With the No. 2 overall selection in the top of the NFL Draft, which begins Thursday night in Pittsburgh, most of the conversation around the Jets has been laser-focused on which elite edge -- Ohio State's Arvell Reese or Texas Tech's David Bailey -- could join the Green & White.
Over the past weeks, the narrative has had its ebbs and flows as various experts, pundits and observers have chimed in with their analyses and opinions. Some of that recent chatter and speculation concerned the team's decision to cancel Bailey's visit to the Atlantic Health Jets Training Center, which would have been one of the 30 in-person player visits each NFL team is permitted before the draft.
On Tuesday, GM Darren Mougey held his one and only meeting with the news media before the Jets, who have two picks in the first round (Nos. 2 and 16, at present), are on the board. Mougey, who will conduct his second draft since joining the Green & White in January 2025, said not to read too much into the cancellation.
"I'll say this with top 30s, every team uses them differently and have different ways of using that mechanism," Mougey said. "Some don't even use the top 30s at all. Right? I would say for us, when we do top 30s, every single player and case is different.
"Sometimes I want this player to meet with our player engagement department. Sometimes I want this player to meet with our sports performance. Sometimes it's purely medical, sometimes it's a recruiting process. Sometimes it's a smokescreen. And in regards to David, we had good touch points with him at the combine. We went to his pro day, had a good dinner with him, and we were just kind of juggling our 30 and how to use them. And I wouldn't look too much into a cancellation, because there were other ones that we may have changed as well."
For many observers, the choice between Reese, who The Athletic's draft analyst Dane Brugler has rated as his No. 1 player in the draft, and Bailey, who had 14.5 sacks last season, has dominated the shifting narrative. Reese is believed to have greater long-term potential, while Bailey is viewed as ready -- now -- to get after opposing quarterbacks. So the dilemma is: Immediate contribution vs. long-term benefit.
"So that's a discussion we have really about every single player, whether it's a first-round player or a seventh-round player," Mougey said. "We're in the business of projecting these guys -- what their value could be. We're talking ceilings and floors all the time with all these prospects, and how they fit here, and what they could be, what they could not be, based on their deficiencies or abilities."
Beyond the strong group of edge players available in the draft, there's been much speculation about the possibility of the Jets adding a "developmental" quarterback at some point. With the veteran coach Frank Reich, who worked in college at Stanford last season, on board, Mougey said that Reich and QB coach Bill Musgrave have brought valuable insight in evaluating a group that includes Ty Simpson, Carson Beck, Garrett Nussmeier, Drew Allar and others.
"Both Frank and Coach Musgrave were on the tour with us [Mougey and HC Aaron Glenn], and got to go see some of these quarterbacks," Mougey said. "And it was awesome. Obviously, Frank and Billy have been around a long time evaluating a lot of quarterbacks, so there's been a lot of good discussion."
