A story recently broke about the 2023 draft, when Joe Douglas, then general manager of the New York Jets, considered and rejected choosing Jaxon Smith-Njigba with the 15th pick in the first round. As every Seattle Seahawks fan knows, the Ohio State receiver was still on the board four picks later when John Schneider made JSN a Seahawk. It worked out pretty well for Seattle.<\/p>\n
Instead of JSN, Douglas went with Iowa State defensive end Will McDonald IV. McDonald has been perfectly fine for the Jets. 18.5 sacks over two seasons is decent production. But of course, if you were redrafting, this would be no contest. JSN, who went 19th, would be no lower than seventh. There\u2019s a good chance he\u2019d be in the top five. <\/p>\n
This story generated plenty of pejoratives being hurled at Douglas, now a personnel man with the Eagles. That\u2019s not exactly earth-shattering. He struggled mightily trying to construct a competitive roster, and this latest story is simply one more anecdote of failure. <\/p>\n
Let\u2019s not pile on today. Let\u2019s see what lessons we can take from the tale. <\/p>\n
Seattle Seahawks’ Jaxon Smith-Njigba was not judged on the right things by many scouts in 2023<\/p>\n
Actually, Douglas\u2019 selection of McDonald wasn\u2019t all that bad considering several other moves made by rival GMs that year. Chris Ballard of the Colts reached in a big way for woefully raw quarterback Anthony Richardson with the fourth pick. <\/p>\n
The Raiders’ Dave Zeigler took Texas Tech\u2019s Tyree Wilson at seven. Wilson has started seven games in three seasons with Las Vegas. And Washington\u2019s Ron Rivera looked at two cornerbacks at 16 and somehow decided Emanuel Forbes was the better pro prospect than Christian Gonzalez. <\/p>\n
Each of those picks was made with JSN<\/a> still available. Zeigler and Rivera are now out of those jobs, while Ballard somehow continues to run the Colts. <\/p>\n What\u2019s most interesting about the Jets\u2019 JSN decision is the rationale that is now being floated. I should probably say at this point that we don\u2019t really know how accurate this latest report is, nor do we have any real insight into the exact decision-making process. I have not heard Douglas comment as yet, and he probably never will. Therefore, we may never know the entire story. <\/p>\n But there were two well-established knocks on JSN coming out of Ohio State, and both appear to have played into the Jets\u2019 decision. For one thing, Smith-Njigba missed most of his junior year with a bad hamstring. Some teams view that as a warning sign for a receiver. That\u2019s reasonable, though perhaps a little overly cautious. <\/p>\n