Jets Draft Countdown: 5 days to go

It’s April 20th, meaning there are only five days to go until the 2019 NFL Draft kicks off in the heart of Nashville, Tennessee.

As we count down the days until the Jets prepare for their fifth draft under Mike Maccagnan, I thought it would be fun to climb up the ladder of the best Jets draft picks of the 21st century.

Each day until the fateful morning of the 25th, I’ll name off one of the top eleven most productive Jets selections of the millennium. How did I rank them, you might ask? Good question! I stacked them up according to their scores as calculated by my genius formula — proven to be 100% accurate and 0% arbitrary!

Players earned points for accomplishing any of the following while in a Jets uniform:

• 50 points for a first team All-Pro appearance
• 25 points for a Pro Bowl appearance
• 1 point for each point of Approximate Value (via Pro Football Reference - a number that aims to calculate a player’s total value)
• 0.5 points for each regular season game played

Yesterday, I continued the rankings at #7 with Muhammad Wilkerson. Let’s move up to #6!

#11 - Jerricho Cotchery (94.5 points)

#10 - Sione Pouha (107 points)

#9 - Laveranues Coles (110.5 points)

#8 - Bryan Thomas (141.5 points)

#7 - Muhammad Wilkerson (148.5 points)

#6 - DAVID HARRIS

174 points: 97 approximate value (1st among all Jets draft picks since 2000), 154 regular season games played (5th)

Photo by Stephen Pond/Getty Images

• Born and attended high school in Grand Rapids, Michigan
• Selected 47th overall by the Jets in the second round of the 2007 Draft (Michigan)
• Played with Jets from 2007-16, Patriots in 2017
• Career Jets regular season stats: 1,109 tackles, 55 tackles for loss, 69 quarterback hits, 36.5 sacks, 32 passes defended, 10 forced fumbles, 6 interceptions, 4 fumbles recovered
• Career Jets playoff stats: 6 games, 45 tackles, 3 tackles for loss, 2 sacks, 2 passes defended, 1 interception, 1 quarterback hit

Fast facts

• First off, I just want to note how difficult it was to find an interesting picture of Harris to use for the title of this post. The man simply never did anything flashy for the cameras, and it showed as I looked through his gallery. I thought it really symbolized the type of player that Harris was. No nonsense. Just football. His grittiness and leadership was a breath of fresh air for a long time.
• Harris is nestled in comfortably near the top of many Jets franchise leaderboards on the defensive side. He is ranked third in team history in total tackles (1,087), seventh in sacks (35.0), and is tied for seventh in forced fumbles (10). He is tied for third with Calvin Pace in quarterback hits (67) since the stat was first tracked in 2006, and is placed ninth in passes defended (31) since that stat began to be tracked in 1999.
• With a score of 97, Harris is ranked seventh in franchise history in Pro Football Reference’s approximate value. He is the only player in the top nine to have played in the 21st century.
• From 2007 to 2016, Harris was one of only five players in the league to tally over 1,000 tackles, ranking fifth in the league over that span with 1,087. Harris and Lawrence Timmons were the only players over that span to rack up 900+ tackles and 60+ quarterback hits, while Harris and Karlos Dansby were the only players to produce 1,000+ tackles and 25+ sacks.
• Fittingly, Harris is currently placed 52nd on the NFL’s all-time total tackles list.

Jason Bridge-USA TODAY Sports