The New York Jets were well represented.
ESPN’s Ben Solak ranked the best NFL draft picks ever at every slot from picks No. 1 through No. 262. All in all, seven former members of the Jets cracked the list as former draft picks, with one additional member (more on that later).
The only Jets first-rounder who made the list was Pro Football Hall of Famer Darrelle Revis from 2007. Solak determined that Revis was the best No. 14 overall pick in NFL history.
“This is very unfair, but here it goes: If Jim Kelly had won a Super Bowl, he probably beats Revis out. But he didn’t, and Revis did. Kelly also didn’t collect as many All-Pro appearances as Revis did (four), and he didn’t have an island named after him, either. While Kelly was certainly more valuable than Revis because of the position he played, I tried not to overweight quarterbacks and just look at the best player picked. Revis was the best player. Close one, though,” Solak explained.
All of the Jets Draft Picks That Made It From Day 2
Day two includes all of the second and third round draft choices.
Here is that exception we mentioned earlier. The Jets were listed along with the Seattle Seahawks and Tennessee Titans for center Kevin Mawae.
Technically speaking, Mawae was selected by Seattle with the No. 36 overall pick in the second round of the 1994 NFL draft. So he shouldn’t count for the Jets, but Mawae spent the majority of his career with the green and white.
He spent 16 years in the NFL, eight of which were spent in New York, and then he split the rest of his career between Seattle (four years) and Tennessee (four years).
“A 16-year pro, Mawae sailed off into the sunset, blocking for Chris Johnson’s 2,000-yard season in his final NFL campaign. Mawae was an All-Pro-caliber starter at center for three teams (Seahawks, Jets, and Titans) and the only Hall of Famer at this spot. Easy pick,” Solak said.
Jets Had Some Impressive Day 3 Snags in the NFL Draft
Gang Green is most represented on the third day of the NFL draft in this ranking of the elite.
In the sixth round, the Jets had a pair of picks that were labeled as the best.
Wide receiver Terance Mathis was the No. 140 overall pick in the sixth round of the 1990 NFL draft.
With the Jets, Mathis was used as both a pass catcher and a return man. Mathis finished with 93 receptions for 1,242 receiving yards and four receiving touchdowns across his four seasons with the green and white.
As a return man, Mathis added 445 punt return yards, 1,980 kick return yards, and a punt return score.
In 1994, he left the Jets and signed with the Atlanta Falcons as an unrestricted free agent.
Mathis would never return a kick for the rest of his career and only fielded four more punt returns.
While he hung up his special-teams cleats, Mathis took his receiving game to another level. Think about this: Mathis had more offensive production in his first season with the Falcons than he did in his entire four-year Jets career combined.
Mathis secured 111 receptions for 1,342 receiving yards and 11 receiving touchdowns in 1994.
The 111 catches were a Falcons team record; he was the No. 8 player in NFL history at the time to surpass 100+ receptions in a single season, and he finished top-three in the league in touchdown catches.
Honoring Jets Legend Joe Klecko
Another sixth-round pick that worked out pretty well for the Jets was taking defensive lineman Joe Klecko with the No. 144 overall pick in 1977.
Klecko was a famed member of the New York Sack Exchange. After a long wait, Klecko was finally inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2023.
He finished his career with 78 sacks, won the NFL Defensive Player of the Year honors (1981), led the league in sacks in 1981 (20.5 sacks), and was a four-time Pro Bowler.
The Best of the Rest for the Jets
Offensive lineman Dan Alexander was the No. 200 overall pick in the eighth round, when that was still a thing, back in the 1977 NFL draft.
Alexander spent his entire 13-year career in the NFL with the Jets. He appeared in 192 games and made 183 starts.
Wide receiver Eddie Bell was the No. 228 overall pick in the ninth round of the 1970 NFL draft. He spent the first six years of his seven-year career with the Jets.
During that run, he finished with 118 receptions for 1,774 receiving yards and 12 touchdowns. Bell played for the then-San Diego Chargers in his final season in 1976, but he didn’t record any statistics.
After Bell’s NFL career, he became a police officer in Los Angeles and an actor. He ended up appearing on popular television shows: Hill Street Blues, Wonder Woman, Maude, and got some work as a cameraman on The Buffalo Bill Show.
In 1997, the Jets selected defensive lineman Jason Ferguson with the No. 229 overall pick in the seventh round. The reason Ferguson was a later pick than some of the others on this list but still was a seventh rounder, is because the NFL changed to a seven-round format in 1994.
Ferguson spent the first seven years of his 12-year career with the Jets. The big man finished with 20.5 sacks, 18 tackles for loss, and totaled over 374 tackles with Gang Green.
Finally, with the No. 260 overall pick in the 10th round, the Jets took offensive lineman Guy Bingham. He spent nine of his 14 years with the Jets. During that run, he appeared in 125 games and made 32 starts.
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