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In the final installment of “How they might have done,” we look at . . .
the Jets final two moves in the draft, selecting Texas A&M punter Braden Mann in the sixth round, and trading a sixth-round pick to Indianapolis for cornerback Quincy Wilson.
The last four years, the Jets punting duties were handled by Lachlan Edwards, a feel-good story out of Sam Houston State. He came over from Australia to try his luck at American football. There was a lot written about his journey. It was a cool story.
But ultimately, while he has a very strong leg, he is just a little too inconsistent. You just didn’t know what you were going to get kick to kick. One punt he’d look like Ray Guy. And then on another punt, he’d look like me (I did punt for my intramural team at UMass).
So with the man who picked Edwards out of the picture, and with the confirmation bias gone, the Jets moved on this off-season. They signed former Western Carolina standout Ian Berryman, and now they picked Mann.
Obviously Mann is the favorite over Berryman, but if Berryman outkicks him this summer, who knows? We’re just talking about a sixth-round pick you know.
But Mann is like a Swiss Army knife for a football team because he can do so many different things. Not only is he a rocket-legged punter who set the NCAA record for punting average in 2018 (51 yards a punt), but he kicks off, is a really good tackler on kick and punt coverage and can also kick field goals, if the placekicker gets injured during the game,
So the Jets’ punter is likely to be Mann, unless Berryman pulls a major upset.
As the trade of the Jets other sixth-round pick to the Colts for Wilson, let me turn to Indianapolis Star Colts beat writer Joel Erickson.
The Colts admitted a mistake on Saturday,” wrote Erickson the day after the trade. “Three years after using a second-round pick on Quincy Wilson, Indianapolis cut its losses and traded the cornerback to the New York Jets for a sixth-round pick, No. 211 overall, taking what it could get for a player who never lived up to his draft slot.”
There you go.
I have written this before. I’m totally cynical about cornerback trades, and I’m not talking about deals like Darrelle Revis to Tampa Bay or Jalen Ramsey to the Los Angeles Rams. I’m not talking about trades for first-round picks due to contract disputes. Those are outliars.
I’m not talking about trades like the Jets made with the Colts for Nate Hairston last year, or with the San Francisco 49ers for Rashard Robinson.
It’s so darn hard to fill out your cornerback depth chart, with let’s say 5-7 guys, with quality, trustworthy cornerbacks, why would teams trade guys they like?
Wilson was a flop in Indianapolis after coming in the league as a second-round pick in the 2017 draft out of Florida. Perhaps he was over-drafted. He runs more like a safety than a cornerback.
Look, this might work out for the Jets. I don’t have a crystal ball, but it rarely does at this position.
Teams are just not in the business of giving away corners who they think can help them.
May 8, 2020
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