The Jets made eight the hard way. That's as in eight draft picks, only two with the Jets' original draft positions, the octet assembled with 28 players or picks either coming or going as general manager Darren Mougey and head coach Aaron Glenn orchestrated their second draft together from Thursday through Saturday.
Mougey even set a Jets GM and team record by using three of his four trades to move up in the draft, selecting WR Omar Cooper Jr. late in Round 1, QB Cade Klubnik in the fourth round, and G Anez Cooper in Round 6.
What bullet points did Mougey and Glenn hit hardest in bringing these eight young men, four on offense and four on defense, including several who filled needs at edge, wideout and backup QB, onto the Jets roster? Draft themes in the NFL are many, but there are only so many. Ultimately, every team wants the same thing from its draft class: Dudes who won on Saturdays who can now help them win on Sundays.
Some themes are easy to identify. For Glenn, although he deflected any comparisons between him as a player and third-round pick D'Angelo Ponds from Indiana, the productive, big-heart 5-9 corner theme was hard to discard. "He can't do anything about being 5-9, he can't do anything about being 185," Glenn said. "What he can do is go out there and show he has a challenge mentality."
For Mougey, a superficial theme might be economization in scouting. First-round edge rusher David Bailey spent three seasons at Stanford. Several Jets assistants also came from the Cardinal, and OC Frank Reich, in his one season consulting with the Stanford program, might have gleaned some valuable insight the year after Bailey left for Texas Tech. As for Ponds and third pick Omar Cooper Jr., the Indiana angle was impossible to ignore. And Jets scouts no doubt made note of sixth-round guard Anez Cooper last year as they were scouting LB Kiko Mauigoa and DL Tyler Baron.
But there were deeper though still timeless themes that Mougey and Glenn leaned into. One was identifying the winning players from winning programs.
"Usually when you come from a winning program, you really know how it looks," Glenn said. "And when you join another program, you bring that same mentality to help that program elevate to where it is. And anytime you can do that with a number of players, it only elevates your team. They're going to practice, they're going to go through meetings, go through walk-throughs like winners do. And that permeates your whole team."
A chart helps tell the tale of the Jets' 2026 draft class. Of their four picks on Days 1-2, a few, such as Bailey and WR Cooper, may have started out on struggling teams, but as we trim the size of the sample from the past four seasons to last season, the winning angle became more obvious, for those first four picks and for the eight-man class:
| Seasons | Top 4 Picks, W-L | Top 4 Picks, Pct | All 8 Picks, W-L | All 8 Picks, Pct. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022-25 | 131 - 57 | .697 | 262 - 135 | .660 |
| 2023-25 | 124 - 40 | .756 | 224 - 97 | .698 |
| 2024-25 | 95 - 18 | .841 | 157 - 60 | .724 |
| 2025 | 57 - 4 | .934 | 88 - 25 | .779 |
"I wouldn't say we dropped anyone that came from a losing program or anything like that," Mougey said. "But in our discussions, we cover everything when we talk about these prospects. And when they're coming from winning programs, it means something."
Another quick observation is the speed and explosiveness at the top of this class. The Jets have been focusing on improving their team speed, not just for the offense and defense but even for special teams.
Bailey ran his NFL Combine 40 in 4.50 seconds, second among all DEs and edge rushers behind only Arvell Reese of Ohio State, Second-pick TE Kenyon Sadiq's 4.39 time was the fastest by a tight end in the last 14 Combines. Omar Cooper Jr., the Jets' third Round 1 choice, had a 4.42 time at the Combine. Ponds wowed observers at Indiana's pro day with a 4.31 clocking, which unofficially was faster than any corner who was timed at this year's Combine. And VJ Payne, the Kansas State defensive back taken last in this Jets draft, turned a 4.40, tied for third-fastest among all DBs at the combine.
A third talking point would also be a familiar one, since it dominated all the edge chatter about Bailey vs. Reese, production vs. potential. Reese had his one season as a Buckeyes starter and 6.5 sacks. Bailey had four seasons of playing, three with either some starts or a lot of starts. His 14.5 sacks last year tied for the FBS lead and gave him 29 sacks for his collegiate career.
"We talk about both all the time, the production and the potential," Mougey said. "And it's nice when they have both and there's still growth potential for these players, which plenty of them have. But it's important that these guys are productive and a lot of them have that productivity."
Glenn brought the theme all the way back to the Ws.
"I think we've been saying this throughout the week — guys that have won," the HC said Saturday. "There's a number of different types of guys that we've got. So when you look at today, we got huge men to play for us ... with DJ [fourth-round DL Darrell Jackson Jr.] and with Coop [sixth-round G Anez Cooper]. Klubnik, just the experience he's had, as many games as he's won in high school, in college.
"But I just think overall we did a really good job of identifying the guys that we love, and we brought them here to this team to help us move in the direction we want to move."
Or put even more succinctly, Glenn summed it up with a bumper-sticker theme when he spoke with NYJets.com reporter Caroline Hendershot Friday night, team greats listening in from their huge Ring of Honor banners along the fieldhouse wall.
"Just keep drafting players that are Jets," AG said. "That's what we're looking for. Just good players."
