New York Jets NFL Draft catches cold

The 2022 NFL Draft begins tomorrow night as you probably know.

I’m sure you have your own opinion on the outlook. I have mine. Of course, if you’ve been following the draft for an extended period of time, you’ve made your share of mistakes. Actually, I think there are only two types of Draft analysts. There are those who admit to having made many mistakes and those who lie.

With so much intensity directed towards what the Jets are going to do, I think it’s time to recall some of my biggest draft blunders. These cold takes are among the biggest failures.

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Most recent take: I couldn’t believe it when Denzel Mims fell to the Jets in the second round two years ago. He seemed like the total package. He was tall and had excellent results in sports tests. Not only did he fall to the bottom of the second round, the Jets even managed to land him after trading.

Looking back, it seems like the rest of the league knew something we didn’t. Mims’ start to his career was delayed by my multiple hamstring injuries sustained prior to the start of his rookie year. These injuries ruled him out of the first six games of his career. After 9 promising games at the end of his rookie season where he had 23 catches for 357 yards, expectations were high for the second year.

To call this season a nightmare would probably be an understatement. Mims quickly fell behind Keelan Cole on the depth chart, and Elijah Moore’s selection pushed him even further. At the end of a disastrous 8-catch, 133-yard season, Mims was on the practice squad-level bench and didn’t even seem to line up properly.

While Mims is on the roster and theoretically has time to turn things around, he is quickly running out of opportunities. Things look grim, and I’m ready to admit defeat.

Most important cold intake: Before the 2018 NFL Draft, I didn’t think the Jets would ever have the chance to land Sam Darnold. Darnold struck me as having the potential to be the next great quarterback in the league.

In his first two seasons he was statistically near the bottom of the league, but there were flashes of greatness. It was also tempting to blame the poor infrastructure it was in for its inconsistency. The Jets did him no favors by surrounding him with one of the worst supporting casts and anchoring him with offensive coaches such as Adam Gase, Dowell Loggains and Jeremy Bates.

Still, his third season was such a disaster that it was hard to blame anyone else, and Darnold’s subsequent struggles in Carolina showed he was probably the biggest source of his own demise.

The quarterback is always the last person to be blamed for his own struggles, but he is often the most responsible.

Biggest cold catch: Looking back, I still can’t explain why I loved Jace Amaro as much as I do.

I was convinced he was going to be the NFL’s top tight end. I thought the Jets had high first-round prospect in the second round in 2014. Instead, they got a promising rookie season a la Mims. After that, Amaro was done. Like Mims, he also fell out of favor with a new coaching staff in the second year, which turned into a lost season. Amaro’s was due to an injury. He didn’t even make the team the third year despite the Jets having the thinnest tight end squad in the league.

I guess sometimes you want to believe in a player so much that you ignore the red flags. I didn’t care that he played in a happy offensive pass in a conference that played no defense. I focused on his prolific scholarly output. I ignored his poor athletic tests. He produced where it counted.

Cold setting which was obviously the fastest: In 2010, when the Jets drafted Vladimir Ducasse in the first round, I was very excited. That excitement lasted until the first preseason game against the Giants. I remember after about three games it was obvious that Ducasse was lost. You might have hoped a player would find out after a year under his belt, but it was clear the Jets wouldn’t get the rookie production. The team had just cut Alan Faneca, so there was an opportunity to start, but he was beaten hard by Matt Slauson.

In one of the most confusing moves of Rex Ryan’s career, head coach Ducasse stayed with the first-team offense for one season in a preseason game against Washington, apparently because He was angered by media suggestions earlier in the week that the left guard competition was over. Ducasse sniffed on a block and drilled Mark Sanchez, potentially jeopardizing the season.

A second-round pick, Ducasse started just four games in his career with the Jets in 2013 before being benched by third-round rookie pick Brian Winters.

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These are my cold holds. Tell me yours below.