Gang Green’s 2016 Draft Class on Verge of Pivotal Third Season

[JetNation]

They say that a fair analysis of any NFL draft class can’t take place until a group has played their third pro season which means Mike Maccagnan’s second draft class as an NFL GM is about to start their third season.  How is it looking so far?

LB Darron Lee: Lee has caught his share of flack from Jets fans for a few different reasons.  First of all,  he’s not a quarterback, something Jets fans desperately wanted at the time he was chosen.  Secondly, he’s slightly undersized for his position, so when opposing offensive linemen lock him up, he has a hard time shedding blocks.  Lastly, he’s had some off-field issues that have raised a few eyebrows.  At the end of the day however, Lee has been a solid starter considering his lack of experience at the position and flashed some big play ability last season.  Whether or not Lee lives up to his first round billing remains to be seen, but unlike many past first round picks for the Jets, his floor appears to be “quality starter” for the next several seasons.  If used properly, he could be a big time play-maker.

QB Christian Hackenberg: At this point in time, it appears the only thing preventing Hackenberg from being the biggest bust in team history is the fact that Eric Mangini spent a first round pick, sixth overall, on Vernon Gholston.

OLB Jordan Jenkins: Jenkins looks to be the second coming of Calvin Pace.  He’s a hard-nosed linebacker who will never put up more than a handful of sacks every year, but he’ll be a consistent edge setter who lays the occasional big hit.  On top of his on-field performance, you get the felling the Jenkins is an extremely high character player.

2018 is a big test for Jets cornerback Juston Burris.

CB Juston Burris: Burris is a fringe player at this point in time.  He looked to be a possible contributor during his first training camp when he was consistently breaking up passes.  With an expanded role last season, Burris found himself on the bench after a couple of poor performances and was used sparingly down the stretch.  This could be a make or break camp for the NC State product.

RT Brandon Shell: Shell got the starting nod late in the season during his rookie year and he’s been the team’s starter since then.  Consistency has been an issue, but he has clearly played well enough to show he could be a solid starter for years to come.  Excellent value in the 5th round.

P Lachlan Edwards: Edwards struggled as a rookie but had a stellar second season.  Clearly the Jets have quite a bit of confidence in Edwards as they’ve done very little to challenge him in training camp.  After averaging 40.8 yards per punt as a rookie, Edwards saw that number soar to 46.6 last season.to go along with 33 punts inside the 20 yard line.

WR Charone Peake: Players taken this late in the draft rarely pan out, and Peake is another player who appears to be on the fringe, if not already on the outside looking in.  He spent all of last year on injured reserve after playing in just 3 games.  If Peake makes the roster in 2018, it will be due largely in part to his outstanding work on special teams as a gunner.

With year three about to get under way, the current count for the Jets’ 2016 draft stands at seven choices, a minimum of four starting players (Lee, Jenkins, Shell, Edwards), one bust (Hackenberg) and two players who will have an uphill battle in making the 2016 roster (Burris, Peake).

It could be better, but as Jets fans know, it could be a whole lot worse.

 

 

 

The post Gang Green’s 2016 Draft Class on Verge of Pivotal Third Season appeared first on NY Jets News.

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[Jetscreen]

Darrin Lee is NOT a quality starter. Darrin Lee SUCKS. Speaking fairly, there's a very good chance he gets benched this season? There's no doubt at this point he's not a quality starter. If he were re-drafted he'd go somewhere in the 4th or 5th round. This article is so completely absurd.

[Jetscreen]

But I agree with Jenkins. He's turning out to be a 3rd round steal. You expect 3rd round guys to bloom into their roles with the team. It's fine when a 3rd rounder doesn't play well at first, that's why you got him in the third. Third round and on is fine for taking developmental players. A 1st rounder like Darrin Lee still sucks after two seasons, that's called a BUST. The very same can be said about Hackenberg.

[T0mShane]

11 hours ago, JetNation said:

LB Darron Lee: Lee has caught his share of flack from Jets fans for a few different reasons.  First of all,  he’s not a quarterback, something Jets fans desperately wanted at the time he was chosen.  Secondly, he’s slightly undersized for his position, so when opposing offensive linemen lock him up, he has a hard time shedding blocks.  Lastly, he’s had some off-field issues that have raised a few eyebrows.  At the end of the day however, Lee has been a solid starter considering his lack of experience at the position and flashed some big play ability last season.  Whether or not Lee lives up to his first round billing remains to be seen, but unlike many past first round picks for the Jets, his floor appears to be “quality starter” for the next several seasons.  If used properly, he could be a big time play-maker.

what

[DetroitRed]

what

He grabbed his girl in public or something.

Lee can still improve and so can Jenkins. If they can take their games to the next level then both picks will be worth it. Though I don’t ever see Jenkins as a consistent pass rusher


Sent from my iPhone using JetNation.com mobile app

[The Crusher]

2 hours ago, T0mShane said:

what

Bowles never read Tiny Linebackers for Dummies so Lee sucks. 

[Grandy]

Lee sucks, 34 PFF ranking bottom of the league.

[T0mShane]

47 minutes ago, DetroitRed said:

 

He grabbed his girl in public or something.

Lee can still improve and so can Jenkins. If they can take their games to the next level then both picks will be worth it. Though I don’t ever see Jenkins as a consistent pass rusher


Sent from my iPhone using JetNation.com mobile app

 

Here’s the problem with the “he can improve” arguments with these dudes, and this includes Jamal Adams: in most of these cases, this is who they’ve been. Darron Lee has been this player since Ohio State. Jenkins did the same sh*t at Georgia. Jamal Adams was exactly the same player last year as he was at LSU. LIKE, this is what they’ve always done. I don’t know what people expect them to become when they’ve never been anything else.

[Saul Goodman]

Lee was horrendous his rookie season. He improved and played “very poorly” last season. Hurts to waste high draft picks like that. 

[LIJetsFan]

Lee most likely never lives up to his draft slot but he is not an outright bust.  He's somewhat below average but not a top priority for replacement, IMHO.  We've got much bigger needs.  

[Drums]

I think Lee will eventually get replaced but he will be decent until then. I get the "wannabee" vibe from him but I'm not one of his haters. He's just alright at this point.

Jenkins is a solid.

I don't know what happened to Burris. I think he lacks the speed to keep up with WRs and that's what hurt him quite a bit last year. He got burned multiple times.

I think Shell will just keep getting better (although I don't know how he's suited for zone blocking but I've seen people here say we ran that last year as well).

Edwards - I forgot we drafted him. Thought he was a FA singing. I think I remember him  muffing a punt or two last year but overall was pretty good.  I remember watching a video of Petty showing us his apartment and Lach was his roommate. 

Peake never stood out as anything special.

[Obrien2Toon]

B-

[CrazyCarl40]

The thing about Shell is that the rest of the offensive line is so porous that he seems solid. He’s completely replaceable and is really more of a solid backup. Which is still decent value for 5th round but let’s be honest.

Jordan Jenkins is a better linebacker than Lee and the best player the Jets drafted was a punter, which is all that needs to be said about this terribly bad draft. 

[HawkeyeJet]

3 hours ago, Grandy said:

Lee sucks, 34 PFF ranking bottom of the league.

If your main deciding factor of player evaluations is PFF, then I don't know.  PFF's analytics and advanced stats are awesome tools.  Their grading system, which doesn't account for scheme, play responsibilities, etc, is incredibly flawed.

Im not saying Lee is good or great, but he's not nearly as bad as most make him out to be. 95 tackles, 3 Sacks, 6 TFL, 3 PD and 2 FF is not a "sucks" year for an ILB.  It's not elite by any stretch, but that is pretty decent.

[MDL_JET]

Eh. Pretty solid draft I think. None of them are elite guys but they get the job done. Though they need elite support to make them shine even more. Nothing wrong with that. Not gonna have superstars all over the field. 

The addition of a guy like Shepherd this year could help Lee even more keeping guys off him. 

This is your classic, build on top of type draft. Give you a nice base to start with but could use help. 

[Jetster]

These are young guys playing behind a bottom 5 pass rush. Put Von Miller on the edge & see if that doesn't distort these analytics. I'm not saying they have any huge development ahead but everyone has a job to do & unless your Darelle Revis in his prime, if your playing Tom Brady, or Matt Ryan, Alex Smith, or Phillip Rivers, if decent QBs get 5 seconds to scan the field your odds of getting off of it are pretty slim. I could be wrong but I think the Trumaine Johnson affect will be like dominos knocking Morris into the 2nd CB spot, improving there & the 3rd & 4th CB spots get better by matching talent to talent. I truly believe this secondary is going to surprise with Adams & Maye in their sophomore years & the addition of TJ.

[jetstream23]

Quote

Whether or not Lee lives up to his first round billing remains to be seen, but unlike many past first round picks for the Jets, his floor appears to be “quality starter” for the next several seasons.  If used properly, he could be a big time play-maker.

Jenkins looks to be the second coming of Calvin Pace.

Whoa...whoa...whoa!  Stop the presses!  This is GREAT news.  I had no idea we had a potential big time playmaker at ILB who, at a minimum is a quality starter AND an OLB who is the second coming of Calvin Pace.  With the addition of Wiliamson we're practically set at the LB corps, right?  Uhh....right?

[LIJetsFan]

I think my sarcasm detector just went off

[Jetscreen]

On 5/13/2018 at 12:35 PM, LIJetsFan said:

Lee most likely never lives up to his draft slot but he is not an outright bust.  He's somewhat below average but not a top priority for replacement, IMHO.  We've got much bigger needs.  

But that's only because the Jets suck and have no talent.

[detectivekimble]

On May 13, 2018 at 2:28 PM, HawkeyeJet said:

If your main deciding factor of player evaluations is PFF, then I don't know.  PFF's analytics and advanced stats are awesome tools.  Their grading system, which doesn't account for scheme, play responsibilities, etc, is incredibly flawed.

Im not saying Lee is good or great, but he's not nearly as bad as most make him out to be. 95 tackles, 3 Sacks, 6 TFL, 3 PD and 2 FF is not a "sucks" year for an ILB.  It's not elite by any stretch, but that is pretty decent.

He actually had 9 TFL.  Definitely not a "sucks" year.

[detectivekimble]

21 hours ago, jetstream23 said:

Whoa...whoa...whoa!  Stop the presses!  This is GREAT news.  I had no idea we had a potential big time playmaker at ILB who, at a minimum is a quality starter AND an OLB who is the second coming of Calvin Pace.  With the addition of Wiliamson we're practically set at the LB corps, right?  Uhh....right?

Jenkins is definitely not nearly as good as Calvin Pace.

[RutgersJetFan]

Edwards might be Macaggnan’s best pick tbh.

[varjet]

On 5/13/2018 at 7:43 AM, Jetscreen said:

Darrin Lee is NOT a quality starter. Darrin Lee SUCKS. Speaking fairly, there's a very good chance he gets benched this season? There's no doubt at this point he's not a quality starter. If he were re-drafted he'd go somewhere in the 4th or 5th round. This article is so completely absurd.

The Jets will talk about how they like Lee, but let's see if they pick up his 5th year option for big money.  

[Jetscreen]

7 minutes ago, varjet said:

The Jets will talk about how they like Lee, but let's see if they pick up his 5th year option for big money.  

Very astute observation. That will tell the story. However, there's also a good chance the front office gets fired by then? Either way what I posted is 100% fair.... If the 2016 draft were done over, Darron Lee wouldn't go before the 4th round and Mac wouldn't have selected him. He would have made the trade that was available to him. He would've traded the Jets 1st, 2nd, and 4th for Laremy Tunsil. Because the fact is he regrets drafting Lee, Hack, and Burriss. All of them suck.