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Historic Draft That Changed The Jets


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Looking back at the historic draft that changed the Jets

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  • Rich Cimini, ESPN New York Jets reporter
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Rome wasn't built in a day, but the New York Jets were rebuilt in one.

 

In 2000, the Jets got younger and better with a historic draft that included an unprecedented four first-round picks -- defensive end Shaun Ellis, pass-rusher John Abraham, quarterback Chad Pennington and tight end Anthony Becht. They picked wide receiver Laveranues Coles in the third round, completing a remarkable haul that fueled the franchise for the better part of a decade.

 

That watershed draft wrapped up 15 years ago today. Take a bow, Bill Parcells.

 

 

The New York Jets' 2000 draft, led by Bill Parcells, left, included four first-round picks. AP Photo/Kathy Willens

Parcells, retired from coaching at the time (lol), called the shots from his general-manager chair. He knew he wasn't going to stick around for the long term, so his goal was to leave plenty of parting gifts for his successor, Al Groh, who wound up departing after a year. But that's another story.

 

How did they get four picks? A quick refresher:

 

They received the 16th pick from the New England Patriots as compensation for Bill Belichick. On the eve of the draft, Parcells sent that pick to the San Francisco 49ers, moving up to the 12th spot. I didn't know it at the time, but he was trying to get into position to draft wide receiver Plaxico Burress. A neat sidebar: He spoke directly with 49ers' executive Bill Walsh, a Hall of Famer negotiating with a future Hall of Famer -- a heavyweight phone conversation.

 

The really big move occurred a few days earlier, when the Jets traded disgruntled wide receiver Keyshawn Johnson to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for the 13th and 27th picks -- a highly controversial deal. Parcells took a lot of heat for that one. This was the Darrelle Revis trade of that era.

 

I remember talking to Groh before the draft, trying to pump him for information on how they would use the picks. Groh, a former New York Giants assistant, tried to be funny, saying he'd like to draft the next Lawrence Taylor, Leonard Marshall and Mark Bavaro. In a total coincidence (or was it?), they ended up picking players at the corresponding positions -- Abraham, Ellis and Becht, respectively. To this day, I wonder if Groh's remark was random or a tip cloaked in what seemed like an absurd analogy at the time.

 

You know how the day turned out: They picked Ellis and Abraham with the 12th and 13th picks, respectively; they selected Pennington with their own pick, 18th; and they grabbed Becht at 27. Believe it not, the morning-after storyline focused on how the Jets failed to adequately replace Johnson. Sure, they took Coles in the third, but no one outside the organization expected him to amount to anything. After all, he was thrown off his college team and deemed a high-risk pick.

 

We were wrong. Aside from Burress, Coles turned out to be the best receiver in the draft.

 

A week or two after the draft, Parcells was talking about the draft to a few reporters at a celebrity golf tournament. I can't remember the exact words (he didn't want to be quoted in the next day's papers), but this was pretty close to what he said: He said it would go down as one of the greatest drafts in history.

 

No, it won't be remembered as one of the greatest, but it was remarkable in that those five players enjoyed long, productive careers. They played a combined total of 59 years, making eight Pro Bowls along the way. Each one played at least 10 seasons, an Iron-Man accomplishment in this blood sport we call football.

 

From a team perspective, they helped the Jets to playoff seasons in 2001, 2002, 2004 and 2006. Ellis stuck around the longest (he was replaced by Muhammad Wilkerson in 2011) and, incredibly, Abraham played until last year, finishing with the Arizona Cardinals and 133.5 sacks.

 

Yes, the Jets will forever be mocked for their long list of draft busts, but on one particular day 15 years ago, they crushed it.

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Anthony Becht was not worth a first round pick - even at 27 - where LB Keith Bullock was still available. Later the Packers got KG-B a solid pass rusher. Who knows what Abraham and KG-B could have done together coming from each side? Pennington was a solid pick, but more heady and I am surprised he is no a coach with his knowledge. Of course there was Brady also.

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If chad didnt hurt the shoulder, we would have a super bowl or 2.

 

Chad was exposed well before the shoulder.. Check his stats in 2003. Only thing Chad was good at was dink and dunking his way to 20-17 victories over sh*tty teams

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Anthony Becht was not worth a first round pick - even at 27 - where LB Keith Bullock was still available. Later the Packers got KG-B a solid pass rusher. Who knows what Abraham and KG-B could have done together coming from each side? Pennington was a solid pick, but more heady and I am surprised he is no a coach with his knowledge. Of course there was Brady also.

BEcht was desperation.  The team had no TE.

 

Going into the draft, a lot of people had us taking Bubba Franks, who went to GB.

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Chad was exposed well before the shoulder.. Check his stats in 2003. Only thing Chad was good at was dink and dunking his way to 20-17 victories over sh*tty teams

 

I have to agree.  Loved Chad and he was cerebral but defenses started exposing his weak throws to the sidelines.  They would clog up the middle of the field and force him to throw to the sidelines which resulted in quite a few picks.

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I have to agree.  Loved Chad and he was cerebral but defenses started exposing his weak throws to the sidelines.  They would clog up the middle of the field and force him to throw to the sidelines which resulted in quite a few picks.

 

and quite a few dump offs for 4 yards on 3rd and 10

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I am not exactly sure why the 2000 Jets needed to be rebuilt.  '97 they were 9-7 and missed the playoffs after Leon Johnson's INT.  In '98 they were 12-4 and choked in the AFC Championship.  In '99 they were 8-8 after Vinny's Achilles, and Rick Mirer put them in a hole.  Was the 9-7 in 2000 the result of some kind of master rebuilding process?

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"Historic Draft That Changed The Jets"

 

I coulda swore this was going to be about last year's draft.  Now that was historic.  12 picks!  Almost all wasted while other teams got great weapons.  We'll be feeling the pain of that one for a while.

 

My guess is we'll do better this year with just the first 3 picks than Idzik did with 12 last season.

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I am not exactly sure why the 2000 Jets needed to be rebuilt.  '97 they were 9-7 and missed the playoffs after Leon Johnson's INT.  In '98 they were 12-4 and choked in the AFC Championship.  In '99 they were 8-8 after Vinny's Achilles, and Rick Mirer put them in a hole.  Was the 9-7 in 2000 the result of some kind of master rebuilding process?

Vinny was rusty as hell after sitting out after his injury in 99..He had 21 tds and 25 picks in 2000 they were lucky to make 9-7.. Plus with KJ gone his wideouts were Wayne and Dedrick Ward and rookie Coles who was hurt..

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Good timing, nfl.com just did a 2000 draft re-do article. they said 3 out of 4 jets first rounders would be the same then as today with only exception that abraham would've been off board earlier forcing jets to take Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila. so essentially, nfl.com agrees with OP that jets nailed it. link below (caution: prepare for serious tom brady ball washing):

 

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000485857/article/2000-nfl-draft-doover-cleveland-browns-take-tom-brady

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I don't think we'll ever see a team with 4 first round picks again. The most I can remember was Minnesota had 3 a couple years ago, but I think they went into the draft with 2 (theirs and Seattle's for Harvin) then traded back into the end of the 1st as well.

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I don't think we'll ever see a team with 4 first round picks again. The most I can remember was Minnesota had 3 a couple years ago, but I think they went into the draft with 2 (theirs and Seattle's for Harvin) then traded back into the end of the 1st as well.

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It seemed like trading away couple of firsts wasn't a big deal back then. That too for a locker room distraction.they go for 4th n 5th rounds theses days. Right now, only a franchise QB would demand that. Even a future hall of fame CB wouldn't get it. It's funny how we raided the Bucs with Keyshawn first n then Revis.

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Good timing, nfl.com just did a 2000 draft re-do article. they said 3 out of 4 jets first rounders would be the same then as today with only exception that abraham would've been off board earlier forcing jets to take Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila. so essentially, nfl.com agrees with OP that jets nailed it. link below (caution: prepare for serious tom brady ball washing):

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000485857/article/2000-nfl-draft-doover-cleveland-browns-take-tom-brady

"Bacht was a solid target in NY". I lolled.
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Don't like the reasoning. You don't think coaches would have put Brady in as a starter the following year?

 

Of course not.  Belichick had just gotten hired at his 2nd HC job at that point, and was coming off a 5-11 season in 2000.  He was a lot closer to getting fired again than becoming the supposed mastermind he's known as today.  Replacing an established veteran with a lanky kid they drafted as a favor in the first place would have been career suicide.  He had no idea what he had in Brady or what he'd become.  It's true that Brady had worked his way up into a backup role by sheer will, but it's not uncommon for a guy like that to carry a clipboard his whole career.

 

The seemingly random success of Tom Brady was the greatest stroke of luck a professional coach has had since Lou Gehrig replaced an injured Wally Pipp in the lineup in 1925 for Yankee manager Miller Huggins.

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It seemed like trading away couple of firsts wasn't a big deal back then. That too for a locker room distraction.they go for 4th n 5th rounds theses days. Right now, only a franchise QB would demand that. Even a future hall of fame CB wouldn't get it. It's funny how we raided the Bucs with Keyshawn first n then Revis.

Good point. Another poster in another thread reminded me that Jets traded down from 1st overall to 6th overall and only picked up a 4th, 6th and 7th rounders in 1997.

Can you imagine trading up from 6 to 1 this year and only giving up a 4th, 6th and 7th? I wish! Firsts just weren't worth as much back then for whatever reason.

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Good point. Another poster in another thread reminded me that Jets traded down from 1st overall to 6th overall and only picked up a 4th, 6th and 7th rounders in 1997.

Can you imagine trading up from 6 to 1 this year and only giving up a 4th, 6th and 7th? I wish! Firsts just weren't worth as much back then for whatever reason.

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Sure they were but that was the year the Tuna didn't reach out to Manning so he stayed in school..With those extra picks he got Leon Johnson,Chuck Clements and the good pick Jason Ferguson..

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Sure they were but that was the year the Tuna didn't reach out to Manning so he stayed in school..With those extra picks he got Leon Johnson,Chuck Clements and the good pick Jason Ferguson..

Yeah but even in a weak class with no top tier QBs coming out its still gonna take more than a 4th and a couple garbage picks in the 6th and 7th to move from 6 to 1 in today's NFL. It's amazing that's all it took back then, regardless if Manning stayed in school or decided to come out.

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Yeah but even in a weak class with no top tier QBs coming out its still gonna take more than a 4th and a couple garbage picks in the 6th and 7th to move from 6 to 1 in today's NFL. It's amazing that's all it took back then, regardless if Manning stayed in school or decided to come out.

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Your missing the point that was rookie GM Tuna making the deal that wasn't the norm for moving up..

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Your missing the point that was rookie GM Tuna making the deal that wasn't the norm for moving up..

Oh OK gotcha. But then how does that explain the Bucs giving up 2 firsts for Keyshawn? That would never happen now a days, which makes me feel they weren't valued as much as they are today (first rounders that is).

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