5 NFL teams that must have an excellent draft
By Andrew Garda
The New York Jets have done a lot so far this offseason. They’ve added another receiving weapon in Brandon Marshall. They reversed course and signed Antonio Cromartie and Darrelle Revis after a year without either one, as well as added Buster Skrine to the secondary. They added James Carpenter to shore up the offensive line a little and blocking tight end Kellen Davis to help it even more.
After all the money that wasn’t spent by former general manager John Idzik, the Jets—led by new GM Mike Maccagnan and new head coach Todd Bowles—were happy to spend, spend, spend!
Still, it’s important to remember something we said in the introduction—free agency is only part of the ‘the game’ and many a team has only concentrated on that and didn’t address needs in the draft as well.
The problem is, the biggest need is likely not one they can do anything about in the draft. Geno Smith may yet prove to be the quarterback of the future, but right now it looks bad. Ryan Fitzpatrick is a solid transition quarterback but he isn’t a long-term fix.
But Jameis Winston and Marcus Mariota may both be gone by the time the Jets pick at the No. 6 spot, and even if they aren’t, both have some risks. In other words, neither one is Andrew Luck.
So even if they get a quarterback with that pick, they need to keep building—on both sides of the ball.
They have to improve that offensive line further, they have to get a great pass-rushing threat and they could use some depth all across the rest of the defense. Heck, despite Marshall and Eric Decker, they could use more help at wide receiver.
The worst thing the Jets could do is trade the house to move up for Mariota or Winston. At least Winston would be closer to game ready, but either way, the Jets are not a quarterback away from the Super Bowl. They have a lot of great pieces, but not all of them.
So they need the bulk of their six picks—especially their first three—to get quality starters at multiple positions. Trading a combination of those picks might get them Mariota but make them miss out on other talent they also desperately need.
Jets fans are frustrated and were unhappy with how things fell out last season (really for the last few seasons). The Jets need to hit home runs on most of their picks, not just to keep pace in the conference and division, but to keep the fans from lighting another set of torches and storming the Florham Park facilities with pitchforks again come next January.