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People are debating this topic a lot . . .
I put up a poll on Twitter this week with the question:
Poll – If both players are available when the Jets pick at three, who should they select, assuming Nick Bosa is gone?
1)Quinnen Williams
2)Josh Allen
3)Trade Down
1,260 people voted.
50 percent of voted for Josh Allen, an outside linebacker from Kentucky.
33 percent voted for the Jets to trade down.
17 percent voted for Quinnen Williams, an Alabama defensive tackle.
Mike Maccagnan made news at the combine when he said he would be open to trading down.
“Right now we feel good at No. 3, but I’d definitely say if there’s an opportunity to trade down, we would absolutely look at it,” Maccagnan said. “If we end up picking a player at 3, we’ll feel really good. If there’s an opportunity for us to move back and acquire more picks, that’s something we’d definitely be potentially interested in. It would have to be the right kind of deal, but I definitely wouldn’t rule anything out at this point in time.”
I personally think they should stay at three, and pick Allen, Williams, or if by some minor miracle, Ohio State pass rusher Nick Bosa if available.
You win with difference-makers.
“You need players who are dynamic difference makers,” former NFL GM Bill Polian said. “You try to get as many difference-makers as you can.”
You have to get “planet players” as the late George Young used to call them. What the former Giants GM meant was there are few players like them on the planet – freakish athletes who are often huge guys with the movement skills of much smaller men. Leonard Williams is an example of this – a 6-5, 300-pound man with the feet of a dancing bear.
You need difference-makers. And when you are picking at three, you have a chance to grab a true difference-maker, a true planet-player.
Think about the two best players Mike Maccagnan has picked – Leonard Williams and Jamal Adams, both picked with the sixth pick overall.
When you see Quinnen Williams at 6-3, 303 pounds run a 4.83 forty at the combine, that is the kind of freakish athlete you have a chance to grab with the third pick, but probably not if you trade down too far.
Josh Allen, who has 17 sacks this past year for Kentucky, is a 6-4, 262 pounds, with a great burst and the flexibility to bend under offensive tackles.
Look, it’s no secret that Jets have been searching for a long time for an edge-rusher, and Allen perhaps could finally fill that long-time void.
As for Quinnen Williams, can you imagine lining him up next to Leonard Williams? That would give the Jets a pair of freakish interior defensive linemen who can wreck a game.
So to me, the Jets should stay put a grab a “dynamic difference-maker” or “planet player.”
Now you could make the argument the Jets should trade down and get extra points, especially since they don’t have a second-round pick.
But if they trade down too far, they could position themselves out of getting a truly special player.
March 6, 2019
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