The second round hasn’t been kind to the Jets in the past 40 years.
Only two of the team’s 37 second-round picks in the past 41 years have made a Pro Bowl. Defensive end Mark Gastineau, who was drafted in 1979, did it, as did return specialist Justin Miller, who was drafted in 2005.
Joe Douglas already has the 11th overall pick to work with, but he’ll make or break his first draft as the Jets’ general manager in the later rounds.
The second-round bar is low for Douglas after a plethora of failures since the Jets drafted Gastineau. A brief glance at the recent second-rounders includes 18 players who started fewer than 20 games for the Jets, nine of which started fewer than five games. Meanwhile, only seven started more than 60 games in their career.
Not a great group.
The Jets’ success stories from the second round are few and far between.
Linebacker David Harris is probably the Jets’ best second-round pick after Gastineau. He played 10 seasons with the Jets and wracked up over 1,000 tackles in New York.
The jury is still out on safety Marcus Maye, who’s started all 38 games he’s played in since the Jets took him 39th overall in 2017. He’s been a complement to Jamal Adams in the deep secondary but is also injury prone.
The busts, meanwhile, are plentiful.
Quarterbacks Geno Smith and Christian Hackenberg, as well as receivers Devin Smith and Stephen Hill, are the most recent notable mistakes. Hackenberg never even saw the field in the regular season despite his high selection, while Smith and Hill combined for 60 receptions, 842 yards and six touchdowns in 43 games.
The Jets have drafted mostly wide receivers, offensive lineman and defensive backs in the second round. Ironically, all are still positions of need. Douglas will have his pick of a deep receiver and lineman class and many mocks predict the Jets will take one of those two positions with the 48th overall pick. The other position will be the first-round pick. Players like tackle Isaiah Wilson and receivers Laviska Shenault and Michael Pittman Jr. should be among the Jets’ second-round targets.
Douglas himself has had mixed results in identifying and drafting talented players in the second round.
Tight end Dallas Goedert and running back Miles Sanders were great pick-ups for the Eagles during Douglas’ time as vice president of player personnel with the Eagles, but defensive back Sidney Jones and receiver J.J. Arcega-Whiteside haven’t panned out yet. As a scout with the Ravens for 14 years, he helped Ozzie Newsome grab players like Torrey Smith and Ray Rice in the second round. The Bears also drafted defensive tackle Eddie Goldman – who only has 12.5 sacks in five years – when Douglas was the director of college scouting for Chicago in 2015.
The best use of a Jets’ second-round pick in the past five years was actually the trade that landed New York the No. 3 overall pick in 2018 that resulted in Sam Darnold. The Jets moved up from No. 6 to No. 3 by giving the Colts their second-round pick in 2018 and their two second-rounders in 2019. Darnold still has a ways to go before becoming the franchise quarterback the Jets hope he can be, but he’s still better than what the Jets probably would have used with those three second-round picks.
With so many holes on the roster, the second round will be crucial for Douglas and the Jets. They can’t whiff again if they want to see Darnold progress. Douglas’ background in scouting and experience with successful franchises gives him a leg up on the Jets’ past general managers, but it’s impossible to predict how the draft board will fall and how the players will fit on Adam Gase’s team.