The Jets selected edge rusher Will McDonald in Round 1 and center Joe Tippmann in Round 2, and then sat out most of Day 2 of the Draft after taking Tippman at No. 43 overall.
Gang Green was set to have a similar Day 3, entering with a fourth-round pick and two fifth-round picks, but they ended up with five selections after a couple of trades.
Take a look at all of the Jets' Day 3 picks below, and keep listening to WFAN all weekend for Draft reaction – and tune in Monday to hear Boomer & Gio, Tiki & Tierney, and Carton & Roberts wrap it all up!
ROUND 4, NO. 120 OVERALL: OT Carter Warren, Pitt
With the swap of fourths in the trade with New England, the Jets added Warren, who played 83 percent of his snaps at left tackle for the Panthers.
A Paterson native and Passaic Tech grad, Warren redshirted in 2017 and did not play in 2018, but seized the left tackle spot in 2019 and started 39 of 40 games played over the next four seasons. He missed all but four games in 2022 due to injury, but he was Second Team All-ACC in 2021.
The 6-foot-5, 311-pounder is better in pass protection than run blocking, according to his NFL.com Draft Profile, but he “has a chance to become a swing tackle or low-end starter in the future.”
ROUND 5, NO. 143 OVERALL: RB Israel Abanikanda, Pitt
A second straight Panther and second straight local kid for the Jets, who bring in Brooklyn-born Abanikanda after a season in which he amassed 1,431 yards and 20 TD, including a Pitt record 320 yards in one game. Abanikanda was First Team All-ACC and All-American, and the runner up for ACC Player of the Year, after that performance, and the Lincoln High grad was comped by NFL.com to another Isiah Pacheco, who was a seventh-round pick out of Rutgers last year and helped the Chiefs win Super Bowl LVII.
His NFL.com profile reads: “A zone-scheme runner with early down size, Abanikanda can be a bit inconsistent with his reads and tempo early in the run. However, he has plant-and-go agility and is able to snap off cuts at tight angles to elude short-area traffic when needed. He has terrific top-end speed to gash a poorly fitted run front, but he needs to run with better discipline and downhill decisiveness to stay ahead of NFL speed. Abanikanda isn't much of a third down option, but he does have the size and talent to compete for a RB2/3 slot early on with a chance to move up the depth chart in time.”
Related
ROUND 6, NO. 184 OVERALL: LB Zaire Barnes, Western Michigan
Barnes was First Team All-MAC as a senior after amassing 94 tackles (5 for loss), 1.5 sacks, three fumble recoveries, one interception, and eight pass breakups. He played both inside and outside linebacker at WMU, and his NFL.com Draft Profile says he has “NFL size and athletic traits and ability to cover man-to-man, and is productive on special teams,” but “he is not a pure stack-and-shed linebacker and can be a little loose with his technique at times.”
ROUND 6, NO. 204 OVERALL: CB Jarrick Bernard-Converse, LSU
The Jets traded No. 170 to the Raiders for No. 204 and No. 220, and used the former of those picks on Bernard-Converse, who spent four years at Oklahoma State before transferring to Baton Rouge. He played corner and safety in 2022 for the Tigers and finished with 44 tackles, two interceptions, and five passes defended. Prior to that, he started 47 straight games in Stillwater and plated 51 overall, notching 216 tackles (7 for loss), five sacks, two interceptions, and 23 passes defensed.
ROUND 7, NO. 220 OVERALL: TE Zach Kuntz, Old Dominion
Kuntz was the second ODU player brought to New York in the span of an hour, as the Giants drafted teammate Tre Hawkins in the sixth round. In Kuntz, the Jets get a guy who was a redshirt and then a special teamer in three seasons at Penn State before transferring to Old Dominion and blossoming. He caught 73 passes for 692 yards and five touchdowns in 2021 and was named First Team All-Conference USA, and had 12 grabs for 144 yards and two touchdowns before suffering a season-ending injury in the Monarchs’ fifth game last year.
Follow Lou DiPietro on Twitter: @LouDiPietroWFAN
Listen live to WFAN on the Audacy App or Online Stream
Follow WFAN on Social Media:
Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | YouTube | Twitch