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First of all, let me get this out of the way – this means almost nothing, and the sooner people realize it, the better.
Jets GM Mike Maccagan said at the combine that the Jets will meet with quarterback prospects Marcus Mariota and Jameis Winston.
That is fine.
That is what they should do.
That is what scouting departments are supposed to do, meet with myriad prospects.
I don’t think this is news.
Doing your due diligence, and interviewing players, is what you are supposed to do leading up the draft.
The media makes this a story.
Perhaps it’s a story on some level, but pre-draft meetings, combine meetings, campus mean very little.
But in the need to pump out a lot of content on Twitter and blogs, teams meeting with players at the combine, or pre-draft, wherever become news.
Just like when people report on scouts at a particular college game.
You will see reports that scouts from certain teams were at the Florida State-Duke game, so they portray that as those teams showing extra interest in certain players from those schools.
No, that is what scouts do. That is what they are paid for. To scour the country, going to practices and games looking for talent.
I can’t tell you how many times over the years players were drafted by the Jets, who had little or no contact with the team.
Linebacker James Farrior was a perfect example of this.
The Jets showed no interest in him publicly. He never talked to them before the draft. He was surprised they picked him.
So the point here is simple – take all these stories about combine meetings, campus meetings, pre-draft visits with a grain of salt.
They mean very little.
Remember, teams like to keep their draft plans very close to the vest.
The Jets’ war room, where they stack the board, is under lock and key, when the individuals who work on it aren’t in the room.
And so often a team will feign big-time interest in a player to scare a team into trading up.
This could happen with the Jets.
Let’s say Mariota slips to six, and the Jets don’t love him – they could likely get a king’s ransom from Philadelphia in a trade. He played in Chip Kelly’s offense at Oregon.
Maybe the Jets could land Nick Foles in a trade of this nature.
So it behooves the Jets, whether they love Mariota or not, to float it out there that they will interview him, get it out there they are enamored of him, so in case he slips to them, they can up the ante on a possible trade.
So take everything out there about “interest” with an enormous pile of salt.
To me, if the Jets stay at six, a project quarterback is probably not the best value. However, a dynamic edge pass rusher might fit perfectly at six, like Missouri’s Shane Ray, or Florida’s Dante Fowler.
This is a huge need for the Jets, who will continue in the 3-4 set under Todd Bowles.
They desperately need a game-wrecking 3-4 OLB. When was the last time they had one? These kind of players can change a game, and it’s about time the Jets got one in the building.
February 19, 2015
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