Mac's Trade Offs and Decisions

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In the end, assuming realistic trade downs were not available, as I see these as the critical decisions that Mac made and the players that should be watched going forward.  

I do think that it is helpful when looking at these decisions to look at what he did in the recent past.  I will let 2017 and prior be bygones.  Let's start with Nathan Shepherd over Okorafor, Orlando Brown and Sam Hubbard.  We can overlook the last one if we presume that the Jets are a 3-4 Team.  In 2019:

1-Round 1-Even though the Jets are a 3-4 team and already have Henry, Shepherd, Foley, McClendon and Leo on the roster, Mac picks Quinnen, arguably the best player in the draft.  The Jets are still short an EDGE, and Josh Allen is still there, even though he ends up getting picked 6 picks later at 9 by the Jaguars.   So for this pick to be a good one, in my view TWO things need to happen:

• Quinnen's game translates to a great player in the NFL, and Josh Allen is not an impact EDGE.  An impact EDGE is more valuable than an interior DL, usually.
• Leo is either not re-signed or traded for hopefully valuable draft capital.  

2-Round 3A-The Jets take Polite at 3.4, supposedly great value.  The Patriots trade up to take Winovich at 3.14.  Assuming that Quinnen was the right pick, the Jets still needed an EDGE.  If Josh Allen was the right pick, this pick could be used for something else, like Montgomery RB, Deiter G, McLourin WR, McGovern C or even Edoga T.   In any event, the careers of Polite and Winovich are now linked. 

3-Round 3B-The Jets take Edoga at 3.29, which appears to be a good pick.  Cajuste gets picked by the Patriots (again) at 3.38.  So Edoga and Cajuste's careers are now linked as well.   Mac also could have took at T at 3A and Hakeen Butler at 3B.

So from my perspective, if Mac got Quinnen vs. Allen right, he still was tested on the other two.

4-Round 4-Mac trades down, inexplicably.   He passes up Julian Love CB, Samia G, Hooker S and  Froholdt G (Patriots again) to draft Wesco.    People like Wesco pick, but let's see how he does vs the player's picked ahead of him in the round.   After Wesco was Powers G, Ridley WR, Martin G and Jordan G/C.  We have to keep in mind that the Mac used a 5th round pick on a TE two years ago who is actually a terrible blocker, and we have another TE on the roster whose job is really only to block.  These guys should not be hard to find, so effectively Mac used this pick to a replacement TE and passed over other players who could end up decent and more useful.

5-Round 5-this was a bonus pick from trading down and was used for Blake Cashman, LB.  This appears to be a ST play and/or Darron Lee replacement.  He would be a 4-3 LB but the Jets now appear to be running a 3-4.  More confusion.  

If we assume that the trade down was the right move, no one to me stood out as the pick that should have been made-maybe the WR the Giants took or Mack DT.   The latter raises the DT surplus issue, but my guess is that he is better than Shepherd.  

6-Round 6-Jets trade down again, passing up Gaillard C for a CB with multiple surgeries.    The pick that seems to be the big regret here was Harmon.

If the Jets win and the draft picks play well, we can't really second guess.  But I will be watching the careers of Josh Allen, Winovich, Cajuste, Julian Love, Jordan C/G and Harmon WR closely if the players that the Jets pick instead don't work out.