Every draft each year is the most important draft ever for every NFL team, of course. So are the Jets ready to make their pick-four selections for the first two nights of the draft?
Ready as they'll ever be, says general manager Darren Mougey.
"Since we came back from the league meeting, we've been in there grinding, up in the draft room with analytics, coaches, scouts," Mougey said at his pre-draft news conference Tuesday. "There's been a lot of good collaborations, a lot of good discussions the last two-and-a-half weeks as we build the board. These last few days, we've had some extra medical meetings, security meetings, analytics meetings follow-ups."
And as he looks at the Jets' board of draft picks placed in order by him and his personnel team, he likes the look of the way things could fall for the Green & White with their picks at Nos. 2 and 16 on Thursday night, then 33 and 44 on Friday night.
"It's never really final, we're always tweaking it. But I feel good," Mougey said of the Jets' board. "I won't disclose all the details of the positions. But you know where some positions might drop off, where there might be some strengths in certain rounds at certain positions."
If the GM isn't showing details, he sure isn't tipping his hand regarding what the Jets are going to do with their two Round 1 selections. The second overall pick has been a lightning rod as most draft analysts and fans are seeing a defensive edge rusher type there. It could be Ohio State's Arvell Reese or Texas Tech's David Bailey. Or it could be a surprise selection. Might the Jets trade out of No. 2? That seems unlikely, but as Mougey says of all his picks: "How we use them is kind of TBD and how the board falls."
The evolving draft as the Jets' 16th pick approaches is when the variables really start to exponentially multiply. Will they spend that pick on a quarterback, or a wide receiver, or a true linebacker, or some other position? Or will they be receptive when the phone calls from other teams really begin in earnest?
"These next few days, the calls pick up around the league," he said. "It's a lot of teams feeling each other out. Each team you talk to, 'Oh, we're open to moving up or moving back.' They're just feeling teams out and gathering information. But we plan and have days where we have strategy meetings. These next few days, we really hone in on that.
"We think there are good players throughout this draft, and we're hoping we can land some of them. But this time of year, it's a lot of just feeling everyone out. You really don't know until you get on the clock, because no one knows how it's going to fall, no one knows how they're going to feel at that moment."
So the draft becomes kind of like a high-stakes game of Texas Hold 'Em?
"Totally," he said. "You don't know what to believe this time of year. That's the truth."
What were to happen, staying with the poker metaphor, if a sweet deal comes along and Mougey has to buy some chips that might include any of the four selections the Jets hold in the first two rounds of the 2027 draft? The GM and his team have also considered that possibility just a little.
"It's our job to know the football landscape as a whole looking forward," Mougey said. "We think we know today, OK, next year this is what the free agent class may look like, next year we think this is what the draft class will look like. But as we all know, those things change — fast! Injuries, performance goes up and down.
"So what's most important is that we know this draft and we know our team now and we're focused on adding good players this draft."
That appears certain to happen for the Jets, who have the kind of draft capital that they've had only a handful of times in their history. And when the bell rings Thursday in Pittsburgh, the spending and the addition of those good, young players to the roster begins once more.
