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A lot of mock drafts have the Jets picking Georgia tight end Brock Bowers with the 10th pick of the first round.
While mock drafts don’t mean a ton because it’s people guessing, and people in all 32 buildings aren’t telling anybody who they are picking.
However, mock drafts can provide a modicum of guidance on how the first round might evolve, how guys are valued, and when they might come off the board.
NFL Network’s Daniel Jeremiah was asked on Wednesday during a pre-draft press conference with the media (teleconference), who he thinks the Jets would take at ten.
“My gut tells me I think they would take Bowers,” Jeremiah said. “[Joe Douglas] comes from an organization in Baltimore where they had great tight ends and they’ve always done a good job of drafting tight ends.”
Douglas and Jeremiah worked together as scouts in Baltimore from 2003-06. They are good friends.
When Douglas got the Jets GM job in 2019, there were rumors that he might hire Jeremiah for his staff in Florham Park.
Jeremiah elected to stay with the NFL Network.
But when Jeremiah is asked about what the Jets might do in the draft, perhaps you pay closer attention to it compared to other people’s guesses because of that relationship.
Though Jeremiah did say at the beginning of the answer above: ” I haven’t talked to Joe.”
But let’s look into Jeremiah’s theory about Douglas’ roots in Baltimore leading him to a tight end.
it’s so true that Baltimore has had a string over very good tight ends, however most of them weren’t picked in the first round.
The current dynamic do is Mark Andrews (2018 third round) and Isaiah Likely (2022 fourth round).
The standout guy before them was Dennis Pitta (2010 fourth-round pick). Pitta was one of the standout players on the 2013 Super Bowl championship Ravens.
Shannon Sharpe was the standout tight end on the Ravens during their Super Bowl season in 2000, and he was a 1990 seventh-round pick of Denver.
There was one first-round tight end of note over the last two decades and that was Todd Heap, who played for the Ravens from 2000-10. However, he was picked at the end of the first round, pick 31, not anywhere near 10.
There point here is simple – Yes, the Ravens have had some good tight ends over the years that have been instrumental in their success, but none where picked anywhere near the 10th pick overall.
When prospects come out of college, people want to know what NFL players their games compare to.
And the comparison you hear the most for Bowers is San Francisco 49ers tight end George Kittle. Yes, Kittle is a great player, but he was a fifth-round pick in the 2017 draft.
So while Bowers is a terrific player and can help the Jets, you wonder if picking him 10 overall would constitute the best value at the spot. And the Jets’ tight room has plenty of talent, including the underrated Tyler Conklin, Jeremy Ruckert, Kenny Yeboah and at a 6-8 tight end with 4.55 speed in Zach Kuntz.
Now if Bowers grade is above any other prospect when the Jets are on the clock at 10, they should probably pick him, but if he’s got an even grade with an offensive tackle like Taliese Fuaga or Troy Fautanu, that might be the better way to go, considering the Jets are going with two older offensive tackles coming off injuries, who are both on one-year deals.
April 18, 2024
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