New York Jets 2010 NFL Draft Grades

by John B on Apr 26, 2010 7:00 AM EDT

Grade may not be the best word. I think it's pretty dumb to assign a letter grade to a Draft completed less than a week ago. Nobody really knows how anybody selected will really turn out. Even so, we can at least see where the guys selected by the Jets will fit in 2010 and beyond.

Kyle Wilson: Wilson will see the field immediately as the nickel in subpackages. He will line up with the other team's slot receiver in man coverage most of the time. He may see action against an extremely athletic tight end like Dallas Clark or Antonio Gates. He will also serve as the primary backup to Antonio Cromartie and Darrelle Revis and line up on the outside should anything happen to either. Rex may like to mix up his coverage schemes with his top three corners so he could move outside then too. If Antonio Cromartie underperforms or is not retained after next season, he will slide into the starting lineup. He will also probably serve as primary punt returner.

Vladimir Ducasse: Ducasse has all of the physical tools to succeed. He has a unique mixture of strength, size, and athleticism. All he needs is more experience and to learn technique. He will have a chance to immediately compete for Alan Faneca's starting job at left guard against Matt Slauson, Wayne Hunter, and Robert Turner. The Jets probably want him to win the job. If not, he will probably back up both tackle and guard spots. If he wins the job, he still might be the primary backup for Damien Woody and D'Brickashaw Ferguson. In the long term, he may kick outside to replace Woody.

Joe McKnight: McKnight will be the new Leon Washington. He will be the team's change of pace homerun threat, attempting to get to the perimeter. He will also be a pass catching threat out of the backfield and split out wide and in the slot at times. His speed makes him a likely candidate to take over as the sweep handoff option when Brad Smith takes the snap in the Tiger formation. He also may figure as a kickoff returner.

John Conner: Conner will sit behind Tony Richardson as the backup fullback. He will probably work as a blocker on kickoff returns. He will take over the starting fullback job when Richardson retires.

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lol. so why call your article “New York Jets 2010 NFL Draft Grades”.

by rick34125 on Apr 26, 2010 8:15 AM EDT reply actions

Good stuff. On the money.

I agree about not giving out letter grades. Think its dumb too.

Its fun to do our rankings and what not leading up to the draft, but none of us know anything. And ofthe so-called experts that actually do have access to real sources of information, they are often misinformed. So grading drafts based upon the pre-draft rankings of the uninformed or misinformed is silly. Nobody but the teams know how they ranked certain players. And even then, nobody knows how these guys will perform at the next level.

by Crackback on Apr 26, 2010 8:52 AM EDT reply actions

Yeah draft grades are silly, but fun to give out. So here's mine: C+

I mean that’s the whole point of giving out the grades right? It’s fun and it’s an easy way to sum up how you feel about the draft. People who give out As and Bs obviously like the draft picks, Ds and Fs are like augh what are they doing and Cs are on the fence. Anyhow, here’s my reasoning for the C+:

On offense, now we’re pretty much set for the long haul. I love the Ducasse pick, my USC friend assures me that Joe McKnight is gonna be super good and I’m praying that he’s not being biased and is objectively right, and I mean come on we got a dude named JOHN CONNER even though I think that pick came out of deep left field (a FULLBACK? really?). But overall, our offense should be at the very least in the top 10 given that Sanchez keeps up his playoff self and possibly league-leading in a couple of years.

Defensively though, apart from the secondary we are old, AND we lack depth pretty much everywhere. Everybody we are projecting to start in the front 7 (if we’re going with the Jenkins-to-DE model) apart from David Harris is over 30.

I dunno if we have backup ILBs. Do we still have Ryan Fowler? Is he any good? Bart Scott’s going to be what, 31 or 32 after this season. ILBs typically have the 2nd shortest careers of anyone on the defense after safeties (see: http://www.pro-football-reference.com/blog/?p=6510 )—they take a lot of abuse. Bart was playing through some relatively bad injuries it seemed by the end of the year. He’s tough but I wouldn’t be surprised to see him go down at some point this year for an extended period of time. So who are we gonna put in there to replace him? ILB was an extremely underrated need that just might come back to bite us in the ass this year. It’s not as simple as finding a big, strong fat guy to eat up blocks (sorry Pouha, we love you man).

I feel a little more comfortable with the depth on the d-line, but we’re a Kris Jenkins- and Shaun Ellis-injury away from having to rely on the Kraken, which is as big a question mark as any we have on the roster.

I suppose that Rex’s schemes are a little bit kind of plug-n-play for guys in the front 7, and we should do alright given that the secondary stays healthy, but it still seriously concerns me. We’re gonna be in trouble if we have to play scrubs significantly in January. So for not addressing those concerns, I gotta bring down my grade significantly.

by Exystence on Apr 26, 2010 9:09 AM EDT reply actions

I liked the Fullback pick, just not where it was made. Considering the way we, run fullback is a very important position for us, TRich is probably in his last season so we needed to start grooming someone, I thought Davis was that player, but I knew we were going to be looking at either Conner, Jackson, or Tonga, if they really liked one. I just figured it would be in the seventh (or even trading into the sixth, those picks are not that hard to get), or UDFA, as FB isn’t a big draft position. I thought in the 5th was a reach, and there were still a number of quality picks out there. My feelings are after reading a lot of the stuff on Conner, that this was a layer we really liked (as well as NE, and a few others) so I’m going to trust in the coach and scouting staff here.

by Judgegavel on Apr 26, 2010 9:32 AM EDT up reply actions

Sexy Rexy apparently wanted him pretty bad thus the quick trigger. Lets hope he proves worthy of that “Terminator” nickname he has….

by Pigjuice on Apr 26, 2010 11:37 AM EDT up reply actions

Draft grades

I give up. Where are they ????

by Double T on Apr 26, 2010 11:43 AM EDT reply actions

theoretically we got two WR with braylon and holmes so it looks like this

1st round- Wilson
2nd round- Ducasse
3rd round- Edwards
4th round- McKnight
5th round- Connor
5th round- Holmes

lol i dont know bout u guys but i say its an A or A-

by J3TSFANFORLYF3 on Apr 26, 2010 11:28 PM EDT reply actions

i dont know about you guys but man i think we got a absolute steal in joe mcknight this dude is going to be special just you watch he going to make us completely forget about leon but thats just my opinion

by J3TSFANFORLYF3 on Apr 27, 2010 3:18 AM EDT up reply actions