{"id":869016,"date":"2026-04-18T08:45:18","date_gmt":"2026-04-18T08:45:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/869016\/"},"modified":"2026-04-18T08:45:18","modified_gmt":"2026-04-18T08:45:18","slug":"favorite-for-jets-first-round-pick-emerges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/869016\/","title":{"rendered":"Favorite For Jets First-Round Pick Emerges"},"content":{"rendered":"

In many ways, the 2026 NFL Draft begins when the New York Jets are on the clock. While the Las Vegas Raiders own the first-overall pick, everyone in the world knows they\u2019re going to use that selection on Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza<\/a>. Even free agent signee Kirk Cousins admitted that Mendoza will join the Raiders in just under a week. This effectively puts the New York Jets on the clock, and nobody knows for sure what they\u2019ll do with their selection. However, one report indicates Gang Green has a favorite for the second-overall pick.<\/p>\n

According to Jonathan Jones of CBS Sports<\/a>, \u201cmost of the league\u201d believes the New York Jets will select Texas Tech edge defender David Bailey with the second-overall pick. While this is anything but official, this report makes sense, and Bailey is well worth the second-overall pick.<\/p>\n

New York Jets Reportedly Targeting David Bailey With First Draft Pick<\/p>\n

You can never have too many good pass rushers, and David Bailey dominated in the trenches last year for the Red Raiders. The potential second-overall pick finished the season with 14.5 sacks, tied for the most in the FBS. He was more than just a pass-rushing threat, as he also recorded 19.5 tackles-for-loss and ultimately proved to be unblockable for most of the season.<\/p>\n

Nobody will be surprised if the Jets select David Bailey with the second-overall pick in the NFL Draft, but other worthy players will be on the board. Ohio State\u2019s Sonny Styles<\/a> and Arvell Reese<\/a> are both premier talents who should immediately start on this defense, and there\u2019s always the chance New York trades down to accumulate picks.<\/p>\n

Of course, the Jets have another first-round pick in the 2026 NFL Draft. Thanks to the Sauce Gardner trade, New York also has the 16th-overall pick. This likely reduces the odds of a trade-down from the second-overall pick, as the Jets already have plenty of draft capital. What they lack is premium high-end talent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In many ways, the 2026 NFL Draft begins when the New York Jets are on the clock. While…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":869017,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2051],"tags":[4155,7,226,1917,255,74355,2321,2097,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-869016","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-jets","8":"tag-david-bailey","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-jets","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-jets","13":"tag-new-york-jets-draft","14":"tag-newyork","15":"tag-newyorkjets","16":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116424837033236159","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=869016"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869016\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/869017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=869016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=869016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=869016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}