The Jets took three players in the first round of the 2022 NFL Draft on Thursday night, the first time they have had three first-round picks since 2000 when they had four.
We won’t know for a few years if general manager Joe Douglas got it right, but that won’t stop us from reacting immediately. I always grade the draft on logic and what Douglas did Thursday night made sense. He filled three areas of need and took highly rated players without reaching.
Here are some other takeaways from Thursday’s first round:
1. The story of the night for the Jets ended up being Jermaine Johnson II. The Jets loved Johnson from early in the pre-draft process. They did not coach him in the Senior Bowl but he caught their eye there. Johnson was a possibility for them at No. 10 depending on how things played out. Johnson was the No. 8 player on their board.
As Johnson fell on Thursday night, the Jets began working the phones at the 15th pick, thinking about trading back into the first round to get Johnson. The Jets found their sweet spot at 26 where the Titans were willing to make a deal.
I think the price was fair. The Jets got a third-round pick back in the deal, albeit 32 picks later than they would have been picking. They also still have four picks in the top 38 and should come away with four starters.
The Jets traded back into the first round to snag Jermaine Johnson, who had no discernable reason for falling to No. 26. Getty ImagesSome may question why he fell to 26 after being projected as a top 10 pick. No one I spoke to had any solid reasons why he fell. There was no smoking gun that made him drop. If you look at the draft, no edge rushers were taken after Kayvon Thibodeaux at 5 until Johnson at 26. It could simply have been that teams did not have edge rush as a major need and went in different directions.
Johnson only has one year of production after transferring to Florida State from Georgia. That is the risk here. But I think it is a risk worth taking at 26. I would feel differently if this was a top 10 pick. All players in the 20s have some risk involved.
If Johnson can fly off the edge for the Jets, no one will remember what they gave up to get him.
2. The happiest guy at One Jets Drive has to be defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich. He had an impossible task in 2021. The Jets had very little talent on defense and his secondary was more green than the Jets’ helmets. On Thursday night, Douglas got him a true No. 1 cornerback in Sauce Gardner and an edge rusher in Johnson. That on top of the free agent additions like Jordan Whitehead and D.J. Reed and the return of Carl Lawson from injury gives Ulbrich a chance in 2022.
The Jets defense should be much improved and Ulbrich will look like a better coach in his second season because he has better players.
3. The Jets end of the Jamal Adams trade is complete. Their return for shipping Adams to Seattle is guard Alijah Vera-Tucker (they used two of the Adams picks to move up in 2021 to take him) and wide receiver Garrett Wilson, the No. 10 overall pick Thursday. Seattle has a fourth-round pick from the Jets to use Saturday from the trade.
Did they get enough for Adams? We’ll find out in a few years when we see how Vera-Tucker and Wilson pan out. Vera-Tucker had a promising rookie season and Wilson looks like he can be a star on paper. But Jets fans know how draft projections can work out. At the moment, it still looks like a good deal for the Jets. They have two starters on team-friendly rookie contracts while Adams is getting paid big bucks and battling injuries in Seattle.
4. The decision not to take Ickey Ekwonu with the No. 4 overall pick was as simple as preferring Gardner, according to Douglas. But I think it goes deeper than that. I think this was a small victory for Mekhi Becton. The Jets still want to see what he can do in 2022 and are not ready to give up on the 2020 first-round pick. If they drafted Ekwonu, that would have been an admission that they did not believe in Becton. The Jets are not in position to make first-round luxury picks that can sit and watch for a year. If they drafted Ekwonu, he was going to play and that meant Becton was either going to be on the trade block or the bench.
Now, Becton goes into the spring and summer in a competition with George Fant for left tackle but if he does not win that then he is the right tackle and he has a chance to quiet his doubters and prove that the promise he showed as a rookie was not a mirage.
Mekhi Becton will come into training camp with another chance to prove himself to Jets coaches. Bill Kostroun5. Douglas has remade the Jets offense over the past three years. There is not one starter left on the offense from before 2020. Wilson is the latest piece of the puzzle. Here is what the projected starting offense looks like and the year they arrived with the Jets is in parentheses:
QB – Zach Wilson (2021)
RB – Michael Carter (2021)
WR – Garrett Wilson (2022)
WR – Corey Davis (2021)
WR – Elijah Moore (2021)
TE – C.J. Uzomah (2022)
LT – George Fant (2020)
LG – Laken Tomlinson (2022)
C – Connor McGovern (2020)
RG – Alijah Vera-Tucker (2021)
RT – Mekhi Becton (2020)
