NFL Draft Recap: Jets draft leaves offence ill-equipped

Geno Smith

The headline pick of day two of the NFL Draft was of course the New York Jets’ selection of Geno Smith. Smith, who many people had rated as the best quarterback in this year’s draft class, was ignored the first round by every quarterback-needy team. The only quarterback taken was Florida State’s EJ Manuel, who was selected by the Buffalo Bills with the 16^th overall pick.

A lot of speculation overnight suggested that the Jacksonville Jaguars, a quarterback-needy team themselves, would select Geno with the first pick of the second round, or that they would shop the pick to another team to come up and take him themselves. This didn’t happen, however, with the Jaguars selecting Florida International safety John Cyprien and the Eagles, another favoured landing spot for Smith, taking Stanford tight end Zach Ertz.

This left Geno to fall into the hands of the New York Jets, who some thought might have taken the West Virginia product with one of their two first round picks. Instead, they found him still on their board with the 39^th overall pick, and jumped at the chance to take him.

I don’t actually mind the selection of Smith on its own. For me, it would have even made sense to take him in the first round. Smith is certainly a first round talent, and the need for a quarterback in New York is great when you consider that Jets GM John Idzik inherited a roster with 5 quarterbacks, of which not a single one has ever really showed the capability of being an above average starter in the NFL.

Mark Sanchez, a man with seemingly more NFL lives than a cat, is surely down to his final chance with the Jets. David Garrard was never anything more than a decent starter in Jacksonville (despite somehow making the pro bowl in 2009). On top of that he has had surgery for a herniated disc and arthroscopic surgery on his knee in the past two years, and after being cut by the Miami Dolphins before the start of the 2012 season, Garrard has been out of football for well over a year. Add to that the fact that he is 35 years old, and you start to sense that Garrard isn’t the answer for the Jets.

The other quarterback of interest on the roster, Tim Tebow, has never been favoured by the coaching staff in New York, opting to give Greg McElroy playing time in favour of the former Florida Gator during the 2012 season. It is expected that Tebow will be cut from the roster very soon.

So Geno Smith makes sense for the Jets. And considering that the frst thing he did after being picked was guarantee a playoff place, New York is probably the place he should be. They love guaranteeing things in the Jets’ facility.

Smith, however, is the only pick that does make sense for the Jets. I wrote recently that John Idzik’s biggest concern entering the draft was on the offence. The Jets’ offence is a mess right now, in pretty much every spot. Star tight end and safety net option Dustin Keller was allowed to leave in free agency, and apparently the Jets decided that Jeff Cumberland, a man with 32 career receptions in 4 years, was an adequate replacement for him.

Dustin Keller

They don’t have a single receiver on the roster that had more than 3 touchdowns or 56 receptions in the 2012 campaign. Yes, a lot of that can be blamed on Mark Sanchez, but a portion of the blame has to fall on the receivers themselves, who failed to get open or catch the ball consistently all season.

The best running back on the roster right now is Mike Goodson, who has more fumbles (5) than touchdowns (3) in his five year career, and has racked up a total of 772 rushing yards. Former running back Shonn Greene, who was allowed to leave this off-season, had over 1,000 yards last year alone, and 8 rushing touchdowns.

On the offensive line, starting guards Matt Slauson and Brandon Moore were allowed to leave, leaving only back up Vlad Ducasse as the only guard currently on the roster.

Basically, the Jets offensive depth chart was a mess during the 2012 season. The unit finished as the 30^th ranked offence in the league, and the 28^th in scoring. John Idzik took that lackluster roster, and quite amazingly somehow made it worse.

Therefore the expectation was that the Jets would use their positions in the NFL Draft to improve the offensive side of the ball. They had two first round picks, a second and a third in which to do it in. When they were put on the clock for the 9^th overall pick, top receiver Tavon Austin and top passing guard Jonathan Cooper were gone. However, Chance Warmack, the other talented guard in this draft class and a top ten player himself, was still available. This was a chance for the Jets to compensate for a lack of weapons by ensuring they had one of the best offensive lines in football with D’Brickashaw Ferguson at left tackle, Chance Warmack at left guard and Nick Mangold at centre. Even Mike Goodson could find success running behind those three.

They didn’t do that, though. If Idzik had got his way, perhaps they would. Instead, Rex Ryan’s fingerprints are all over the Jets’ first round picks. They went with cornerback Dee Milliner, putting all the pressure in the world on the young Alabama product by asking him to be the replacement for the league’s best defensive player, Darrelle Revis, who was traded last week to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. They panicked because Tavon Austin had already been taken, and instead of composing themselves and working out the best way to improve the team Rex obviously took control and made a snap decision to just take the best defensive player on their board, ignoring the pressure that comparisons with Revis would put on him and ignoring the five surgeries he has had in his short career thus far. That was mistake number one.

The Jets had a second chance, however, to redeem themselves at #13, a pick they inherited from Tampa in the Revis trade. Here, they could have taken Tyler Eifert, the best tight end in the class, to be the safety net receiving option for whoever they want to put at quarterback in 2013. Or they could have chosen the best remaining receiver, Tennessee’s Cordarelle Patterson. Either one would have been effective.

It didn’t happen. Instead, Rex got what he wanted yet again and decided to select defensive tackle Sheldon Richardson. This move is especially poor for a couple of reasons. Firstly, they Jets already have a solid defensive line and need desperately to add quality on the offensive side of the ball. But even more curiously, the Jets selected a player who is suited to playing as a 43 defensive tackle or a 34 defensive end at a push. The Jets don’t run a 43 offence, they run a 34 offence.

Sheldon Richardson

Adding Sheldon Richardson to a depth chart with current starters Muhammed Wilkerson and Quinton Coples, the Jets find themselves with three players capable of playing defensive end in a 34 and nobody to play nose tackle. The situation suggests a complete overlooking of Star Lotuleilei, who not only was graded as a better defensive lineman than Richardson, but who could possibly have become a nose tackle in that 34 system, leaving each of their three starting linemen with a clear position within the team. Now, with Richardson on the roster, it looks like Rex Ryan is going to have to struggle to find ways of getting all three of his most talented defensive linemen on the field at the same time.

The Jets missed a real opportunity in this draft to upgrade a stalling offence. All four of the teams who scored fewer points than the Jets in 2012, the Eagles, Cardinals, Jaguars and Chiefs, have made significant upgrades to their offensive units both in the draft and in free agency. The Jets had two chances in the first round and wasted them both on defensive players that they don’t need. In the 3rd round of the draft, they did in fact select a good offensive lineman in Kansas State guard Brian Winters. However, if the Jets had selected Chance Warmack with the 9th overall pick, not only would they have got a significantly better player at a position of need, but they would have been in position to use their third round pick on outstanding UCal wide receiver Keenen Allen. As it stands, eleven receivers have been drafted through the first three rounds of the draft, and despite it being a position of desperate need the Jets haven’t taken a single one of them.

Now, with Sanchez and Geno likely fighting it out for the starting role at quarterback, whoever wins the job will be handed the keys to one of the least impressive armouries in the country. The Jets’ division rivals (Buffalo Bills, Miami Dolphins, New England Patriots) all have impressive offensive weapons like CJ Spiller, Mike Wallace and Danny Amendola. What the Jets have done by comparison is see that their enemies had machine guns and bazookas, and responded by taking away the tiny pistol that they gave Mark Sanchez to begin with and replaced it with a pocket knife.

By taking Chance Warmack, Tyler Eifert and then Geno Smith with their first three picks, they would have had a real chance this year to become a competitive offence once again. All they have actually managed to do is ensure that whoever starts at quarterback this season, be it Sanchez or Smith or even Garrard, will have no one to throw to, no-one to run the ball, and no one to block for him. While the Jets moves in this draft might, and I emphasise might, make them one of the more dominant defences in 2013, their failure to make any significant upgrades on the offence will almost certainly mean that New York will find itself with a sub .500 record yet again.