A New York Jets Draft Simulation

I have been meaning to test out Fan Speaks draft simulator for a while now and finally this morning, I got the time to play around with it a little bit. First of all I wanted to say thanks to Fan Speak for providing us with a premium account to test, and I can safely say this has by far been the best simulator on the web. The Premium account allows you to simulate the draft for 7 rounds, including trades. You can use three different sets of power rankings, I've tried all three and I find that the Fan Speak power rankings are more realistic.

If you are not interested in mock draft, draft simulations, then look away now as I'm going to document how this went.

For the first simulation, I was going to look at trades proposed, but not offer any trades myself.

Immediately upon choosing to draft for the Jets and to draft for seven rounds I am presented with some trades from other teams. Here is a list of trades I was presented with straight away:

Buffalo Bills: Round 1, #9 NYJ Round 1, #18, Round 2, #17 & Round 4, #4 - Declined

Kansas City Chiefs: Round 1, #23, Round 3 #23, Round 4, #24. NYJ: Round 1 #18 - Accepted

Thinking: Although the Buffalo trade was tempting to pick up an elite talent, I wanted to maintain flexibility with more selections and my preference was to move down rather than move up. So with the Kansas pick it made sense to me to move down a little and then pick up another third round selection. As you can see below it worked quite well.

Round 1

Brandin Cooks, WR - Oregon State

Following the completion of the first round, I was then presented with two further trades

San Diego Chargers: Round 2, Pick 25, Round 4 Pick 25, Round 5, Pick 25. NYJ: Round 2, Pick 17 - Declined

Washington Redskins: Round 3, Pick 2, Round 4 Pick 2, Round 5, Pick 2. NYJ: Round 2, Pick 17 - Declined

Thinking: With the amount of selections we already have, I didn't see the need to move down and pick up even more. We've got a game breaking talent in round one, and now we have the opportunity to pick up some really good talent over the next two rounds So although the Chargers trade was tempting when it first got proposed, I decided to stay put in the second round.

Round 2

Jace Amaro, TE Texas Tech

I really don't think Amaro is going to be here in the middle of the second round, it would be a surprise but it's not completely impossible. So I wasn't thinking twice about this selection. He was the best player left on the board and this instantly improves our offence going forward. So two rounds into the draft, we have Cooks and Amaro, I'm not sure many people would be upset with that if the draft board fell like this.

Round 3

Keith McGill, CB, Utah

Terrence Brooks, S, Florida State

I took BPA's at both position here. I really like McGill as a prospect, he is a big rangy corner, Brooks is a very impressive safety with good range, nice balance and excellent quickness and closing speed. I like both of them to really improve our secondary. It make take a little while for McGill to really bed in but I think Brooks could come in and be an instant starter from day one. Both impressive athletes, and in my opinion, they both represented good value at this position.

* Before round four I got presented with several trades to move down in round four and pick up extra picks in round 7. I received them from Buffalo, Minnesota and Cincinnati. I didn't entertain any of them. I'm keeping my 4th round stack*

Round 4

Lache Seastrunk, RB, Baylor

Adrian Hubbard, OLB, Alabama

Cody Latimer, WR, Indiana

Victor Hampton, CB, South Carolina

Thinking here is to really start plugging some gaps, and if you can take some BPA's at the same time, it's a win/win situation. I really like Seastrunk as a prospect and think he would give us another dimension to Ivory. Hubbard is a guy with a lot of speed coming off the edge, but his strength is completely underrated. Latimer is my wide receiver who will surprise people. He strikes me as that guy who will give you 600-800 yards a a season for 5-7 touchdowns a season too. Victor Hampton is a guy with a lot of potential, and we love CB's here. I know a lot of people will disagree with me, but I actually love this round and if it fell like this. I'd be delighted.

Round 5

Aaron Murray, QB, Georgia

You'll all know if you were here a year ago, that I loved Murray's game. He has been completely blindsided by injuries and his stock just plummeted over the space of a year. He has a quick delivery, he has a ton of experience, good pocket awareness and he throws a good football. He's smaller than you would want, but the conventional QB measurables are becoming less important by the year. I don't know why, I just still really rate him and would take a chance on a guy being talked about as a first round prospect a year ago, in the 5th round.

Atlanta Trade: 6th round Selection. Jets Trade, 6th and 7th round selection - Accepted

- Thinking: We have four 6th round selections, and I personally don't think we need 5 selections before the end of the draft. So I'm moving up in the 6th at the expense of a 7th round selection. No problem with that.

Round 6

WR - Shaquelle Evans, WR, UCLA

TE - Colt Lyerla, TE, Oregon

OLB - Denicos Allen, OLB, Michigan State

OG - Spencer Long, Nebraska

Going into round six, I was trying to find players with potential. Obviously they are here for a reason and you wouldn't expect them to contribute from day one. However Evans was a highly touted high school recruit, who never quite made it work in college, but he's just a guy with a lot of talent who could put it all together. Colt Lyria has so many problems but so much talent. Allen and Long have some problems in their game but they have a lot of talent.

So there we go. That's my first effort using this, I'll be doing it more going forward. I know a lot of people will have a problem with how I drafted there, we're never going to get one that everyone agrees with. However personally, I'm happy with how it fell.

I would recommend using Fan Speak as it's interesting to draft when you have your selections in mind and they get taken a few picks ahead of you, you have to think on your feet. It makes it a little more realistic and a little more difficult than just sitting down and picking players you think may be available.

So feel free to pick my selections apart. I'll be doing another one later this week where I will be proposing trades as well as accepting, declining them.

FINAL: