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The big theme in Woody Johnson and Mike Maccagnan’s press briefings on Thursday was this, but is the philosophy they espoused working?
“I think our focus has always been, when we came into this, is to ideally build through the draft and kind of supplement through free agency,” said Mr. Coffee.
“We’re going to build the team through the draft,” Johnson said. “We will use the draft primarily (to build), but we’ll also use free agency judiciously, trading, and the rest of it. But, mostly through the draft.”
That’s fine, but how is that working out for them?
Obviously we are talking about a lot of young players, so they are still writing their stories, but so far, it’s hard to say Mr. Coffee has knocked it out of the park building through the draft.
The one impact player through the draft was a pick My Aunt Tillie could have made – Leonard Williams in the first round of the 2015 draft. He fell in their laps. Credit for Maccagnan for pulling the trigger on the pick, but that was kind of a no-brainer.
But what other picks have had a significant impact in the two drafts so far?
Crickets.
Honestly, Darron Lee wasn’t an impact player this year. In fact, he gave up a number of big plays. He should be good in time, but so far, he’s been average.
Maccagnan’s two second-round picks, WR Devin Smith and Christian Hackenberg have had no impact. Obviously Smith blew out his knee as a rookie, but wasn’t doing much before that, and didn’t do much when he returned this season. Hackenberg was red-shirted this year.
Brandon Shell, Jordan Jenkins and Juston Burris showed promise, but still have a long way to go. Same with Lorenzo Mauldin.
There were a few decent undrafted free agents, like Robby Anderson and Jalin Marshall, but they have a lot of work do as well.
Look, it’s too early to say these were bad drafts, but it’s also hard to say the Jets have built a solid base with Mr. Coffee’s first two drafts. Honestly, he needs to hit the 2017 draft out of the park. He needs a draft like Dallas had in 2016 (Zeke Elliott and Dak Prescott).
And if your philosophy is to “build through the draft and kind of supplement through free agency,” how does signing a 30-year-old cornerback to a five-year, $70 million deal fit into the philosophy?
It really doesn’t. For a new GM to arrive in 2015 and do that right at the gate, flies in the face of “ideally build(ing) through the draft and kind of supplement(ing) through free agency,”
A supplemental signing to compliment the draft is something like Matt Forte and Steve McLendon, veteran additions that didn’t cost a fortune.
But I’ve said it before, and I will say it again, that signing was pushed by the owner, not the GM and coach. But they should have put up more of a fight and said, “That is not how we want to build this thing.”
The point here is simple. If the Jets want to build through the draft, they probably need to get more bang for their picks.
Because so far, aside from Williams, they might be overrating the base they have added in the draft process.
Time will tell how a lot of these picks pan out, but Jets probably need to take their drafting to another level in 2017.
January 6, 2017
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