A cliché I kept hearing from "best player available" advocates in advance of Thursday's first round of the NFL Draft was "drafting for need will get you fired."
Well, that depends. If you were the Jets and reached down to select, say, the 15th-best prospect at three just because the team had a hole at that position, then that's poor asset management.
However, Jets general manager Mike Maccagnan, who comes across as someone who always believes he's the smartest guy in the room despite his club's 24-40 record in his four seasons on the job, has taken BPA to an extreme. As a result, the Jets will head into another season undermanned at some of the game's most important positions.
The Jets selected Alabama defensive lineman Quinnen Williams with the third overall selection on Thursday. By all accounts, he is deserving of the honor. After an outstanding season as a redshirt sophomore, Williams shined at the NFL Scouting Combine in March and reportedly nailed interviews with certain teams. Like when Leonard Williams and Jamal Adams were chosen at six in previous Maccagnan-directed drafts, some folks considered Quinnen Williams the best defensive football player in the draft.
But he wasn't the best defensive football player for the Jets available at three.
That would have been Josh Allen, the edge rusher from Kentucky. Allen fell to Jacksonville in the seventh slot after the Raiders and Giants made much more head-scratching selections.
Allen plays a premium position, one that is currently manned in New York by the mediocre at best Brandon Copeland. His backup is Frankie Luvu, a second-year undrafted free agent. The position was begging for a reinforcement.
Instead, with the addition of Williams, who joins Leonard Williams, Henry Anderson and last year's third-round reach Nathan Shephard, the Jets defense is now stocked on the interior line in addition to the inside linebacker and safety positions.
Quinnen Williams will cost the Jets in the neighborhood of $5.9 million this season, per overthecap.com. Meanwhile, Gang Green is already paying Leonard Williams $14.2 million (in the final year of his contract—Maccagnan would not comment on whether he is looking to trade him) and Anderson $7.8 million to do the same job since, at six-foot-three and 303 pounds, Quinnen is not considered big enough to deal with double teams as an NFL nose tackle, at least according to the scouting report on NFL.com.
All that money and you can still count on the Jets to have a weak pass rush and not enough people to cover all the eligible receivers, whether it's on deep balls or on crossing routes underneath. That will once again be the defense's undoing.
Allen was projected to help with the first deficiency. He was considered similar to Anthony Barr, who in the March free agency period reneged on the Jets after verbally agreeing to contract terms and scurried back to Minnesota. Like Barr, Allen graded well in coverage. But Allen really excelled at getting after quarterbacks. He had the highest pass rush grade in the draft class, per ProfootballFocus.com. His 17 solo sacks last season led the nation.
The Jets haven't seen that kind of production since the days of Mark Gastineau and Joe Klecko on the Sack Exchange.
There were multiple reports that had Maccagnan desperate to trade down from three, presumably to recoup at least one of the three second-round picks he lost from last year's trade with Indianapolis in advance of that draft. The Jets, having moved up from six to three, selected quarterback Sam Darnold, the one time in Maccagnan's tenure where need intersected with the best player available at the top of the Jets' board.
Maccagnan later told the gathered media that the offers for him to move down this year were not sufficient, so he stood pat and made the pick.
Which begs this question: I know that teams pay premiums when there is an opportunity to move up to take a potential franchise quarterback, but why couldn't Maccagnan find a partner willing to deal something close to the value on the infamous points chart in exchange for a guy some considered to be the best player in the draft? I mean, if you were one of those teams that had Williams rated at the top of your board, and you could get him for the point value of a three, that should have been a great deal!
Here's why: In today's pass-happy NFL, teams want the guys on defense who get to the quarterback or lock down receivers.
Williams did generate 52 pressures last season, per ESPN's Rich Cimini, registering eight sacks. That's why I'm not saying that Quinnen Williams won't be the transformational defensive tackle many project him to be.
However, I clearly recall the Leonard Williams selection in 2015. The Jets, who at the time boasted Muhammad Wilkerson and Sheldon Richardson at Williams' position, were hailed for the same reasons as those that are hailing them today. He was the consensus best player available, a big and quick disruptor. He's been very good for New York, but after four years, has his impact measured up to his hype?
For a FAN's perspective of the Nets, Devils and Jets, follow Steve on Twitter @SteveLichtenst1.
