The last four Jets drafts
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- April
- 27
Now that the 2009 NFL Draft is in the books, lets sit back and look at the picks taken in the Mike Tannenbaum era. The list below yields a few clues to what the Jets general manager may have learned in the last few years.
The Jets used 10 picks in 2006, with seven of them still on the team. D’Brickashaw Ferguson, Leon Washington, Nick Mangold and Eric Smith were starters last seaon, although the Ferguson pick took heavy criticism until last season, when he was named to the Pro Bowl third team. He still isn’t as firm a left tackle as some would like, but he can’t be considered a bust.
In ‘07 the Jets only used four picks, with three still on the team and strong contributers. That seems to be the model that Tannenbaum and coach Rex Ryan followed, condensing six picks into three.
“I can go back to two years ago where we went into the weekend with a lot of different goals and objectives and wound up with Darrelle Revis and David Harris,” Tannenbaum said. “We didn’t think it would go that way, but we felt the value of Shonn Greene was too much to pass up and that’s why we went up a second consecutive time. That was not our plan and that’s not what we wanted to do, but we just felt there was a compelling opportunity.”
The jury is still out on last year’s class. Dustin Keller turned out to be a smart pick, and Dwight Lowery started the season strong. Nate Garner was cut, Marcus Henry waived when the Jets needed roster space last season but is now back with the team, and Erik Ainge (who has been MIA for personal reasons) now is extraneous.
“The facts are we drafted three players and we had to give up three players,” Tannenbaum said. “So, I think we can do the math and figure out that there are some definite opportunities to make this football team. Again, there have been a lot of success stories that we’ve had in the past.”
Looks like he has gotten more confident in his staff’s ability to evaluate key players, and bold enough to bet the house to go after them. He is not lauded as a football guy, but a numbers guy. But looking at the overall choices he and his staff have made, maybe Tannenbaum deserves a little more credit.
2009
1st Round (#5), Mark Sanchez QB; 3rd Round (#) Shonn Greene RB; 6th Round (#) Matt Slauson OT.
2008
1st Round (#6), Vernon Gholston DE; 1st Round (#30), Dustin Keller, TE; 4th Round (#113), Dwight Lowery, DB; 5th Round (#162), Erik Ainge, QB; 6th Round (#171), Marcus Henry, WR; 7th Round (#211), Nate Garner, OT.
2007
1st Round (#14), Darrelle Revis CB; 2nd round (#47) David Harris, ILB; 6th Round (#47) Jacob Bender T; 7th Round (#235) Chansi Stuckey WR.
2006
1st Round (#4) D’Brickashaw Ferguson OL; 1st Round (#29) Nick Mangold OL; 2nd Round (#49) Kellen Clemens QB; 3rd Round (#76) Anthony Schlegel LB; 3rd Round (#97) Eric Smith S; 4th Round (#103) Brad Smith WR/QB; 4th Round (#117) Leon Washington RB; 5th Round (#150) Jason Pociask TE; 6th Round (#189) Drew Coleman CB; 7th Round (#220) Titus Adams DT.
A few links: On contracts. NPR spoke to Leigh Steinberg about the money sports agents will ask NFL teams to pay picks: he says the NFL is still rich.
Monday Morning quarterback. Peter King has some insight on the Jets draft and how the deal with Cleveland came about. King and I have a lot in common. We both cover football and have grey streaks in our hair.
This entry was posted
on Monday, April 27th, 2009 at 11:53 am by Jane McManus.
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Jane McManus 
So let’s get streight we trade the best QB we have(yes radcliff is better then clemens)All of our draft picks but 2
we don’t get the WR/TE/DE We need,and this was a good draft???????????????????
I DON’T THINK SO
With our draft choices we only gave up 3 original picks We had a 1st (Sanchez), no 2nd, a 3rd (Greene) no 4th, got Sheppard for our 5th, a 6th (Slauson) and no 7th. Probably on 2 that mattered. We will also have Ghoston basically being a rookie. And what better name for a J*E*T than Greene. A very good chance of all making the team. I know we still need a WR & blocking TE. All in all I would rate this draft as a A-
It all depends on how, Sanchez turns out, but most of the “experts” seem to agree that the Jets got off lightly to get what they were looking for. I think Cleveland definitely could have extorted another 2nd round pick in next year’s draft. Greene is a top shelf running back and even that guard looks like he is a good pick on paper (all conference guy who has played three different positions on the line).
Tanny drives me nuts at times and I ‘ll never agree with everything he is doing, but I think the ledger generally weighs in his favor.
I like the Sanchez pick, but I hope there are off-season surprises in the way of a WR and a TE.
ACDAVIDDC,
No way. Clemens actually won games with a lousy Jets team. Ratliff never won a real game. When Clemens emerges from camp as starter, one of us is going to have to eat his words.