The Jets' sparkling 2022 draft is nearing a conclusion. General manager Joe Douglas said late Friday night after his team's day two was done, "As it looks now, it's going to be a quick day tomorrow. Two picks at the top of the fourth. It's still a great opportunity."
Fourth-rounder, though, Joe? It doesn't sound exciting or dramatic or sexy. It's not a first-rounder, that's for sure, although it's not a seventh-rounder, so there is that. It's just a selection sitting somewhere near the top of the third day of the NFL draft, which always kicks off at noon, when even the draft teams around the league are yawning and the fans barely recognize most of the names.
And yet...
"That's a sweet spot, right?" asked Jets RB legend Bilal Powell, knowing the answer.
Powell was at One Jets Drive this past week to retire as a Jet. And in his conversations before signing his final one-day contract, he showed he's on board with Douglas' line of thinking about fourth-rounders. He was, after all, a No. 4 himself, in the 2011 draft.
"I like Michael Carter. I like his game, I"ve watched him," Powell told newyorkjets.com's Eric Allen about last year's Round 4 choice who turned into the Jets' lead tailback as a rookie. "I watched Leon Washington growing up. He was special before I got here. And Carter is special now that I'm gone. You can just see there's something around that fourth round that is special."
Powell could have kept going. Among the Jets' fourth-rounders in their last quarter century of drafts:
1998 — T Jason Fabini, Cincinnati (111th overall)
2004 — WR Jerricho Cotchery, North Carolina State (108th)
2005 — S Kerry Rhodes, Louisville (123rd)
2006 — WR Brad Smith, Missouri (103rd) and Washington, Florida State (117th)
2008 — CB Dwight Lowery, San Jose State (113th)
2010 — RB/KR Joe McKnight, Southern Cal (112th)
2011 — Powell, Louisville (126th)
2018 — TE Chris Herndon, U. of Miami (107th)
2019-21 — Current Jets TE Trevon Wesco, West Virginia (121st, 2019), RB La'Mical Perine, Florida (120th, 2020) and Carter, North Carolina (107th, 2021).
The Jets are poised to add to that distinguished list with their two picks shortly after noon ET today: No. 111 from Carolina to complete the Sam Darnold trade, and No. 117 from Minnesota in the Herndon deal, both coming in the first 12 picks of day three in Las Vegas.
Who might the Jets train their magic No. 4 binoculars on? Oklahoma DT Perrion Winfrey? Another player for the WR room in Memphis' Calvin Austin? Minnesota T Daniel Faalele? Texas-San Antonio CB Tariq Woolen? Or some other players?
Or might the Jets, as Douglas has frequently and skillfully done for three drafts now, deal those picks for a selection or two in next year's draft? The GM playfully said, "I have no reservations in losing these picks" if a great trade offer came along.
Yet we know what can happen if the Jets spend their No. 4s on the best available athletes.
"We're looking forward to getting the two best players we can, if we don't move," Douglas said. "We're looking for the two best picks to help this team."
