Jets Second Round Picks Since 2008 Have Started Just 61 Games

by Chase Stuart on May 28, 2017

In 2007, the Jets drafted David Harris in the second round, and the linebacker has turned into one of the best players in the league who has never made a Pro Bowl. Since then? That round has failed to yield a single productive player. Here are New York’s second round picks in each of the last ten years. Note that this is not a pretty table, and that’s before realizing that the Jets traded up from 47 to 43 in the ’12 Draft with Seattle to draft Hill, while the Seahawks settled for Bobby Wagner.


Rk	Year	Rnd	Pick		Pos	DrAge	From	To	St	CarAV	G	GS	College/Univ
1	2017	2	39	Marcus Maye	S				0				Florida	College Stats
2	2016	2	51	Christian Hackenberg	QB	21			0				Penn St.	College Stats
3	2015	2	37	Devin Smith	WR	23	2015	2016	0	1	14	3	Ohio St.	College Stats
4	2014	2	49	Jace Amaro	TE	22	2014	2016	0	4	17	4	Texas Tech	College Stats
5	2013	2	39	Geno Smith	QB	22	2013	2016	2	14	33	30	West Virginia	College Stats
6	2012	2	43	Stephen Hill	WR	21	2012	2013	2	4	23	19	Georgia Tech	College Stats
7	2010	2	61	Vlad Ducasse	T	22	2010	2016	2	13	88	30	Massachusetts

Provided by Pro-Football-Reference.com: View Original Table

The Jets didn’t have a pick in three of those years. In 2008, New York traded up from 36 to 30 with Green Bay to move up to grab Dustin Keller; the Packers chose Jordy Nelson) six picks later. In the 2009 Draft, the Jets paid a relatively cheap price to move up 17 to 5th pick, with the major bargaining pick being New York’s 2nd round pick; that trade resulted in New York getting Mark Sanchez. And in 2010, the Jets traded the team’s 2011 2nd round pick to San Diego for Antonio Cromartie, a move which actually worked out pretty well.

It’s obviously too early to grade Maye or Hackenberg yet, as neither has taken a snap for New York. But the Jets just released Smith, and none of the other players taken in the second round since 2008 are on the roster. And the results are really, really bad: those players have combined to play in just 134 games and to start only 61.

How bad is that? Over that same time period, the Patriots have had three second round picks start more games than that: Patrick Chung, Sebastian Vollmer, and some guy named Rob Gronkowski. Here’s how many games and games started each team has had by players drafted by that team since 2008:

Rk	Team	Players	Gms	Starts
1	Los Angeles Rams	9	541	424
2	New England Patriots	16	670	372
3	Philadelphia Eagles	10	581	363
4	Cleveland Browns	12	445	362
5	Buffalo Bills	11	432	359
6	Cincinnati Bengals	10	559	334
7	New York Giants	10	445	319
8	Denver Broncos	13	479	311
9	Baltimore Ravens	11	486	306
10	Green Bay Packers	11	508	282
11	Seattle Seahawks	9	393	281
12	Chicago Bears	7	324	267
13	Miami Dolphins	11	437	261
14	Minnesota Vikings	7	355	248
15	Atlanta Falcons	7	319	244
16	Tampa Bay Buccaneers	11	356	238
17	Kansas City Chiefs	7	335	235
18	Arizona Cardinals	7	320	229
19	Pittsburgh Steelers	8	317	219
20	Oakland Raiders	7	292	217
21	Indianapolis Colts	7	295	214
22	Jacksonville Jaguars	8	304	200
23	Detroit Lions	9	279	173
25	San Francisco 49ers	8	303	167
25	Houston Texans	8	282	167
25	San Diego Chargers	7	242	167
27	Tennessee Titans	10	313	165
28	Washington Redskins	8	294	163
29	Carolina Panthers	8	288	158
30	Dallas Cowboys	7	292	147
31	New Orleans Saints	6	115	85
32	New York Jets	6	134	61

The Jets rank last in games started by players drafted in the second round in 2008, and second-to-last in games played, ahead of only the Saints, who lost two second round picks in the bounty scandal. New York has fallen on hard times over the last five years, and the team’s failure to add any player of note in the second round since 2008 has played at least a small part in that lack of success.

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