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This guy might have slipped as well . . .
There was a lot of talk about how defensive end Jermaine Johnson (late first round) and running back Breece Hall (early second round) slipped, and the Jets took advantage of that.
But they think there was another slip that benefitted them, and that is tight end Jeremy Ruckert in the third round.
That wasn’t a need pick for the Jets, after signing C.J. Uzomah and Tyler Conklin in free agency, and with incumbents Kenny Yeboah and Trevon Wesco, they were in pretty good shape at the position entering the draft. By the way, they also have former wide receiver Lawrence Cager at the position.
But they felt that Ruckert was a good value pick.
Jets assistant GM Rex Hogan called the selection of Ruckert “trusting the board.”
Hogan feels that Ruckert slipped because of a foot injury suffered at the Senior Bowl, which precluded him from working out at the combine or at Ohio State’s Pro Day. At the tight end position, a lot of teams would like to have a 40 time on a player.
And since there was no workout, and a foot rehab, the Jets feel they got good value where they picked him late in the third round (with a pick they got from Tennessee in the trade that landed the Johnson).
“Hopefully we can reap the benefits of [Ruckert slipping],” Hogan said.
We have no idea what Ruckert’s 40 time is, but these teams now use GPS technology to determine how fast guys run in games, so the Jets have a pretty good idea of how fast he is.
And he showed that ability to get down the seam when called upon in the Ohio State passing offense. Does he run 4.5, probably not, but he seems fast enough to threaten most parts of the field . . .
The Jets didn’t sign as many undrafted free agents as past year.
“We had more players on the roster (entering the draft), than in the past,” Hogan said.
They initially signed five, but then added Washington State wide receiver Calvin Jackson after a rookie minicamp tryout, so they ended up with six UDFAs.
One guy to keep an eye on is undrafted free agent linebacker D.Q. Thomas out of Middle Tennessee State.
While he went undrafted, keep in mind, the Jets actually flew him to New Jersey for one of their 30 in-person visits before the draft. They also visited with him at MTSU in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.
So they did a lot of work on this player, and likely would have picked him late in the draft, in perhaps the sixth or seventh round, but remember, they had no picks in those rounds due to some trades.
Thomas is another one of those safety-types, who has been moved to linebacker, like Hamsah Nasrildeen and Jamien Sherwood, that Robert Saleh likes to have in his defense.
These kinds of guys can really come in handy on passing downs due to their mobility in coverage, and their ability to cover tight ends.
However, you need to cover them up, meaning you need dominating defensive line play, where the offensive linemen have to double guys upfront, and this keeps the O-Linemen from getting on these undersized linebackers and smothering them. In other words, you need to keep these types of linebackers clean so they can run to the ball.
Last year, this didn’t happen enough, with the game at New England being a perfect example, when Sherwood started at linebacker, and was getting overwhelmed by Patriots offensive linemen, and unfortunately ended up getting hurt.
So the bottom line is these kinds of linebackers are fine, as long as you are very talented on the defensive line, and it looks that could be the case for the Jets this season.
May 18, 2022
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