Every year before the NFL Draft I watch this video just to remind me that no matter how exciting the Draft is for most teams, it always seems to be a disappointment for the Jets. Anyway, just for the fun of it let's look back at each of the picks featured in this video and see whom they could have drafted instead.
1980: Johnny Lam Jones #2
Lam Jones won a gold medal in the 76 Olympics on the relay team and was a burner with not so solid hands playing for the Jets from 80-85. Picked immediately following Jones was Anthony Munoz who turned out to be not half bad at Offensive Tackle. The next wideout taken in the draft? Art Monk at 18. Solid job New York.
1981: Freeman McNeil #3
He played for the Jets from 81-92 and actually made three Pro Bowls so he wasn't a complete bust. The remaining running backs in the draft were nothing special and the only 1st round draft pick left on the board was Ronnie Lott who went 8th (LT was drafted at #2).
1983: Ken O'Brien #24
O'Brien was the Jets QB from 83-92 and made 2 Pro Bowls. Again he wasn't that good or that bad and not much of a bust really. The problem is they chose him over Marino.
1987: Roger Vick #21
Fullbacks basically never go in the first round, yet the genius Jets took Vick who only played 3 years on the team. No real standouts in this draft either, other than Bo Jackson who was picked in the 7th round by the Raiders because he was pursuing baseball rather than football at the time.
1989: Jeff Lageman #14
The Jets reached for Logeman at 14 and he ended up spending 6 seasons with the team and never made a pro bowl. Yet again there really weren't any superb other options for the Jets as the only other future pro bowlers left from the 1st round were Wayne Martin who also was a D End, Steve Atwater and Bad Moon Rison. No Hall of Famers there.
1990: Blair Thomas #2
This is where the picks get really bad. Thomas never made a Pro Bowl and was out of the Jets organization by 1993 after rushing for only 5 tds in 4 years. Perennial Pro Bowlers Cortez Kennedy and Junior Seau were taken in the top 5. While the next running back taken off the board was Emmit Smith with pick #17. Hell even Rodney Hampton at pick 24 made a pro bowl. The Jets also had another selection in 90 and went with Rob Moore at pick #26. Moore did make a pro bowl team with the Jets in 94.
1992: Johnny Mitchell #15
Played with the team from 92-95 and was out of the league by 1997. The pick following was Chester McGlockton. Basically the moral of the story is don't draft TEs.
1995: Kyle Brady #9
With your entire fan base cheering for you to pick a perennial pro bowler you slap them in the face and pick Kyle Brady who like Mitchell only played 4 seasons with the Jets and never made a Pro Bowl. The Jets later in the draft selected Hugh Douglas at pick #16 who made three pro bowls after the Jets intelligently got rid of him. Imagine how formidable a Defensive line in the late 90s centered around Warren Sapp and Hugh Douglas could have been. But why do that when there's a shitty tight end on the board.
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