If that was the mindset it still reflects poorly on the GM. Huff has been putting up elite pressure numbers for a while now, it didn't just start this season. We could've signed him to an affordable deal a while ago and now we'll have to pony up because we waited until his talent was obvious to everyone.
There are no guarantees that if we had drafted someone on offense, we'd be playing with bigger leads. That player could have been hurt or have taken a while to learn the offense, and if he was a WR, who could have been in the same boat as Hardman. I understand why you think taking McDonald made no sense, and I don't totally disagree with that notion. I got tired of Mac continually drafting DTs, when we had a slew of them, and it wasn't even a position of prime importance like LT or QB or WR or CB or DE. If the rumors are correct, and the draft had fallen differently, McDonald wouldn't have been our first pick. That would have been Jahmyr Gibbs. That wouldn't have helped our OL any. Even if the Jets had taken Broderick Jones, chances are that he would have had zero impact to date. Pittsburgh's OL isn't very good, and I don't think he's starting there yet. Under the circumstances with the way the draft fell, I would have tried to trade down, add a 2nd pick and then taken Anton Harrison. JD may have tried to trade down but couldn't find a trade partner. Harrison is starting. I have no idea how he is playing, but I see that he has started 5 games. If the Jets had been able to trade down and taken Harrison, he possibly could have started for us, and then AVT could have stayed at RG, where he may not have gotten hurt, and if not, we'd still have Tippman. If JD didn't try to trade down and get Harrison, then perhaps he deserves some criticism, but again I have no clue how Harrison is actually playing, and it's possible that the Jets' Scouts, Hackett and OL Coach Carter may not have been high on Harrison or he might not be a scheme fit. It could have been a mistake to not take Harrison or to have taken Jones if he was there, but I'm not going to kill JD for it. After all, his big focus was re-signing Q and bringing in Rodgers, and he did try to sign Orlando Brown. Also with having 5 UDFAs making big contributions to the team, I think he deserves the benefit of the doubt.
If I reacll the draft they waited till the last minute to take him so irrespective of what they say, I think they couldn't find a trading partner and were stuck. As other have stated, why the pick when we had all our studs...
Agreed, but there's never a guarantee that anyone will contribute, as we're unfortunately seeing firsthand with McDonald. It's a moot point because it's true of both offensive and defensive players. The difference is we're stacked at McDonald's position so there was a high likelihood he wouldn't meaningfully contribute quickly. On the other hand, we have 1 good WR and many subpar OL. There's a higher likelihood that a drafted WR or OL would already be contributing. That's also without mentioning that McDonald was a consensus reach. It's not like he was a crazy value pick who was unexpectedly falling in the draft. Most people considered him a 2nd round pick.
You don't know that we could have signed Huff to an affordable deal. The Jets may have spoken with Huff's agent back then and he wanted more money than the Jets were willing to pay. I'm sure that they probably thought that Lawson would recover from the Achilles injury and be a major contributor, but it hasn't worked out that way. They also had Clemons and JFM. Until Huff showed that he was able to play vs the run and take on larger roles, the Jets plan may have been to let him walk in FA because they didn't want to overpay for a situational pass rusher, but figured that some team would give him a big enough contract to give them a compensatory 3rd round pick which would be a great value for a UDFA. Still they valued him enough to put a 2nd round tender on him for this season so that they'd still have him for this season. It's easy for fans to sit back and make judgements/pronouncements about the team. We ALL do it. From the time we signed Huff and I looked at video of his play at Memphis, I thought he could very likely become a very good player for us. I wouldn't have been happy if they let Huff walk in FA, but I understand their cap situation now with Rodgers, and all the FAs they have next year. They need to re-sign Becton and need to upgrade the OL depth and either re-sign several of their safeties or replace 3 of them between FA and the draft, and they aren't going to have a lot of money to spend in FA. It's fair to question and criticize their thinking on this, but I'm sure that it's not as cut and dried as it seems to us. They have a lot of considerations, have to weigh priorities, team salary scale, etc. I'm pretty certain that they believed that they couldn't possibly suffer all the OL injuries again this season that they have for the last 2-3 seasons, and that had to have had an impact on their decision making. It's just unreal the OL injuries we've had. What were the odds that AVT would go down again for the season in Denver? What were the odds that Tippman would suffer an injury almost unheard of in the NFL and that only middle-aged people who play sports suffer? I can't even imagine what JD is going through having seen Brown flop, then Rodgers go down for the season, then seeing Hardman hardly play, and then AVT and Tippman going down for the season. He's probably feeling like the Jets are cursed now too.
I agree with the first two paragraphs. With regards to the 3rd paragraph it doesn't really make a difference what fans, the media, or other draft "experts" thought or where they had McDonald rated. It only matters where the Jets had him rated. If they truly had him rated that highly, which I have to believe they did, then I can't criticize the move. If, however, it was purely a panic move after the Steelers traded up and took Jones, then there's definitely room to question it and criticize it. The problem is that we'll probably never know the truth of the matter. If McDonald goes on to become a stud pass rusher like Huff, we won't care in future years. If not, then the criticims will prove valid and increase. I think that JD has shown over the last 2-3 drafts that he knows how to evaluate talent and build a team. He had to know that the situation with the OL was still very shaky. That's why he tried to sign Orlando Brown and drafted Tippman, and signed Schweitzer, Turner, and Colon. Similarly, he knew that the WR position needed upgrading. That's why he signed Lazard, Cobb, Hardman, MaalikTaylor, Gipson and Brownlee, and re-signed Charles. Now none of those were huge moves but could have been enough with Rodgers' ability to make WRs better and the TEs we have. He probably had no clue at that time that Davis was going to retire during the season, or that Hardman wouldn't work out (for whatever reason). As you know, the theory behind having a lot of players competing for positions is supposed to sharpen their skills and make them better, but in this case it didn't. Also, we know that Cobb and Lazard were signed because Rodgers wanted them. If we hadn't had to sign them, JD may have gone after a better WR in FA.
I don't think this is necessarily true. Rodgers going down changed the entire thing. Every single player on O would be looking better right now if 8 didn't go down.
look…I think most would agree that our DL talent is better than our OL talent. All things considered, OL is more of a need than DL going into the draft. However, the choices are what they are … after losing out on Jones, there were no other OTs on the board that were rated at first round picks, or mid-first round picks, or whatever. So the decision for JD really was draft your BPA, overreach for the next best OT, or try and trade down and take a lower rated tackle later in the draft in exchange for additional draft picks. He chose to take his BPA. To date, McD hasn’t had to play much, or hasn’t been able to beat out a strong group ahead of him in JJ, Huff, and JFM. Not sure how he compares to Lawson in terms of ability or snap count, but it is what it is. We don’t know if JD tried to trade down and couldn’t get a deal he liked, and we’ll probably never know the truth on that anyway. Personally, I have no problem taking a pass rusher…most important position on D I think, and especially as we rotate so much, I figure he’ll probably start getting more opportunities before the year is out. We’ll see. I can live with the decision…but I AM frustrated that our OL hasn’t improved as much as it should be under JDs watch.
Well, of course you will lose out on Jones if you have McD and Myers rated above him. If JD really wanted him, he didn't have to do a pick swap 3 days before the draft even started. But they showed on One Jets Drive that he had these two consensus 2nd round prospects rated higher than Jones. Of course if his board is like that, a pick swap should not matter much, so this explains why he did it. But we could have had Broderick Jones or Anton Harrison, both projected by consensus in the 1st round and higher than McD... The point is that JD picked an older rookie at the position we are stacked already with young talent, who wasn't exactly a great value at the pick either, and so far hasn't really been effective at all. All while he could have made GB fold by waiting longer and ended up with Jones or Harrison and addressed the position we desperately needed with similar or better and younger talent. I mean even Harrison, who was rated higher than McD by pretty much everyone, is 3 years younger than McD and is doing pretty well at the position of our need. That decision unfortunately looked bad then and looks even worse now.
Some of these guys earlier excuses were its stupid to draft for need. That's why JD takes BPA. Like McDonald was the BPA at 15.
Exactly!!! Even last year it was evident Huff is a beast. If you recall first few games we did not even activate him and many of us were pissed, because he had a great offseason. And when he played he did great. Basically, even after last year - that's McD for you right there already developed into elite pass rusher last year and just a year apart in age, you don't need to spend a 1st round pick on yet another guy who might or might not be that. And Huff is in addition to JJ, JFM, and Clemons. And I am not even counting Lawson. Now I suspect we will have to transition tag Huff to keep him, as he will be up for massive contract. What's worse, I hope JD doesn't think that having McD means we can let Huff go, that will make the pick of McD from bad to disastrous.
I hated that pick and I hate it more now. If they had to reach for a player, they might have well just traded down.
Regarding the bold - another option was to draft a WR, a position we're thin at. There were a lot of really good WR prospects available at our pick.
How old is Quincy? How long did it take him? Every person and situation are different anyway Robert Saleh has a proven record of developing defensive players that other teams threw away. Ask Quincy. . And Bryce Huff is a perfect example of a pass rusher that was went from average to one of the best rushers in the entire league. Let this staff do their thing and we can do our thing sitting on the couch
Agreed. He would be better suited as a OLB and would get playing time. I hope the end goal is to convert him into a LB. Front 4 Johnson Williams JFM Huff 3 LB Williams Mosley McDonald
