There was an explanation for the delay.
Joe Douglas was patient, but he wanted to see the first draft defenders in person before finally deciding on his plans. That’s why the Jets waited so long to move Sam Darnold after quarterbacks Matthew Stafford, Jared Goff and Carson Wentz were treated before the agency’s free period.
“I don’t know how each team approaches a defender [evaluation]”But I always thought it was a golden rule – never take a defender until you sit next to or next to a guy and watch him throw football,” Douglas told Sports Illustrated. “None of the best players managed to participate in a BYU game this year. There were no all-star games, no combine games. You could see Mac Jones at the Senior Bowl. But other than that, your only chance to sit there and watch them throw was on a professional day. For me, that’s huge for a defender. ”
Douglas saw all the first defenders – Zach Wilson from BYU, Justin Fields from Ohio, Mac Jones from Alabama and Trey Lance from North Dakota – the Jets will be able to choose with the second choice in the draft. (Clemson’s Trevor Lawrence is expected to be named No. 1 by the Jacksonville Jaguars.)
“Almost every professional day I went I took something from,” Douglas said. “A guy like Trey Lance, I thought Trey Lance had a strong arm, I walked away from the state of North Dakota and said, ‘Wow, this guy has better arm talent than I thought on tape.’ It makes sense, look at the ball coming out of his hand, you’re there, at ground level, you see it – the ball falls at all at the end of the throw, accelerates through the hands of the guy? You really have a sense for that, which you wouldn’t normally see on tape. ”
Finally, the Jets traded Darnold to the Panthers with a round of six this year and second and fourth round picks in 2022. They almost moved him to a free agency, the general manager said. , but the team was not ready to fire.
“It was a strong offer,” Douglas said. “I told them, ‘Look, there are still a lot of boxes to check. And we just don’t feel comfortable, if something happens to one of the two top guys, we don’t want to be caught in a bad situation, like one of the two guys fails a physique and then we don’t have Sam. ‘So I didn’t do anything. ”