In an ideal Jets world, the Cardinals will ignore the unflattering reports circulating on Tuesday and select Oklahoma quarterback Kyler Murray with the first overall pick in the NFL Draft on April 25.
It's still possible. Gang Green had Lady Luck on their side a year ago when the Giants bypassed a top QB in favor of running back Saquon Barkley, allowing Sam Darnold to fall into the Jets' lap with the third overall pick.
Arizona might consider that the initial source of the report on Murray's poor performance in team interviews is NFL Network's Charley Casserly, who four years ago gave his stamp of approval to Jets ownership on general manager Mike Maccagnan and recently-ousted head coach Todd Bowles. In a recent column for NBC Sports' Pro Football Talk, Mike Florio brought up a decade-old quote from Patriots coach Bill Belichick that might still be applicable. "Who's been wrong more than Charley Casserly since he left the Redskins?" Belichick said. "His percentage is like a meteorologist."
Cardinals new coach Kliff Kingsbury is rumored to be enamored with Murray, though it could also just as easily be a smokescreen to conjure a high-stakes trade market for any clubs that are QB-needy.
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Here's hoping the former is true, since it would greatly benefit the Jets to have one of the top two pass rushers in the draft drop into their third slot.
Until Murray's rise, Ohio State's Nick Bosa and Kentucky's Josh Allen had been atop most mock drafts. Either one would satisfy one of New York's most glaring needs: someone with speed to get to the quarterback from the edge. They haven't had a really good one since John Abraham's heyday.
If neither edge rusher remains on the board at three, the Jets would then be wise to trade down, hoping to recoup maybe two of the three second-round picks they surrendered when moving up in advance of last year's draft.
My worry is that Maccagnan, who typically espouses a "best player available" philosophy in the first round, has Alabama defensive tackle Quinnen Williams rated higher on his internal board than the edge rusher who dropped (more likely Allen). ESPN's Todd McShay thinks he does, predicting that the Jets will choose the six-foot-three, 303-pound Williams in his latest mock draft after his head-turning performance at the NFL Scouting Combine last week. Per NFL.com, Williams' 4.83 time in the 40-yard dash was the fourth-fastest among 300-pound-plus defensive linemen since 2003.
I'm not going to claim that I have any foresight into what kind of players Bosa, Allen or Williams will turn into—NFL GMs often whiff in these crapshoots. However, I do believe in relative positional values, and edge rusher is way higher on the list than an interior lineman.
Before Darnold, Maccagnan's three previous first-rounders were all defensive players. At those times, no one could argue that lineman Leonard Williams and safety Jamal Adams (both picked sixth overall) weren't the best players available, possibly even better than some of the previous selections in those drafts. Linebacker Darron Lee's (20th overall in 2017) selection was also given a thumbs up.
None of those picks, however, were used to fortify what is generally considered a premium position, like quarterback, left tackle, edge rusher, or cover cornerback. These positions have been deemed the hardest to fill with quality.
I'm sorry, but Quinnen Williams and Leonard Williams are redundant, and I'm not talking about the names on the backs of their jerseys. They're around the same size (Leonard is listed as two inches taller and one pound lighter) and have similar skill sets. According to the preliminary draft reports I've seen, Quinnen would fit best as a "3-technique" tackle in a 4-3 alignment. Except, as I discussed in my last post, new coach Adam Gase stated that the Jets will continue to play a 3-4. Neither Leonard nor Quinnen are considered big enough to be reliable every-down nose tackles. They're both 3-4 ends.
The Jets have not given any indication that they are willing to trade Leonard, who will earn $14.2 million in the final season of his contract before entering free agency in March 2020. They are also reportedly interested in re-signing free agent end Henry Anderson, who had the 12th-most pressures (48) among the league's interior linemen, per ProFootballFocus.com, after his acquisition last offseason for a seventh-round pick. Oh, and Maccagnan reached to grab end Nathan Shepherd in the third round of last year's draft.
Maccagnan's job may have been saved when he wasn't required to overthink things and got his franchise quarterback in last year's draft. Allen is projected to be an ideal fit for the Jets' planned scheme: don't overthink things by mining every inch of data you have to differentiate between him and Williams.
The Jets don't have all that much talent. They really can't afford to use the third overall pick on a position that's not only deemed to be less impactful, but also one that's already adequately stocked.
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NFL Network reporter Ian Rappaport tweeted on Wednesday morning that the Jets are out in the sweepstakes for the right to trade for Pittsburgh's diva wide receiver Antonio Brown.
Good.
For a FAN's perspective of the Nets, Devils and Jets, follow Steve on Twitter @SteveLichtenst1
