Petty and Mauldin Enter Year Three as Biggest Questions From Mac’s First Draft Class

[JetNation]

By Glenn Naughton

 

The universally accepted standard for grading a team’s draft class is to give them three full seasons in the pro’s to determine whether or not that class was a success or failure.  For Jets GM Mike Maccagnan, that means his first class is about to start a season that pundits, fans and likely his boss, Woody Johnson, will have under the microscope like never before.  Where does this class appear to be headed?  Let’s take a look.

 

Even having not played their third season yet, it’s fair to say the verdict is in on Maccagnan’s first two picks in defensive lineman Leonard Williams and wide receiver Devin Smith.  Williams appears to be destined for greatness as perhaps the best defensive player the team has drafted since Darrelle Revis.

Smith, on the other hand hasn’t been able to stay on the field.  The speedster from Ohio State who was expected to add a legitimate vertical threat has spent more time on the shelf than he has on the field.  Another recent season-ending injury is one that should have Jets fans expecting him to contribute nothing at all moving forward.

Devin Smith has already been placed on IR for the 2017 season.

That brings us to the first of two huge question marks among Maccagnan’s picks in linebacker Lorenzo Mauldin.

Mauldin’s rookie season gave Jets fans plenty of reason for hope and optimism as he managed to pick up four sacks in limited action.  Expectations were higher in year two, but they weren’t met.

Head coach Todd Bowles appeared to put Mauldin in the dog house during the early part of the season when his snap count took a dramatic downturn.  According to pro-football-reference, Mauldin’s snap counts from weeks 1-6 were 23, 22, 17, 6, 18 and 13.  Following week 6 however, Mauldin was a regular on defense once again, participating in 49, 62, 53, 35 and 56 snaps before suffering a season-ending injury.

Having dropped ten pounds this off season, Lorenzo Mauldin hopes things are looking up.

It was recently reported that Mauldin has dropped the 10 pounds he gained between year one and year two in an effort to re-gain some quickness and cement himself as a starter among the Jets linebacking corps.  Should Mauldin grab the starting spot, that would give Maccagnan’s class two starters in his first three picks.

Following the Mauldin choice, the Jets traded up to the 103rd overall spot in round four to take quarterback Bryce Petty.

Given Petty’s video game offense in college, he was expected to need a minimum of two pro seasons on the bench before being ready for game action.

Injuries and ineffectiveness from Jets quarterbacks last season saw Petty thrust in to the starting role where he flashed some ability, but showed more bad than good.  In six games, Petty completed just 56.4% of his passes, tossing 3 TD’s to 7 interceptions.  He’ll get a chance to win the starting job this season, but even finding a way to be a quality back-up QB would make Petty a solid choice in round four.

If he were to earn the starting nod and play well, given the importance of the position, the class would instantly become a resounding success, but that’s a long shot development at this point.

Texas A&M offensive lineman Jarvis Harrison was Maccagnan’s next choice, and he was let go after his rookie season before catching on with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers as a member of their practice squad.

Norhtwest Louisiana State defensive tackle Deon Simon was the final choice in Maccagnan’s first draft, and is currently trending upwards.  Simon saw limited snaps after sitting out year one and he impressed.  Expect Simon, a seventh rounder, to stick again in 2017 with reps at multiple spots along Todd Bowles’ defensive front.

One of the few true nose tackles on the roster, expect the upward trending Deon Simon to stick again in 2017.

So as is the case with most draft classes, there are some hits in Williams and Simon, some misses in Smith and Harrison, and the all-important X-factors with Mauldin and Petty.

If one of the two turns in an impressive 2017, Maccagnan’s first class stands to generate 2 or 3 starters and a quality back-up, with Harrison being the only wasted pick based on performance, while Smith’s drawbacks were due to injury

Yes, you’ll always have that fan who is an armchair GM, sitting on the couch and chugging beers, complaining that not every player drafted is pro bowl caliber after year one or two, asking “who said three years is the standard?”.  For those fans who take their meds, they know that year three is the key to a class, and for Maccagnan, Petty and Mauldin will be the difference between passing with flying colors, or scraping by on the achievements of Leonard Williams and, should he continue to improve, Deon Simon.

A “boom or bust” draft class for Maccagnan with Mauldin and Petty determining whether or not Maccagnan got it right in his first chance as the man calling the shots.  It’s likely one of the few reasons for Jets fans to stay tuned as the 2017 season unfolds.

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[varjet]

The Jets had the 7th pick in Round 3.  They traded down with Houston to pick Mauldin.  Here are the players picked in that round starting with the Houston pick.

I think people were initially disappointed that the Jets did not pick Eli Harold-he looks to have struggled too.

David Johnson obviously a big miss.

The Jets used the pick they received from Houston for trading down to draft Jarvis Harrison, perhaps Mac's most clueless selection.  

I think the Mauldin pick ends up looking ok this year.  He will get to the QB in largely a DPR role.  With the two oversized safeties, they will cover more of the LB responsibilities liek Peppers did for Michigan.

Petty was overdrafted as well.  I think this developmental QBs will go in later rounds going forward.

3	70	Houston Texans	Jaelen Strong	WR	Arizona State	Pac-12	from New York Jets [R3 - 3]
	3	71	Chicago Bears	Hroniss Grasu	C	Oregon	Pac-12
	3	72	St. Louis Rams	Jamon Brown	OT	Louisville	ACC
	3	73	Atlanta Falcons	Tevin Coleman	RB	Indiana	Big Ten
	3	74	New York Giants	Owa Odighizuwa	DE	UCLA	Pac-12
	3	75	New Orleans Saints	Garrett Grayson	QB	Colorado State	MW
	3	76	Kansas City Chiefs	Chris Conley	WR	Georgia	SEC	from Minnesota [R3 - 4]
	3	77	Cleveland Browns	Duke Johnson	RB	Miami (FL)	ACC
	3	78	New Orleans Saints	P. J. Williams	CB	Florida State	ACC	from Miami [R3 - 5]
	3	79	San Francisco 49ers	Eli Harold	DE	Virginia	ACC
	3	80	Detroit Lions	Alex Carter	CB	Stanford	Pac-12	from Kansas City via Minnesota   [R3 - 6]
	3	81	Buffalo Bills	John Miller	G	Louisville	ACC
	3	82	New York Jets	Lorenzo Mauldin	LB	Louisville	ACC	from Houston [R3 - 7]
	3	83	San Diego Chargers	Craig Mager	CB	Texas State	Sun Belt
	3	84	Philadelphia Eagles	Jordan Hicks	LB	Texas	Big 12
	3	85	Cincinnati Bengals	Tyler Kroft	TE	Rutgers	Big Ten
	3	86	Arizona Cardinals	David Johnson †	RB	Northern Iowa	MVFC

 

[ASH1962]

Mauldin has been a disappointment for sure, but there are no names besides Johnson that jump out at me, and nobody knew who David Johnson was at the time of that draft.

[AFJF]

1 hour ago, ASH1962 said:

Mauldin has been a disappointment for sure, but there are no names besides Johnson that jump out at me, and nobody knew who David Johnson was at the time of that draft.

Last season really was a strange one for Mauldin.  He looked completely lost during the pre-season and of course played as few as 6 snaps one week.  It looked like Bowles was done with him.  Then, all of a sudden he's playing 80% of the snaps but not a lot of big plays.

This is a big season for him.

[Lil Woody]

2 hours ago, ASH1962 said:

Mauldin has been a disappointment for sure, but there are no names besides Johnson that jump out at me, and nobody knew who David Johnson was at the time of that draft.

Not sure I'd call him a disappointment. His arrow was pointing up before last season.  Like MANY players on this sad sack team, he had a down year last year.  Was it him or was it the coaching staff or the team quitting on each other or the extra weight or a combo of all of them?  I don't know.  I'm not giving anyone a pass for last year, but I'm also not going to say they all suck either.  The bottom fell out and we had zero leadership or confidence in the coaching & team. We will see if anything changes this season. Hopefully we see players improve as they see an opportunity to showcase themselves for their next team or the next coaching staff.

[pointman]

Maybin > Mauldin

[MaxAF]

Wouldn't surprise me to see Petty over Hack after preseason. Not giving up on Mauldin at all. He can be fierce and was at times in his rookie season. I believe the Defense and their schemes were totally out of sync last year. Putting Richardson at LB was a big mistake to name one bad move. Need to get back to the blitz's that were primary and very effective in Bowles first season. The fact that the secondary could not cover man to man created some different D-looks that failed epically. Hopefully they can get back to the Jets defense that we've seen in the past. The talent is there IMO. The execution is the suspect.