Good morning ☕
I hope everyone had an enjoyable Easter weekend. Mine was packed with one 16 hour work day, a family visit, a friends 40th and a statement win by everyone’s favourite canaries in the south-London sun.
I have also realised that now that we have moved into British Summer Time, it means we’re only 4 hours ahead of the East Coast. Which will explain why the newsletter will land in your inbox at 6am instead of 5am for a little while.
The NFL has taken a back-seat to March Madness (congratulations to Michigan) and the baseball season (Mets are finally hitting thankfully), but it’s soon to reclaim it’s spot at the top of the sports news cycle with the draft taking place in just 16 days time.
We’re starting to hear a lot of rumours about which teams are interested in which players, how they value them and how aggressive they’ll be in pursuing them. I won’t say this after every rumour, but it’s best to take everything with a pinch of salt including the report from Tony Pauline on today’s topic, Omar Cooper Jr.
PFF have a new mock draft out and they have the Jets taking Arvell Reese and Jordyn Tyson:
I really want to entertain the idea that Aaron Glenn, who made his name as a defensive backs coach, is absolutely in love with Caleb Downs, but I can’t bring myself to turn this mock draft completely on its head at this early stage. Instead, the Jets play it safe with Downs’ Ohio State teammate. Reese is a pass-rushing project first and foremost, but don’t overlook his 86.5 PFF run-defense from last season. I expect him to be a big factor on early downs from the very beginning of his NFL career.
Having already addressed the defensive side of the ball, the Jets opt for the third player from the top trio of wide receiver prospects in this class. Tyson dropped just one of his 62 catchable targets this past season. He will be a welcome addition to a Jets team that is coming off the lowest PFF team receiving grade in the NFL over the past seven years.
On an NFL segment Peter Schrager and Daniel Jeremiah indicated that the rumours they’re hearing suggest that the Jets are leaning more towards David Bailey than they are Arvell Reese, taking that pass-rush productivity over the incredible upside that Reese offers.
The Jets announced their off-season dates.
OTA Workouts: May 27th-29th, June 1st-2nd, June 4th, June 8th-11th
Mandatory Minicamp: June 16th-18th
Congratulations to the Buffalo Sabres who ended their 14 year play-off exodus. If they can do it then surely the Jets can get over the line. Maybe this is the year we reset our play-off absence clock.
Former Jets HC Todd Bowles had some things to say about friend Aaron Glenn at the NFL owners meetings:
“It can get to certain people if you’re not built the right way,” said Bowles, who is close to Glenn. “He’s built the right way, and I don’t think it will get to him. I think he handles it very well. I think he understands that he’s building from the ground up and his attitude and positivity are great. He has to get the pieces he needs, and I think he’s working on that. I think you’ll see great strides from him,” Bowles continued. “He’s an outstanding coach, he’s an outstanding guy and he’s an outstanding leader, and I think those guys are going to buy in and follow him. I think he’s going to really be successful.”
Good observation from Cimini that I completely missed. Woody Johnson didn’t speak to the media at the owners meeting. He is usually one of the first owners eager to get in front of the cameras, only being out-muscled by Jezza Jones. But this year he’s decided to stay silent. Hopefully this is the start of a new trend where Woody stays quiet, writes cheques and let’s the football department do the talking.
We’ve spoken about Will Levis here and I still think he could be involved in a trade on draft day with the Jets. Rich Cimini hinted at the same thing:
They could add a veteran backup before the draft, according to Mougey. One team to watch is the Tennessee Titans, who have four quarterbacks after adding Mitchell Trubisky and Hendon Hooker. Will Levis, a 2023 second-round pick, could be the odd man out. He didn’t play last season due to shoulder surgery, but he’s said to be healthy.
Over the weekend a report surfaced from Tony Pauline detailing the Jets interest in Omar Cooper Jr, and the Indiana receivers draft stock in general:
“Cooper is building momentum amongst scouts and receiver coaches. He’s athletic and is a terrific pass catcher with a developing game, and people boast about his character. Cooper has spoken with every team from pick 18 to 36. The Carolina Panthers, who own the 19th selection, are bringing Cooper in for an official-30 visit. In a recent mock draft, I had the Panthers taking a receiver with that selection, though it was Jordyn Tyson…I’m told Cooper is in play for the Pittsburgh Steelers at pick No. 21 despite trading for Michael Pittman, and the New York Jets are also high on the speedy wideout, though they would only consider him with the 33rd pick.”
Right off the bat I’m not sure I’m buying that the Jets have drawn a firm line in the stand when it comes to Omar Cooper Jr, and if they have, I’d be surprised if that’s information that’s readily available to the media, mainly because the process of building the draft board is fluid up to and through the draft.
But…if the Jets truly have put the 33rd pick as their ceiling for Omar Cooper Jr, they’re basically ruling him out of contention. As the article by Pauline suggests, he’s met with every single team picking in the back-end of the first round and is taking multiple visits with teams in that area with the Panthers believed to be his #1 admirer.
PFF have him rated as the 4th best receiver and 24th best prospect overall. The Athletic have him as the 4th best receiver and 23rd overall prospect and NFL.com have him listed as the 3rd best receiver and 18th overall prospect. When you get a consensus like that on a position other than QB, it tends to be relatively accurate. It’s not impossible for him to fall to the #33 overall pick, it’s very unlikely.
We’ve spoken a lot this off-season about the type of receiver that the Jets should be looking to add. Most agree that we’re looking for that traditional “X” receiver, think Brandon Marshall for the Jets or Calvin Johnson as the league prototype.
It’s partly why I haven’t spent a lot of time talking about Cooper Jr. but the more you look into him the more appealing he becomes even if there are certain aspects that make you at least hesitate.
So straight away you look at that RAS report and the height and weight are less than ideal. It’s closer to Garrett Wilson than it is Brandon Marshall.
You then look at where he aligned while in college:
51.2% of his snaps were spent on the outside, 48.2% were spent in the slot. But when you look at his most productive season which is 2025 (69 catches, 937 yards, 13 touchdowns) he was nearly exclusively a slot man, spending over 83% of his snaps last season inside.
While you can say he has the versatility to play anywhere, you can’t ignore that the major touchdown production came inside when he could use his acceleration, toughness through the catch and physicality with ball-in-hand to do damage away from press coverage.
Part of the Omar Cooper Jr appeal is what he does after he has the ball in his hands. Last season he forced 27 missed tackle and averaged 7.2 yards after the catch per reception, which is an elite number. It was even higher the year before (7.5) but it was a smaller sample size.
So those are the two things that if you’re looking for a prototypical X, will give you pause for thought. It did when I first started looking at Cooper Jr.
But then you dig just a little bit deeper.
In 2024 he posted 28 catches for 594 yards and 7 touchdowns while playing 90% of his snaps out wide. These were tough catches, his average depth of target was 16 yards from the LOS. He caught 50% of his contested catches which is better than a lot of 6’2, 6’3 receivers.
Just look at his game-winning catch against Penn State as an example
That’s no fluke either. In his first year in Indiana he caught 66.7% of his contested catches, then it was 50% for the next two years giving him a career rate of 54.3% overall. That doesn’t match the likes of Carnell Tate who made a living in college coming down with big-time contested catches (68.8% success rate) but it’s better than Jordyn Tyson who was at 52.4% as a 6’2 guy (just under).
You look at his routes and they’re clean, good movement at the top to gain separation and he’s faster than most people expect. Then you talk about the hands, he has 5 drops in 3 years for a drop rate of just 4.2%. Again that’s a better number than Tyson (7.6%) but not as good as Tate and Lemon.
I’ve still not decided on my final rankings for the wide receivers, although I do have Carnell Tate comfortably as WR1. Omar Cooper Jr is definitely in the conversation for WR2. If the Jets took him, I wouldn’t hate it.