Leonard Taylor III

Ediition #626

Good morning. ☕

It seems as though the NFL are going to keep us in suspense for the schedule release, originally scheduled for the 9th, it’s now believed that the dates will be released on the 15th. I’m pretty sure the Jets are coming to London again, but it remains to be seen if that’s against the Jaguars or Vikings.

Today we’re going to take a quick look at one of the more popular USFA’s the Jets signed after the draft, defensive lineman Leonard Taylor III.

🟢 PFF released a ridiculously early 2025 Mock Draft, but I’d rather look at that than pay attention to all these draft grades floating around at the moment. In it they had the Jets picking 21st and taking wide receiver Emeka Egbuka from Ohio State saying: “Egbuka entered 2023 as the second-best wide receiver draft prospect, behind his teammate Marvin Harrison Jr. While Harrison went wire-to-wire as WR1, Egbuka’s injuries combined with his down season forced him to return for his senior year. He’s a smooth route runner who is excellent at finding the soft spots in zone coverage. New York’s receiver room is set for 2024, but Mike Williams is on only a one-year deal.”

⚪ The Jets are making some changes to their Athletic Care & Performance Department after another injury riddles season. The department was created 3 years ago in an effort to reduce the number and severity of injuries, but there has been little evidence it’s worked. Director Brad DeWeese, Assistant Director of High-Performance Robert Sausaman ], and Director of Sports Science Matt Sams have all left.

🟢 They also released an article detailing one last move for each NFC side, and within that they had the Atlanta Falcons signing former Jet Carl Lawson. Lawson dealt with a lot of injury issues while with the Jets and that back issue he picked up last off-season never seemed to settle down. Pair that with the depth we had at defensive end and it was largely a lost season for Lawson. But I wouldn’t call time on his career just yet. I’m looking forward to seeing where he lands and what kind of production he puts up if he’s healthy. Lawson always did things the right way here.

⚪ Penn State HC James Franklin sat down with the official Jets podcast to talk Olu Fashanu and he had some great things to say about the Jets first-round pick. I have to say the more I hear about Fashanu the move I like him. This is a long quote right here, but I think it adds context to the kind of guy that Fashanu is:

"To me, he's the model Penn State football player," Franklin, 52, said. "This guy could have left last year as probably a first-round draft choice. He decided to come back to school to be an All American to compete for a championship. To graduate. He had one of the highest GPAs [3.7] in one of the best schools in the country, our business school. He just wanted to do everything right. [He was named a finalist for the Campbell Award, a.k.a. "the Academic Heisman."]

"I think he's one of these guys, whatever he wanted to do he could be successful. He's just that type of guy, a tremendous leader. You guys are going to love him on the field, there's no doubt in my mind he's going to get the job done. You guys are going to spend some time around him, his humility and his intelligence. I think the people around the city are going to fall in love with him."

✈️ Everyone loves an underdog, so when 32 teams pass on you a combined 257 times, you become the underdog that everyone wants to root for.

The chances of a UDFA sticking on a roster are slim, the chances of them contributing to the team is even smaller, at least on Sunday’s.

You’ll see UDFA’s stick as practice squad players and every now and then you find a diamond in the rough. Bryce Huff was one such player and maybe Tony Adams will turn into one as well.

Kurt Warner went undrafted, Tony Romo too. Look around the league and you’ll find plenty of examples of players who started their careers with their backs against the wall. One of my favourite Jets of all time Wayne Chrebet started his life as a UDFA out of Hofstra back in 1995, walking onto the field on that first day 11th on the depth chart at receiver. The rest they say is history.

So when the draft concludes and we sign a whole handful of players, I take a look around to see where the potential lies. Some of the guys we signed have already been cut, most will likely get cut over the course of the summer as we get closer to cut-down day. One player consistently comes up in conversations around the most likely candidate to stick. Leonard Taylor III.

Anyone who follows college football closely probably knows the name Leonard Taylor III. The man was one of the most sought after prospects coming out of high school. A consensus five-star prospect who was ranked as the #1 recruit in Florida by 247 sports and the #4 prospect in the entire country. He had over 20 offers from some of the leading programs in the country. Alabama, Penn State, Auburn, Florida, Florida State, Georgia, LSU, Ohio State…you get the picture. He chose to stay at home in Miami and many expected that he would go on to dominate college football and leave early as a first-round draft pick.

Unfortunately it didn’t really go that way for Taylor.