Had the New York Jets listened to some in the organization back in 2014, the franchise would find itself in much better shape than it currently does.
The New York Jets 2014 draft class was one of the worst in recent memory. It was so bad that the only player taken still on the roster is backup offensive lineman Dakota Dozier, a fourth-round pick who has started all of two games. Sixth-round pick Quincy Enunwa, currently on injured reserve, was waived and then resigned. So he doesn’t really count.
The draft was impressively bad for the Jets, but according to Rich Cimini of ESPN, it could have turned out differently. The Jets were apparently interested in either trading up to select Odell Beckham Jr., or selecting Derek Carr with the 18th overall pick.
The Jets not trading up to get Beckham can be explained simply as the asking price by other teams being a little too high. But the team passed on Carr because he had one bad game and his brother, David, was a bust.
That’s a little bit of a shot to the gut for Jets fans, who are currently stuck with Josh McCown (he of two wins since 2014) as their starting quarterback. They could have had a great young quarterback if then-general manager John Idzik didn’t overreact to one bad game.
Beckham has had one of the best starts to a career in NFL history with the New York Giants, while Carr has established himself as a very good quarterback for the Oakland Raiders, and he could enter the elite category this season. Meanwhile, the Jets top two picks are either playing with the Cleveland Browns (Calvin Pryor) or are totally out of the league (Jace Amaro).
That the Jets blew the draft is nothing new—they have a history of poor drafting. But it stings to think of how the team’s fortunes could have been so different with either OBJ or Carr on the roster.