Alright, so I might’ve been pulling for the Giants on Saturday because it would be good for the city. As a sports fan, I’m trying this new thing where I root for my fan insiders teams’ so they can get a bit of sports joy. Previously if my friends’ teams were in the playoffs I’d go out of my way to root against them. Trust me if any Boston sports teams are playing I’d still tell them to kick rocks. I’ll probably look back at this time and be nauseous. It looks like my Jets’ misery may have rubbed off on your teams so that is a bit of relief. I did notice there was a ton of Giants’ Super Bowl run talk a la ‘07-’08, prior to them getting shellacked in Philadelphia. Just want to say thank you all for the irrational confidence after beating Kirk Cousins, the Giants’ yesteryear talk brought back a great throwback song.
I rooted for the Giants in Super Bowl XLII and in turn, all it got me was “Jets suck” for years later. Rather than diving any further, I’ll take the high road and leave Giants fans a GIF of their glory days. I’m just that kinda guy.
The Scout That Never Was
@FanInsiders you can do a Mock Draft of your own on FanSpeak.com. I only picked the Jets players, a computer-simulated the rest of your football teams. Only featured certain teams and will be sure to now add the Cowboys past Round 1 next Mock Draft Monday. Every player has a hyperlink to a YouTube highlight tape if you want to check out their good tape.
This scenario would never happen. If the Jets were to go into the ‘23 Draft with plans to take a QB, there would be no shot they would wait until the 13th pick to take their guy. Unless… They re-sign Mike White and bring in a vet QB on a cheap deal like Sam Darnold for a QB competition. Then if someone like Anthony Richardson, who is uber-talented but might need a year to refine his craft falls to them, they might be in a situation where they can wait and take a chance. This will not be the mainstream move and for a team that is only a QB away from contention, it would be an extremely risky plan, but I’m just throwing out a hypothetical scenario for Jets fans to ponder.
If the Patriots are serious about developing Mac Jones, Bill Belichick needs to stop treating him like he is Tom Brady. Clearly, a reason why Brady left was that he knew the Hoodie wouldn’t surround him with enough weapons, just look at the plethora of guys the Bucs have taken a chance on during TB12’s tenure in Tampa Bay. Asking any rookie WR to step into an offense and immediately become WR#1 is a bit unrealistic, but Johnston may have some special YAC ability where they can manufacture him touches.
Speed. I’m not sure the Chargers would consider WR to be a “need”, but if you take a step back, pairing Hyatt’s deep-threat ability with Justin Herbert’s cannon may be special enough that they can’t pass it up.
The Jaguars gave up the 5th most passing yards in ‘22. While you could always add more pieces to help Trevor Lawrence, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to add some secondary help if they want to compete with all the other elite AFC QBs.
I’ll reiterate that I didn’t pick the other players outside the Jets. The Giants already have a pretty good safety tandem but maybe Branch could be used in an LB/S Swiss Army Knife role?
Selfishly I would kind of want Dallas to bring back Brett Maher - he’s made every kick much watch television. Even Jerry Jones wouldn’t be bold enough to take a kicker in the 1st Round, I’ll be honest I was working on this while watching the game last night so this troll pick was a last-minute add. I’ll have the Cowboys included next Monday.
DJ Reed was elite this past year and Michael Carter II is a very good slot corner, but the thought of pairing Sauce Gardner with another tall corner with great speed and ball skills like Emmanuel Forbes was too enticing to pass up.
In this scenario, the Chargers would be giving Justin Herbert two possible special talents that could be catching his passes for the next decade. Darnell Washington is huge but also has some wheels.
Mike Morris went from not seeing any game action in any part of his freshman season to breaking out with 7.5 sacks his senior year and winning the Smith-Brown Big Ten Defensive Lineman of the Year in ‘22.
Nothing against CJ Mosley the player on or off the field, but the sooner the Jets could get off his massive contract so they can allocate the money elsewhere the better in my opinion. If not this year then next.
6’8” and 305 lbs. Freeland started games from ‘19-’22. He had not missed a start in the past two years. His mom Debbie Dimond is the 8th-highest scorer in BYU women’s basketball history. (Source: BYU)
Went from Defensive Scout Team Player of the Year (‘18) to First Team All-Big 12 – Coaches (‘20, ‘21, ‘22), so McDonald IV seems willing to be coached up. He’d be learning from Joey Bosa and Khalil Mack.
A defensive back who can play any position in the secondary. Leader in the secondary and serves as a coach on the field for the Tigers. (Source: LSU) Revamp the Jaguars’ defense.
I doubt the Jets would go RB in this upcoming draft class, they already have a stable of studs. Vaughn was just too good to pass up here. He could be an RB who only needs a handful of touches to change the outcome of a game.
Zakhari Franklin might be the mid-to-late-round gem from a small school skill position player that I always try to find while doing mock drafts. Expect to see him on here every Mock Draft Monday.
Finished his career at Missouri with 16.5 career sacks (good for 13th in school history) and was increasing his sack total each year he was there. (Source: Missouri)
6th-year senior, graded out as the 44th-best tackle in the nation and the second-best in the Big 12 by Pro Football Focus. (Source: Baylor) Started at LT throughout his career for Baylor.
Coaches All-SEC First Team in ‘22. McClendon was named a team captain for the South Carolina, Vanderbilt, Mississippi State, and Georgia Tech games. (Source: Georgia)
Led Alabama and ranked sixth in the SEC in tackles with 108. (Source: RollTide) If you lead a Saban defense in tackles as a safety it means you’re always around the ball and his highlights look like he can hit hard.
Honestly just saw a WR from Princeton so I took a chance on him because I figured he must be pretty good to be on any draft board if you played at Princeton. It turns out Andrei Iosivas is a Hawaiian with jets.
Round 7
Yeah… the Jets don’t currently have a 7th Round pick so I ended it here… Maybe next Mock Monday.
YouTube Rabbithole
Ballin’ NEW YORK GIANTS
2 Pen&Pint&Papers this week, a Day by Day Sports, and of course a Football Friday on the way!