The Jets need more of this: https://nypost.com/2019/12/28/undrafted-rookie-kyle-phillips-becoming-a-factor-for-jets/ It's great to have a lot of high draft picks, and premium ones as the Jets have had over the last decade, but if your scouting dept. can't identify talent, it doesn't do much good. Phillips however is an exception. I don't know how they found him, but there are lots of other high quality players out there as evidenced by all the very good to great players scattered across the NFL. The Jets need to get their scouting improved. If Phillips was the result of having made progress in this area, great. But given the lack of talent they have, I question if the scouting issue has been fixed...more likely a case of "a blind squirrel finds an acorn now and then". But the Jets have to have a big infusion of talent, and they don't have enough draft picks or salary cap to fill it with "blue chip" prospects and veterans, so being able to find UDFAa and picks deeper into the draft is crucial, and that requires much better performance by the scouting dept. and GM. I'm hopeful that Douglas answers the latter aspect, but the former is still a question mark. In any case, good job finding Phillips, and I hope that he stays healthy and continues to improve.
2018 may go down as a good draft year - other than Nickerson all look like solid contributors. Sheppard has come on strong of late.
We've actually done pretty decently all things considered with the UDFA. Phillips and Robby Anderson now, previously Damon Harrison, Mike Devito, James Ihedigbo, and Brandon Moore. It's round 2-4 that have been awful. Those are the rounds that make or break teams. But I'll always take hard working chip on their shoulder finds like Phillips of course.
Even if you hit on most draft picks, the practise squad and roster numbers dictate you either have to make something out of other teams trash or get a useful pool of UDFAs contributing. Our draft pick evaluation is so poor, our UDFAs are always going to have a chance to contribute. It's not hard to have more heart when you are constantly picking lazy trash like Coples or Polite. In any case, my post is overly negative - well done to Kyle Phillips. May we find 50 more players ready to shine.
Finding those gems. Note even UDFA's but late round guys that contribute on the cheap really goes a long way in solidifying a roster and having quality depth. Brandon Moore was one of em. To have such a quality undrafted free agent guard. Damon Harrison. Mike Devito. These guys producing quality on the cheap made a difference. As did some of the mid to late round players we'd find. Brad Smith in the 4th round...he'd do everything for us. Even someone like Drew Coleman (what was he? 7th round? Leon Washington in round 4) identifying quality late while other teams are throwing darts at a board...that makes a difference
The Jets haven't had a plan or the talent evaluators to back it up going into a draft since probably 2000 with Parcells running the show. Even then I don't recall off the top of my head who they picked in the mid rounds after those 4 first rounders. Douglas & co. need to have a plan whatever that may be, OT, WR, OL, etc. I'm so tired of draft after draft when they go after reaches as well as positions of lesser need with no rhyme or reason. If they don't address the biggest areas of need this draft in a systematic approach then I will lose all faith in another FO regime. My long winded point is just have a plan and follow through on it with your picks.
There was a plan when Mangini was here with Bradway and it worked pretty well. He gave us Brick, Mangold, David Harris and Revis. Minus the Gholston gaffe, those drafts were filled with contributors (Leon Washington, Brad Smith, Drew Coleman, Eric Smith, Dustin Keller, etc.). Rex had a plan. It was fuck the draft let the accountant fit as many veterans under the cap as possible. We'll worry about their decline and big cap numbers later. In a nutshell, you're right though. We haven't had a plan in a decade. At least not a good one.
This will be where Joe Douglas should be judged... he needs to find some gems in the later rounds along with UDFA's . We are going to be on a limited spending spree this off season so finding some over achieving FA's to fill our many holes is going to be paramount .