Mike Maccagnan: Jets Don’t Draft Based on Position

Jets general manager Mike Maccagnan was a guest on Mike Francesa’s show yesterday on WFAN. You can listen to the audio of the interview below.

Some notes:

• Maccagnan said the team did not go into the Draft intending to take two safeties. He indicated the Jets consider position mainly when it’s a tiebreaker between two sides.
• The Jets were pleasantly surprised Jamal Adams was available. Francesa said he knows there were teams that had Adams as their top ranked player in the entire Draft.
• Maccagnan spoke at length about the intangibles Adams and Marcus Maye bring to the table. He made it sound like intangibles and character are quite important pieces of the Jets’ evaluation.
• He also noted that the team generally thinks a player has the character to be drafted or doesn’t. He is either on the board or not. There generally isn’t a case where a team feels comfortable taking a character risk in X round but not before. If a player’s character is too risky, he’s off the board. The Jets are more willing to take a roll of the dice in X round but not before for injury risks.
• Maccagnan indicated the Jets actually tried to move up before their first trade down. The team traded down because they had a number of players graded similarly by the time their pick arrived so they knew they could land one while adding more picks.
• The quarterback competition is wide open, and Todd Bowles will make the call.
• When talking about what the team liked about Jordan Leggett, Maccagnan spoke exclusively about his receiving skills.
• The scouts liked Dylan Donahue. Linebackers coach Kevin Greene was the most passionate player about the pick. There was a joke that Greene would adopt Donahue if he could.
• Maccagnan talked about running back Elijah McGuire’s receiving skills when describing why the team picked him.
• Offensive lineman Javarius Leamon, wide receiver Gabe Marks, and linebacker Connor Harris were the three Maccagnan singled out as being excited about when asked about the team’s undrafted free agent haul.