By Wa2K
Well, the 2022 NFL draft is officially in the books. As Jets fans, we had been waiting on this draft for four months, even before the 2021 season had come to an end.
We knew the Jets were going to enter the draft with a plethora of holes and many premium picks to fill those holes. And on the GreenBean channel, we did 15 2022 NFL mock drafts over 4+ months to project what we would do if we were in Joe Douglas’ shoes and were in charge of the draft.
So let’s take a look at what our tendencies and favorite players were, then figure out what our ideal 2022 NFL mock draft would have looked like, and then compare that to what the Jets actually ended up doing on that late April weekend.
Who did we pick the most?
Our top first round selections were edge Jermaine Johnson and C Tyler Linderbaum, who were taken 4 times. There were four players we selected in the first round 3 times: Sauce Gardner, Evan Neal, Kyle Hamilton, and George Karlaftis.
By far, tight end Trey McBride was the apple of the collective Jets fans’ eye. We drafted him a whopping nine times out of 15 drafts. While we debated about what players and positions to select with our first round picks, there was never any question that McBride should be a Jet.
There were five players we picked five times: Johnson, Linderbaum, K Cade York, LB Leo Chenal, LB Brandon Smith. TE Jelani Woods was drafted four times, mostly in the last month.
What positions did we pick the most?
Out of 150 total draft selections, six positions stood out from the others: RB, WR, TE, Edge, LB, and S. Here’s the complete breakdown of our total selections:
- 15 RB
- 20 WR
- 21 TE
- 9 OT
- 9 OG
- 7 C
- 20 Edge
- 1 DT
- 18 LB
- 6 CB
- 19 S
- 5 K
So based off this, Jets fans wanted to walk away with a draft with several new toys for Zach Wilson and multiple new starters on last year’s 32nd ranked defense. I find it interesting that we only drafted defensive tackle one time, but drafted kicker five times.
The Ideal Jets Fan 2022 NFL Mock Draft
Of course, we all have different opinions on what the Jets should have done in this draft. But going off of who we drafted in the mocks and what positions we prioritized, here is an idealized version of the draft without any trades, since we obviously couldn’t have predicted Joe Douglas would trade up multiple times.
1st round, pick 4: Jermaine Johnson, Edge
Our position of greatest need would be addressed as soon as possible. With Adan Hutchinson unlikely to fall to 4 and a notable portion of the fanbase scared off by Kayvon Thibodeaux, this was the edge we took most often in Round 1.
1st round, pick 10: Jameson Williams, WR
Wilson was the only WR we drafted twice in the first round.
2nd round, pick 35: TE Trey McBride
As mentioned, we drafted McBride 9 times, all of them in the second round.
2nd round, pick 38: LB Leo Chenal
Chenal was drafted five times, steadily rising up the board form the fourth round in January, and then getting taken in the second round by April.
3rd round, pick 69: S Jalen Pitre
We took safety 19 times, and we drafted 12 different safeties among those 19 pics. Hamilton was the only one drafted three times or more, so I went to who we picked twice. Pitre was the choice, as we took him in the second as well as the third round.
4th round, pick 111: TE Jeremy Ruckert
Before the Jets signed CJ Uzomah and Ty Conlin in free agency, we wanted to double up at tight end; we felt the room needed a complete overhaul save for TE Coach Ron Middleton. The Long Island kid comes home.
4th round, pick 117: RB Brian Robinson
We liked Robinson’s combination of pass catching, speed, and blocking. We had an early interest in Hassan Haskins, taking him three times, but never after the month of January.
5th round, pick 146: OT Kellen Diesch
Offensive line depth is needed. We discovered Diesch late, but he came a multi-time selection, once in the fifth round then in the fourth round.
5th round, pick 163: Edge Zach VanValkenburg
At this point, it’s best player available, just finding a flyer who’s worth taking a chance on. We took this edge rusher from Iowa three times, certainly in part because of his cool name. In the mocks, he was taken once in the 5th round and twice in the 7th.
Who did the Jets actually draft?
Here is what we did in the 2022 NFL draft:
1st round, pick 4: CB Sauce Gardner
No one can deny the talent of Sauce Gardner. Anyone naysaying the idea of drafting him this high would cite the premium position argument.
1st round, pick 10: WR Garrett Wilson
Although many draft pundits mocked Garrett Wilson to the Jets with this pick, we never drafted him one single time. Whenever we would go WR, it would be Jameson Williams.
1st round, pick 26: Edge Jermaine Johnson
Bullseye! We picked him 4 times of a possible 15 and while we never expected to get him this late in the draft, we got our edge rusher.
2nd round, pick 36: RB Breece Hall
Many of us were gun-shy about taking a running back this high in the draft and I was among them. But we did take Hall one time, at 38th overall on March 28. We were expecting to address this in the 3rd of 4th round, but JD saw an opportunity to trade up and he pounced.
3rd round, pick 101: TE Jeremy Ruckert
We nailed this one too. We had Ruckert going to us five times, once in the third round, and four times in the early fourth.
4th round, pick 111: OT Max Mitchell
Never once was Mitchell selected in our mocks. Our late round tackles were usually Diesch or Zach Tom or even Tyler Smith way back when before he shot up the draft boards.
4th round, pick 117: DE Micheal Clemons
Truth be told, I think we would be hard pressed to find a Jets fan who knew who Clemons was before Saturday, unless they also root for Texas A&M.
What did we learn?
We had nine picks scheduled and the Jets wound up only having seven. While the Jets did address edge and WR early as we thought they would, we also expected them to address linebacker/safety early. These positions were never addressed, as JD opted to address cornerback and running back sooner than anticipated.
So as we look back on this draft and look ahead to future drafts, we have to remember it’s not so much about assigning a position to a pick. Good general managers don’t necessarily address the worst positions on their team first.
Rather, they figure out positions that make sense to address, rank the players who fit the roster best, and then take as many of those players as possible.
Let’s Jet!