Which College Programs Has Provided the Most for the Jets?

Edition #417

Good morning. ☕

It’s now just 76 days until the Jets kick off their 2023 season against the Bills. That will be a statement game whether we like it or not.

The Bills are the presumptive powerhouse in the AFC East this year, and every single eyeball in the NFL will be focused on the Jets and how they come out of the gate.

Today we’re turning our attention to a question which you never thought you needed the answer to. Based on All-Pros and Pro Bowl selections, which college program has provided the most for the New York Jets?

📈 PFF worked through a list of the best players to not have a Pro Bowl, and at the end of the article they spoke about the excellent 2022 class, and on Garrett Wilson they said: Wilson racked up over 1,100 yards and earned an 85.9 receiving grade with the worst group of passers in the NFL. He is a terrific route runner, and his 22 missed tackles forced finished second to only Deebo Samuel over the year. He could be in for a monster season with Aaron Rodgers at the helm.

👍 We hear a lot of salty takes from Green Bay these days, but I thought I’d share this quote from offensive lineman Elgin Jenkins about his former QB: “Just his presence in the locker room and the things that he brings to the game, the experience, all the stories that he had to tell and all that, he’s gonna be missed in our locker room for sure.” - While most of Green Bay are either depending on his downfall for their own sanity, or pretending he never existed, it’s nice to hear a take like this.

🧐 Chad Reuter over at NFL.com projected the All-Rookie team for 2023 and he didn’t have a single Jet on the list. Which means that Will McDonald and Joe Tippmann are about to make the All-Rookie team. He picked the Giants John Michael Schmitz for the center spot, and considering he was my highest rated guy, I can’t be mad. A edge he has Will Anderson and BJ Ojulari making the team.

🟢⚪ NFL.com also asked their analysts to name the fanbase that deserves a Super Bowl title the most and Judy Battista picked the Jets: It was tempting to pick a team that has never won a Super Bowl -- the Bengals or Lions were the ones I wrestled with -- but the agony of Jets fans has permeated the NFL for so long that a Super Bowl for Gang Green under Aaron Rodgers might lift the collective mood even for people who didn't grow up hoping Richard Todd/Ken O'Brien/Boomer Esiason/Chad Pennington/Mark Sanchez/Sam Darnold/Zach Wilson would be the next Joe Namath. 

I don’t know why, but every draft cycle I think about the topic of today’s newsletter. Has there been a college program that we’ve done well off? I’ve never taken the time to look into it until today.

I can’t look at every single player, but I can use a couple of metrics to narrow the pool down. So I decided to look at All-Pro and Pro-Bowl selections, with the scoring weighted towards All-Pros.

10 points for an All-Pro selection, 5 points for a Pro-Bowl selection.

Let me use an example.

Larry Grantham, the great Jets linebacker made 5 All-Pro appearances and 5 Pro Bowls. So his calculation would be:

5 x All Pro (10 points) = 50 points
5 x Pro Bowl (5 points) = 25 points.

The Jets drafted Larry out of Ole Miss so they receive 75 points for Larry alone.

You may think what is the point?

To that I’ll say…It’s June.

Anyway, onto the results which I actually found quite interesting. It’s important to note that I only used their awards while with the Jets. So while Brandon Marshall was a 1x All pro and 6x Pro Bowler, he only won one of those Pro Bowl nods with the Jets, so he counts just 5 points for UCF.