Jets Draft
I'll start off with how I perceive their current roster. They are obviously a mess offensively, their only redeeming talent over there is Decker, a couple of OL who are aging in Ferguson and Mangold, a decent prospect at TE in Amaro and a couple of decent RB's in Ivory and Powell. Defensively, they probably have the best collection of 3-4, front 7 young talent in the league in Wilkerson, Richardson, Damon Harrison, Coples and Demario Davis. Their secondary is pretty poor although they have some youth at safety they might be willing to gamble on, including 2014 1st rounder Calvin Pryor. Overall though, this is a long-term rebuild and once I got my QB in Mariota at 6, I focused on surrounding him with talent. Yes, I'd like to add another OLB and some better talent in the secondary, but I think Bowles has enough to work with to put together a decent defense for now with all that front 7 talent. If Mariota hadn't fell to me at 6 the draft may have looked different but once he did, my focus was on putting him in a position to succeed, and that means giving him weapons and protection. Plus, on a team like this with so many holes, you're never going to fill all of them with 4 picks, so focusing on Mariota and their horrific offense was my goal.
1.6 - Marcus Mariota, QB Oregon
No brainer with their QB situation. I definitely have some questions about the guy with regard to his ability to transition to a traditional NFL offense, but when you're in the position the Jets are in and you have a chance to roll the dice on a QB with his physical ability and seemingly pristine character/leadership/work ethic, you do it. He may never turn into a true elite QB who can pick apart defenses from the pocket like a Brees, Brady or Manning, but there's no reason he can't be another Cam Newton type, a guy who is decent enough as a passer but who really wins by being a dual threat, and that would be a huge win for the Jets.
2.37 - Devin Smith, WR Ohio St.
Decker is still a guy you can trust to make plays over the short to intermediate with a few deep plays mixed in. Basically I look at him as a reliable #2, possession type who can also stretch the defense just a bit. Amaro is a guy who could turn into a nice receiving TE and Ivory is a bruising between the tackles RB with average speed. To sum it up, the Jets offense needs some juice, someone who can stretch the field and Smith is just that. He can open up the intermediate middle for Decker and gives Mariota a deep speed threat like he was used to at Oregon. WR is also one of the Jets biggest needs in general, if Mariota had been gone at 6 I would've looked at Cooper and White, and the value here matches the need perfectly.
3.70 - Jake Fisher, OT Oregon
Ferguson and Mangold are still good, but aging, and other than that I don't see a whole lot. Giacomini basically sucks at RT and gives you no upside. Fisher is a tough, reliable, versatile type who could start day 1 at RT and potentially move over to LT in a few years. I feel like he will go higher than this in the actual draft so it was a value pick as well in my eyes, the fact that he protected Mariota at Oregon is a plus too.
4.101 - Henry Anderson, DE Stanford
Pure BPA value pick. Positionally I was looking at WR, CB, S, OLB and RB here but Anderson is just too good for me to pass up in the 4th. Perfect 3-4 DE size, productive, great Senior Bowl and I think in the real draft he goes no lower than the middle of the 3rd. I realize this is duplicating talent since the Jets DL is so strong but as I said, this is a long-term build so in the end talent won out for me over positional need. Plus, the Jets will have plenty of cap space to go after free agents to fill holes now that we will have a QB on a rookie deal for the next 4 years.
Overall, I feel really good about what I did. There were still spots I want to upgrade but I did this draft with a long-term view in mind, and in reality I would still have 3 picks left plus a bunch of cap room to fill needs.