A lot of mock drafts have the Jets picking Georgia tight end Brock Bowers with the 10th pick of the first round.
“My gut tells me I think they would take Bowers,” said NFL Network draft analyst Daniel Jeremiah this week. “[Joe Douglas] comes from an organization in Baltimore where they had great tight ends and they’ve always done a good job of drafting tight ends.”
Yes, it’s so true that Baltimore has had a string of very good tight ends, but none were picked close to 10.
The current dynamic duo is Mark Andrews (2018 third round) and Isaiah Likely (2022 fourth round).
The standout tight end before them was Dennis Pitta (2010 fourth-round pick).
Shannon Sharpe was an excellent tight end on the Ravens’ Super Bowl team in 2000, and he was a 1990 seventh-round pick of Denver.
There was one first-round tight end of note over the last two decades, Todd Heap, who played for the Ravens from 2000-10. However, he was picked at the end of the first round, pick 31, nowhere near 10.
So while Bowers is a terrific player and can help the Jets, you wonder if picking him 10 overall would constitute the best value at the spot. And the Jets’ tight room has plenty of talent, including the underrated Tyler Conklin, Jeremy Ruckert, Kenny Yeboah, and a 6-8 tight end with 4.55 speed in Zack Kuntz.
******
To grab a one-year digital subscription to Jets Confidential magazine for just $24.95, go to simplecirc.com/subscribe/jets. The draft preview is out now! Don’t miss it.
