Getty New York Jets general manager Joe Douglas doing the NFL draft from his home office during COVID.
The New York Jets have a pair of first-round picks at their disposal in the 2022 NFL draft.
That in itself is pretty historic, in the modern draft era (since 1970), the green and white have held multiple first-round picks in the same draft class nine times (including this year).
Although they will have a chance to make an even larger historical impact in this year’s draft.
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An Epic Prediction
There has been rampant speculation that the Jets will look to trade back into the first round during April’s draft.
If they do that and end up with three first-round picks, it will be only the second time during the modern draft era (since 1970) that the Jets have accomplished that feat.
The only other time they ended up with three or more first-rounders in the same class was back during the 2000 NFL draft when they held an astounding four first-round draft choices.
Speaking of which, Andy Vasquez of North Jersey dot com recently discussed the possibility of trading up.
In his prediction, he said that the Kansas City Chiefs could be a “potential good partner” with them holding the No. 29 and No. 30 overall picks in the first round.
Here was his projected trade:
- Jets receive: No. 29 overall (first-rounder)
- Chiefs receive: No. 38 overall (second-rounder) and No. 111 overall (fourth-rounder)
According to the NFL draft value chart, Gang Green would be getting off a bit easy in this move surrendering only 592 points versus the 640 points package from KC.
Evaluating the Possibilities
If the Jets want to trade back into the first round, they have plenty of ammunition to pull it off.
As we discussed earlier you wouldn’t need to use both of your second-round picks to get back into the opening round, however, if you used both you could get pretty darn high.
According to the NFL draft value chart, the combination of No. 35 and No. 38 overall is worth 1,070 points which could in theory get you in the No. 15 overall range where the Philadelphia Eagles pick.
Imagine that haul for a moment, the Jets could have three of the top 15 picks in the draft. On top of that, they would still have five other picks between the third and fifth rounds respectively.
That kind of draft capital would allow the green and white to have ultimate flexibility in the first round.
.@dpbrugler of @TheAthletic would be an advocate for the #Jets trading up from the 2nd round back into the 1st, ‘if you see your guy, go get him’ + ‘that’s why you have all these picks so you can be aggressive’: #TakeFlight #NFLDraft #NFL
Arguably three of the biggest needs on the team could be filled whether that be on the EDGE, cornerback, wide receiver, or even potentially the offensive line.
At this current stage, the Jets have a good mix of quantity (nine picks) and quality (four inside the top-38) in the 2022 NFL draft, but you’d much rather have a few great players as opposed to a lot of good ones.
To put it bluntly, the Jets need game changers and guys they can build their organization around. The more quality picks you own, the better chance you have of landing those types of prospects.
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