from a 3 to a 4 is really not a big deal. edit: source https://www.arrowheadpride.com/2015...e-statistics-tell-us-about-the-draft-by-round
Pro Bowl level guard in the future, he's still a rookie. It's also so much easier to say "we could get 2 decent guards". If it were that easy, why doesn't every team just do it? Reality is that the draft is a crapshoot, and the later you get, the harder it is to find starters. If the Jets viewed AVT as a 10-year starter, which they obviously did, the trade was worth it.
Every team does do it. That's why guards are cheap and undervalued. That's why we just got one from Kansas City for example for Daniel Brown, who they cut a week later. If Daniel Brown brought in an average NFL guard, imagine what 2 3rds woulda brought in?
Take a look at the draft last year, specifically 3rd-7th round IOL. Not many awe-inspiring starters besides Trey Smith, who the Jets really should've taken. https://www.pro-football-reference.com/years/2021/draft.htm
If you trade up and get a good football player with 300 picks in the two drafts including this one and next, all is forgiven. Regardless of the position unless it’s a special teamer. I didn’t want to move the picks but if we end up with a guy who makes the Pro Bowl on his rookie contract a couple times, we won. Too early to judge this deal on any side. If AVT tears his ACL each of the next two years, we lost the trade.
Dickerson was a very highly graded prospect, but was and still is a large injury risk as a prospect. He missed so much time at Alabama.
Trey Smith fell because of medical. Blood clots in his lungs if I remember right. Could reappear at any time.
If it were that easy to get good guard play, we, along with the Jags, Lions, Bears and all the other bad teams in the league wouldn’t be so bad because of offensive line play. It’s not solely because of bad tackles.
Way too early but we are at the mental masturbation stage of Jets fan in-season boredom, this is the same lesson we have to learn every year, it's always too early. Denzel Mims says Hi.
Why did I think it was a torn ACL? I still would've taken a stab at him in the 6th, would've be worth the dart throw.
Oh no, I didn't doubt you. I went and Googled it right away when you said that. I just thought he had a knee issue for some reason.
Guard is indeed important and we needed multiple ones along with another tackle. That's why it was a bad idea to trade up for AVT. We'd be better off with a B player at LG and a C+ player at RG than with an A player at LG and a D- player at RG like we had with GVR. The AVT trade up is also having ripple effects now because we shouldn't have to worry about drafting any OL in the next draft but we're going to have to with the state of our line. This is doubly true since Becton is a huge (literally) question mark.
