The Jets continued to tap into the talent pool at the University of Florida, taking RB La'Mical Perine with their first pick of day three on the 120th overall selection in Round 4 of the 2020 NFL Draft this afternoon.
The Green & White's last selection of Round 3 on Friday night was another Gator, edge rusher Jabari Zuniga.
Perine grew up in Mobile, AL, and after a productive scholastic career at Theodore HS, he declined an offer to play at Alabama to go to Florida. There, he proceeded to put up productive numbers for four seasons.
He became the starter as a sophomore in 2017 and led Florida with 562 rushing yards and 8 touchdowns. He increased that to another team-leading 826 rush yards (6.2 yards/carry) and 7 TDs. Last year as a senior team captain, in 13 starts, he totaled 676 rush yards (5.1 average) and 6 TDs and added a career-high 40 catches for 262 yards and 5 more TDs.
He was named the Orange Bowl MVP with 138 yards and two touchdowns on 13 carries in the Gators' 36-28 win over Virginia.
And that yardage capped his four-year career total at UF at 2,485 rush yards, eighth-most in school history.
Perine has two cousins football fans may have heard of: RB Samaje Perine, fourth-round pick of Washington in 2017 now with Miami, and Jacksonville LB Myles Jack.
Including Zuniga, Perine makes it an even dozen picks from Florida for the Jets all-time. It's their first drafted Gators RB since taking James Richards in Round 7 (199th overall) in 1976.
And Perine and Zuniga are the first players from the same school taken back-to-back by the Jets since RB Terrance Ganaway and G Robert Griffin were picked on consecutive selections, Nos. 202 and 203, in Round 6 in 2012.
The Green & White acquired solid contributors the previous two times in their history that they spent pick No. 120. In 1985 they drafted LB Troy Benson out of Pitt, who started 43 games in his four-year Jets career. And in 1993 they took RB Adrian Murrell out of West Virginia, who started 41 games, rushed for 3,447 yards and scored 18 touchdowns in his five years in green and white before passing the tailback baton to Curtis Martin.
