When you draft well as a team and find good, young players that contribute immediately, you position yourself well for a run in the NFL. The Jets have been fortunate to have found a few such players, including from last year’s draft class. As a result, they have pretty good representation on NFL.com’s Nick Shook’s “All-Under-25” team.
Three Jets, including two 2022 rookies, find themselves among this group. Unsurprisingly, one of those players is All-Pro cornerback Sauce Gardner, 22 years old, who may now be the best cornerback, period.
Here’s what Shook said about Gardner:
Gardner’s ascension to Defensive Rookie of the Year might have felt tinged with hyperbole. He has a magnetic personality, a cool nickname and a wing sauce deal. But the tape doesn’t lie: Gardner was elite in his first NFL season. He should continue play at that level (if not an even higher one) in the years ahead.
Running back Breece Hall, 22 years old, was on his way to a possible Offensive Rookie of the Year before an ACL injury in Week 7. Regardless, his play in the first six-plus weeks was enough to warrant a spot on this team.
Sure, he missed most of his rookie season after suffering an ACL tear, but the football world saw enough from Hall to know he’s special. He averaged 5.8 yards per carry in his seven games, scored five total touchdowns, and did so while starting just twice. Had he remained healthy, his greatest competition for Offensive Rookie of the Year would have been his teammate Garrett Wilson, the eventual OROY winner. I believe a healthy Hall likely would have won the award over Wilson, too.
The final member on this team from the Jets is guard Alijah Vera-Tucker, another player who was off to a great start before a Week 7 injury ended his season. Vera-Tucker is ready to become a household name in 2023.
Vera-Tucker was playing premier football before he went down with a season-ending triceps tear in 2022. It’s no coincidence his injury (in addition to the loss of Breece Hall) almost immediately preceded the Jets’ downturn last season. It appears Vera-Tucker was well worth the first-round pick the team spent on him in 2021.
That young core is going to be a key piece in the Jets’ run in 2023. Garrett Wilson is certainly an up-and-coming star at wide receiver, but it’s tough to put him above Justin Jefferson or Ja’Marr Chase. And Quinnen Williams is 25 years old, so he was ineligible for this particular list.