It’s On!

Ok people, here we go, the home stretch! I feel like I’m on the long, slow, vertical climb up a roller coaster and the breathless anticipation is driving me nuts. The 2008 NFL Draft kicks off tomorrow at Radio City Music Hall and the New York Jets are right in the thick of it. The rumors are still there but Dewayne Robertson isn’t anymore! Huzzah!

Look, Robertson was never a great player, even in the 4-3 defense which has gone the way of the dodo for the Jets. He was just a marginally solid defensive tackle who would never have given the Jets a good return on their investment. The long awaited (and hoped for) trade of D-Rob to the Denver Broncos finally happened yesterday. What did we get? Well bupkus for 2008 unless you get excited about cap relief — which in D-Rob’s case is a substanial $8.4 million. The great thing about this trade is that we did get a conditional draft pick for 2009. That pick could be as high as a second round pick. Couple that with the conditional pick we are getting for Jonathan Vilma that could reach second round status and the 4th rounder we got for Pete Kendall in ’09 and we will be having a real fun time at next year’s draft — unless we trade all those picks tommorrow!

As for the 6th pick overall, well who the heck knows anyway? It could be any number of players or scenarios but the guy most linked to us in mock drafts is Arkansas running back Darren McFadden and I am A-OK with that. The Jets badly need his offensive ability. If he’s there I think he has to be the pick. Of course we have also been heavily associated with QB Matt Ryan, DE Chris Long, and DE Vernon Gholston. The new name pinned to us is small school Troy State’s CB Leodis McKelvin. He may be the top corner and kick returner in the draft but he’d be a slight reach at 6 overall so if he is the guy the Jets better trade down and get another pick out of it.

Some names I really want the Jets to consider in the second round include: TE Dustin Keller, ILB Curtis Lofton, WR James Hardy, QB Chad Henne, CB Brandon Flowers, OL Sam Baker and maybe in the 4th round DE Vince Redd.

All in all Jets fans have got to be excited heading into tomorrow nad the possibilities that await. Merry Christmas Jets fans because Santa is coming tonight.

We’ll be back Sunday to analyze the Jets moves.