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A couple of things to get into today . . .
I know mock drafts are meaningless, but I want to get into who Todd McShay picked for the Jets today just to get into why the Jets need to stay away.
McShay had the Jets picking Josh Allen at six.
As far as I’m concerned, they can’t do this, and I will share a tweet I sent before that is illustrative of how I feel about the Jets and first-round QB prospects.
Tweet – “You’d have to think if the Jets pick a QB in the first round, they will go for a very, very accurate passer since their two young guys (Petty and Hackenberg) struggle with this. Why go down the “let’s fix the accuracy” road again?”
This tweet was a veiled reference to McShay’s mock draft Jets pick.
Allen has rare arm talent, but has accuracy issues.
“He never had completion rate higher than 56 percent in either season as a starter,” wrote NFL.com’s draft expert Lance Zierlein.
Do you think that is going to get better in the NFL?
The windows to throw into on the NFL level are smaller and defenses more complex. It’s easier to be accurate accurate in college than the NFL.
It’s very rare to see a college QB with accuracy problems improve upon that on the NFL level.
Hackenberg wasn’t particularly accurate in college. It’s surprising that Mike Maccagnan, a long-time NFL scout, thought the Jets could fix this. You would have thought after scouting thousands of players, and tons of quarterbacks, he’d know better.
In his defense, Hackenberg wasn’t a first-round pick.
If the Jets pick a QB a six, they can’t draft a guy with accuracy problems, after their last two draft pick quarterbacks have had accuracy issues.
So if the Jets pick a QB at six, they need to focus on Josh Rosen, Baker Mayfield or Sam Darnold, who get much higher marks for their accuracy than Allen. At least one of them should be available when the Jets are on the clock.
They need to let another team work on fixing Allen’s accuracy. Same goes for Lamar Jackson, if they wait to pick a QB. Jackson has a lot of talent, but also has accuracy issues. They’ve been down this road too much lately, and need to stay away in the 2018 draft . . .
One other thing to get into today – Morris Claiborne.
The Jets are playing hardball with the free agent cornerback, and this is smart.
He’s a solid player, and a great guy, but you can’t overpay a player who has missed 34 games in six seasons due to injuries. And while he only missed one game last year, he came out of two others.
Newsday reported Claiborne has “eight to 10 teams seeking his services.”
That number sounds a little high to me and is perhaps agent-driven.
And even if there are 8-10 teams interested in his services, it’s highly unlikely it’s for big money.
Jets should welcome him back, but on their terms, not his.
The Jets need to learn from the largesse of some recent contracts (Darrelle Revis and Mo Wilkerson) that just because you have a lot of cap space doesn’t mean you need to waste it.
Spend the money, but spend it smart.
March 7, 2018
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