Mel Kiper Grades The Jets Draft

Mel Kiper had an insider article grading every single teams draft. Here are some snippets to take from what he said about the Jets:

New York Jets - B Grade

Once you can divorce yourself from the reality of what Geno Smith is headed into, you take a step back and realize the Jets just took the guy I think is the best quarterback in the draft, and they did it at No. 39 overall

The Jets really needed a corner now that Darrelle Revis is in Tampa, and they got the best one in the draft at No. 9

With Sheldon Richardson, I expect them to do some new things up front, potentially shifting Quinton Coples to the edge. This is the makings of an extremely good defense up front

Brian Winters is a starter at guard, and Oday Aboushi could play either right tackle or guard. Tommy Bohanan (T-Bo!) should stick.

It is hard to disagree with anything that Kiper says here. I think the Jets instant grade should be a B/B+. However as mentioned in his article, the true grade won't be known until 2015 or 2016. However there is a lot to like about what the Jets did, They got five instant starters in Milliner, Richardson, Geno, Winters and Ivory and a couple of potentially really sound players in Aboushi and Bohanan, a player I love and who is a FB who can catch the football.

For all those that are interested, he graded the Ravens draft as the best. This is hardly surprising, the Ravens went into the draft needing a CB and a ILB, they came out of the draft with Matt Elam from Florida who was my personal favorite safety in the draft and Arthur Brown, who Scott absolutely loved. They then added the best fullback in the draft in Kyle Juszczyk during the 4th round and Brandon Williams in the 3rd who will be a great rotation guy.

He gave the Miami Dolphins a B- grade, New England Patriots a C+ grade and the Buffalo Bills a C- Grade.

So out of the AFC East, Kiper believes that the Jets had the best draft. I wouldn't disagree with that, but I don't think any of the AFC East teams had a poor draft. Miami got a dynamic athletic pass rusher in Dion Jordan, Dallas Thomas is a decent player but not sure if they are thinking about starting him at LT or not, Jelani Jenkins the linebacker from Florida is probably the best value selection they made, taking him at #104 overall.

The Patriots draft I wasn't too fond of, I love Aaron Dobson and think he'll be a very good player at the next level. Jamie Collins looked good on a very bad team, but he has a lot of versatility. I really don't rate the Rutgers pair they took, Logan Ryan at CB and reaching a lot for Duron Harman the safety, taking him at #91 was mad in my opinion, he wasn't slated to go until the very late rounds.

I think the grade on the Bills is very harsh. They went into this draft needing a WR/QB/ LB and cornerback (among others) and they came out with EJ Manuel (we'll see how much of a reach that was), Robert Woods and Marquise Goodwin at wide receiver, Kiko Alonso at LB and Jonathan Meeks at cornerback. I think my main criticism would be that they took Kiko Alonso with Arthur Brown still on the board, and Brown is a much better player than Kiko in my opinion. However I like Robert Woods who will start from day 1, and Goodwin has speed to burn. They also picked up Duke Williams, a board favourite here at GGN.

Personally I think the St Lous Rams had one of the best drafts of any team. They managed to pick up a lot of help for Sam Bradford in the form of Tavon Austin and Stedman Bailey as well as a very good offensive lineman in Barrett Jones. They got the best ILB in Alec Ogletree and one of the best safeties in T.J McDonald from USC. They got the corner who I rated very highly in Brandon McGee and they even added some insurance at the RB position with Zac Stacey.

Eagles had a nice draft, picking up Barkley in the 4th was great value. The Titans had a nice draft solidifying the line with Chance Warmack and Brian Schwenke. The Cardinals also had a nice draft for me, getting Alez Okafor in the 4th round was an absolute steal, Jonathan Cooper will be a great draft and they could have hit gold with Tyrann Mathieu. Time will tell.