Unpacking a Wild Weekend

Edition #623

Good morning/afternoon ☕

A lot has happened in the world of the Jets since we last spoke and a lot of it you can file under the positive column. There’s a lot to get through today, so let’s just go ahead and dive straight in, as barring any trades we now know the team hoping to break this damn playoff drought.

We’re going to take these one at a time and in no particular order.

It's been a good day to be a NY sports fan. From a selfish perspective seeing the Knicks take a 3-1 lead against the sixers and the rangers coast past the caps, man that feels good.

Trading

The Jets made a lot of moves in the draft. They moved up with the Eagles to take Jordan Travis and up with the Panthers to take Malachi Corley, they moved down several times throughout the draft, but there were two trades that I want to talk about. The first is one I liked, and then one I didn’t like so much.

Lions and Jets: The Lions traded a 2025 third-round pick to the Jets for the 126th pick.

Here is the one I liked. The Jets had a lot of picks in the 4th round to start the day and realistically there are only so many roster spots available, even for depth signings. So sending this pick to get a pick in a higher round next year made a lot of sense to me, and the Jets are collecting some good collateral for next year’s draft.

Right now the Jets have their own picks in the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th rounds, and they also have the Lions pick in the 3rd and the Chiefs pick in the 6th. Having two-thirds will allow them to move up in the 1st or 2nd round to target a specific player without losing their slot in that round.

This was a smart use of draft resources for Joe Douglas and while the Jets are all in on 2024, they absolutely have to keep an eye on the future as well.

Jets and Broncos: The Jets traded defensive end John Franklin-Myers to the Denver Broncos for a 2026 6th-round pick.

Now onto one move that I really didn’t like. Just to be clear I have no problem moving JFM, as much as I liked him it just didn’t make sense to keep him at his salary and the Jets needed to clear space to sign their draft class. They also knew that by bringing n Reddick and Jermaine Johnson making a jump, JFM’s playtime was going to be severely limited.

The Jets gave JFM permission to seek a trade 3-weeks ago and nobody knew a thing.

My issue is that we traded a guy who’s usually good for 40 odd pressures a season and is about as reliable as you get against the run for a future 6th round pick. I find it pretty shocking that a guy who has the track record of JFM didn't fetch significantly more considering he was willing to renegotiate his contract down. I'd put his value at a conditional 4th round pick, but Joe Douglas can only fetch what the market is willing to pay.

I wish JFM all the best in Denver. I don't like the Broncos but will be wishing him personal success along the way.

Draft Picks

We already took a look at the Fashanu pick on Friday and the more I read the more I like that pick. He also seems like an outstanding person who's willing to graft. I've seen a few people hypothesise that he'll be getting his feet wet as the LG this year before moving out to tackle next year, that's possible but the Jets went after Simpson for a reason and I'd be quite surprised if it was to play him as a backup.

Round 3 - WR - Malachi Corley

I've got a lot of time for this pick. As soon as you miss out on the top tier, you start looking at the best alternative options. Most analysts had a 2nd round grade on Corley and the Jets moved up to ensure that they got their man.

Known as the YAC king, Corley is a beast with the ball in his hands. He has 1,658 Yards after the catch since 2022, which is first among wide receivers in college. He also forced 40 missed tackles in 2023, which is the most by a receiver in college. The guy powers over people, through people and around them.

It's going to be fun watching him play alongside Aaron Rodgers. He has a decent drop rate at 7.1%, not elite but not awful. However his 23.5% contested catch rate last year was pretty poor, and that's something that will be interesting to watch.

Round 4 - RB - Braelon Allen

I didn't spend a lot of time watching the backs in this draft class but Allen is an exciting prospect considering his size and power combination. He also played with Joe Tippmann at Wisconsin which always helps the settling in process.

His numbers are pretty eye catching. 3,482 yards over threw years in college, 5.8 yards a carry, 35 touchdowns, 2,182 yards after contact, 145 missed tackles forced, and he even chipped in with 28 catches last season. He did have 4 fumbles last year but this is an exciting addition to the RB room alongside Breece and Izzy and his pure power will bring an extra dimension to the team. He's also the youngest prospect in the draft.

Round 5 - QB - Jordan Travis