It's hard to believe one organization can be so bad at the draft year after year after year after year after year decade after decade after decade after decade after decade ... They never learn from past mistakes. Which is another reason why they shouldn't let one of their few hits Robby Anderson & Jamal Adams leave the team. With the Jets ya never know they just might be stupid enough to let other teams reap the rewards of their prime years while the Jets overpay other team's mediocre, overpaid or washed up scrubs. I don't believe that's what they expected from Sanchez perhaps his first couple of years they were content with that being his role but by 2011 to me really it was the first half of the AFC Championship game @ Pittsburgh it was clear the Jets wanted him to become more. They went away from Ground n Pound and put more on Sanchez's plate it was a complete disaster. Again it shows poor talent evaluation skills the guy was standing in front of them every day they should've known what he was capable of doing. This isn't wish upon a star, throw up a prayer and hope it happens.
I think I have to side with Brad on this question. As a relatively casual fan I had no idea who the hell Jace Amaro was when he was drafted and I'm watching the draft and SNY clips and interviews with all the awesome dynamic things he's going to bring to the Jets so I was sold and happy about the pick.... And then now we know the rest of the story. Good god. Just giving our 2nd round pick to the Patriots that year or something might have been a better use of resources. At least it would have freed up enough coaches wasted time that maybe they could have better organized the utility closet or something. Its now however many years later and for some reason every time I think of that pick I just wince and my inner voice asks "what the hell WAS that" ?
That was Rich Kotite's doing. I remember talking to Jets play by play man Paul Olden after Kotite was fired. He told me Kotite was a 9-5 football coach and the league does not allow for that anymore. Van Dyke was the leading receiver in division 2 and broke all these records. Kotite looked at those numbers and drafted him- he literally just looked at stat sheets.
No doubt about it Kyle Wilson he couldn’t cover himself in bed with a king size blanket. 6-7 other defensive no1 and 2s come to mind also, Rex had to have something to do with these bust picks as Tannenbaum was a numbers man. Another miss that comes to mind is not getting Chubb, the running back for the Browns, if they got him they would not have had to spend the money on Bell. He would have had a tough time with that line but a Bell did also at a much higher price.
Vlad Ducasse pisses me off a bit. It seemed like a reach and we did it because Rex had a fetish for Ducasse's physical stats. The drafts with Rex were wasted so thoroughly. Had he been better at drafting we may have made the playoffs one or two more times under him.
Passing on Melvin Ingram for Coples bothers the fuck out of me til this day Also Stephen hill was another horrible one.
Bryan Thomas when we could of had Ed reed. The next yr we could of had polamalu. Oh man, then if we drafted Vince wilfork too. Also we could of drafted Russel wilson & Bobby Wagner. It's been bad all these yrs watching bust after bust. The frustrations of being a Jets fan. Our time will come soon
Lageman is a weird one to still be upset about. The guy had a 10-year career, 47 sacks. If Dennis Byrd (Jets second round pick that year) hadn't had his accident, Lageman, Byrd, Mersereau, Marvin Washington looked to be turning into a really good D-line. The Jets picked a whole bunch of DEs that year: Lageman, Byrd, Ron Stallworth, and Marvin Washington, and DT Pat Marlatt (whom I don't remember AT ALL). Also, there were maybe 7 or 8 guys picked the entire remainder of the draft after Lageman that had comparable or better careers, but almost all of them were O-linemen or DBs. Wayne Martin, who went to the Saints a few picks later was the only DE taken that draft who ended up being better than Lageman. Tony Tolbert had more sacks, but he was a situational pass rusher for those Cowboys super teams--Lageman was a more complete player and had a longer career. He wasn't spectacular, but it was a very shallow draft.
Ducasse was the highest draft in a generation from U Mass. He probably still is. Why were the Jets looking at UMass? Guess where Tanny went to school... Talent evaluation in the NFL is not about being smarter than everybody else. It's about being sounder in your criteria and then following that criteria religiously. When 99% of the guys in the room think somebody is a stiff and you think he's great? Well then you're the stiff.
There are SO MANY! It's hard to choose. How about passing on Dan Marino? Also, picking a kicker in the 2nd round in 2005. There are many others mentioned by others here that are good candidates for the worst pick. I also screamed for the Jets to pick DeShaun Watson because it was clear that Hackenberg wouldn't amount to much, if anything at all. Sometimes I think the Jets fans would do a better job drafting than the Jets have done over many years.
excellent review......those 80's drafts were dumpster fires.......mostly the mid and late 80's. lets throw in nagle instead of favre in 91. LOL jets ALWAYS seem to be one pick away.
There were plays in the AFC championship game where Mahomes had all day to throw from the pocket. On rollouts, he ran at a relaxed pace not having to worry about a defender chasing his A--. That makes a big difference for a QB. Even Brady sucks when he's not getting pass protection.
I have to disagree on the kicker. He had a very long career and you can look back to this past year to see how important the kicking game is. Let me ask you this- if the Jets had a great kicker this year, what is their record? Likely 9-7 or 10-6- they would have won in Buffalo in game 1 for sure. Kickers have gone in round 1- it is not unprecedented. I understand your point of not using a second round pick on one- but at least it is not "out of the box".
my top 3 out of a whole boat load of crap picks made by supposed team geniuses.... 1. obrien/marino 2. thomas/kennedy 3. brady/sapp realize obrien was a good QB for a decent stretch but Marino was the pick at that time, bar none. dick steinberg was absolutely fixated on b. thomas - to take the heat off of the sloth-like obrien. Cortez kennedy should have been the pick. what can u say about "we want sapp" LLOOLL.
The problem with taking kickers early isn't that good kickers aren't valuable. It's that it's nearly impossible to predict ahead of time which kickers will be good. You're just as likely to get a good kicker by holding a competition of UDFAs as you are by drafting one in the early rounds.
