Kevin Seifert of ESPN recently published an article ranking all 32 teams' offseason capital and the Jets came in at No. 2. He used a formula that used salary cap and draft picks to determine the ranking. ESPN sports data scientist Brian Burke "merged our estimated draft order with historical data to derive an approximate value (AV) for each team's draft class."
The Green & White's draft capital AV sum is 130.4, behind only the Jaguars' 139.6. The Jets are also projected to have $50.8 million in cap space, which is behind the Jaguars, the Dolphins and the Chargers.
"Trades that shipped out safety Jamal Adams (2020), quarterback Sam Darnold (2021) and tight end Chris Herndon (2021) have left the Jets with four picks in the first two rounds and six in the first four rounds of the 2022 draft," Seifert wrote. "They are in a pretty good position, but after compiling an NFL-worst 27-70 record over the past six seasons, they've been here before."
GM Joe Douglas has two top-10 picks at No. 4 and No. 10 (via Seattle) along with early second-round picks at No. 35 and No. 38 (via Carolina). This is the second-straight year that Douglas will have two first-round picks after he drafted Zach Wilson at No. 2 overall and traded up from No. 23 to 14 to select LG Alijah Vera-Tucker. Douglas is not one to break the bank in free agency although he's shown he's not afraid to try and reel in some big fish e.g. DE Carl Lawson and WR Corey Davis. At his end-of-season press conference, he didn't rule out the possibility of trading some of his draft capital for a proven player.
"I think you're constantly evolving and there's some core philosophies that don't change, but you have to be open to seeing how things are done and maybe adopting certain principles," Douglas said. "Where we are now with the assets we have now, we have great flexibility to be aggressive in a lot of different avenues. So, again, those are going to be vital conversations that Coach [Robert Saleh] and I have, along with Christopher [Johnson] and Woody [Johnson]. We're excited about this offseason, we're excited about attacking free agency, about attacking the draft and about attacking the Combine."
