New England Patriots: Grading AFC East opponents offseason

New York Jets 2020 offseason

The New York Jets are about as bad a drafting team as the New England Patriots have been over the years. The difference, the Patriots had the ultimate safety valve in Tom Brady. The Jets … didn’t.  Now, neither does.

The Jets under Coach Adam Gase are trying yet another retooling. So how did they do in the 2020 NFL draft? Well, to start out, they hit the ball out-of-the-park.

An article a couple of months ago had centered on Mehki Becton, the offensive left tackle from Memphis as a great choice for New England in the first round. That was before the “exit, stage left” of Tom Brady to Tampa Bay.  After Brady’s exit, I thought a quarterback was the top priority.

But if the Patriots had somehow manipulated the draft to get Becton, I’d still have been happy. I’ve speculated before that offensive left tackle is the second most critical position on any NFL team. After quarterback. It still is. The Jets hit a home run in selecting Becton.

Becton is huge. Not quite Trent Brown huge, but huge. Huge and athletic … is good. Becton is both. Great pick by our great “friends” to the South.

The Jets second-round pick was equally on-target, Denzel Mims from Baylor. The Jets again did just alright.

I’ll now skip to a 4th round pick, La’Mical Perine a running back from Florida whom the Jets picked in the 4th round. Another solid pick. Perine was standout in the Senior Bowl. He’s not a speedster, and he only averaged 5.1 yards oper carry. I’d say that’s OK.

And the last pick I’ll highlight is quarterback James Morgan from Florida International University. Morgan was cited as a possible pick by New England in the media before the draft. The Jets already have Sam Darnold as their top QB. But they still made a move to bolster that critical position. New England again … didn’t.

So there we have the main components of the Jets draft. Becton, Mims, Perine, and Morgan. Based on those 4 picks alone, I just have to give the Jets a B+.