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New Jersey – Considering all the free agents they signed, and a draft loaded with talent, and the trades they made, the Jets aren’t exactly the land of opportunity for undrafted free agents, so the fact that their list isn’t particularly long, is no surprise.
The following players signed with the Jets as undrafted free agents.
Taiwan Jones LB Michigan State
Deion Barnes DE Penn State
Wes Saxton TE South Alabama
Julian Howsare DE Clarion
Durrell Eskridge SAF Syracuse
Jake Heaps QB BYU/Kansas
Jordan Williams DE Tennessee
Greg Henderson CB Colorado
Antonio Johnson OT North Texas
The three players that standout in this class, and easily could have been drafted, are Jones, Saxton and Eskridge.
Jones is a good fit for 3-4 inside linebacker at a tad under 6-3, and 245 pounds. He’s a very good downhill player who does a nice job of taking on blockers, and is stout against the run. He’s a very tough football player. His problem is he lacks ideal speed (4.94 forty) and could have trouble holding up in coverage on the next level. He does his best work in the box.
Saxton was probably the most mobile tight end in the 2015 draft. He is really quick getting in and out breaks for a 6-3, 248-pound, and runs under 4.7. The University of South Alabama product is very, very raw, and needs a lot of work, so the practice squad might be where he’s headed, but he’s the kind of guy who could be something special in a couple of years. He could turn into a very good H-Back on the next level.
Eskridge has a really nice size-speed ratio at 6-3, 208 with 4.59 speed. He’s a very good centerfielder. He probably would have been drafted if not for concussion issues at Syracuse. He had a couple this past year. Eskridge has to improve his tackling technique a little to protect himself.
Jordan Williams is a hard player to figure out because he was moved around so much at Tennessee. At 6-4, 289, he probably going to be used as a 3-4 end with the Jets. I reached out to a friend at the school, and he said he’s a great kid from a great family, but not sure if he’s good enough to make it.
Heaps is an interesting player. Coming out of the high school ranks in Washington, he was considered by some recruiting services the best high school quarterback in the country in 2009. He got off to a good start at BYU, but then lost his starting job as a sophomore and transferred to Kansas and then Miami of Florida, and didn’t amount to much at either of those stops. He had a rough 2013 as the starting at Kansas, which was an awful program at the time. It’s going to be hard for Heaps to show what he can do with the Jets where he will get very few practice reps in training camp with Geno Smith, Ryan Fitzpatrick, Matt Simms and Bryce Petty in front of him.
May 5, 2015
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