New York Jets GM’s Inaugural NFL Drafts: A Look Back

Happy Saturday night, Jet Pressers. I hope you are all enjoying your Saturday night, whatever it is you might be doing. Thanks for checking in.

Today, we are approximately six weeks away from John Idzik’s first draft as general manager of the New York Jets. With that, I thought it would be interesting to look back at some of the Jets most recent general managers, and look back at how their first drafts turned out. Some were good, some were a mix. Let’s take a look. First, we are going to go back to 1989, and see how the late Dick Steinberg did in his first try with the team:

RD	SEL #	PLAYER	POSITION	SCHOOL
1	14	Jeff Lageman	DE	Virginia
2	42	Dennis Byrd	DE	Tulsa
3	70	Joe Mott	LB	Iowa
4	98	Ron Stallworth	DE	Auburn
5	126	Tony Martin	WR	Mesa State
6	151	Marvin Washington	DE	Idaho
6	153	Titus Dixon	WR	Troy State
7	181	Stevon Moore	DB	Mississippi
8	209	A.B. Brown	RB	West Virginia
9	237	Pat Marlatt	–	West Virginia
10	265	Adam Bob	LB	Texas A&M
11	293	Artie Holmes	–	Washington State
12	321	Willie Snead	–	Florida

This obviously wasn’t the best first draft ever, but, Dennis Byrd would have been a high mark had it not been for the tragic accident that unfortunate day at the Meadowlands.

Bill Parcells led the Jets into his first draft in 1997.  How did he do?

RD	SEL #	PLAYER	POSITION	SCHOOL
1	8	James Farrior	OLB	Virginia
2	31	Rick Terry	DT	North Carolina
3	88	Dedric Ward	WR	Northern Iowa
4	102	Terry Day	DE	Mississippi State
4	104	Leon Johnson	RB	North Carolina
5	131	Lamont Burns	G	East Carolina
5	145	Ray Austin	DB	Tennessee
6	164	Tim Scharf	–	Northwestern
6	191	Chuck Clements	QB	Houston
7	202	Steve Rosga	DB	Colorado
7	229	Jason Ferguson	DT	Georgia

Jason Ferguson actually turned into a very nice nose tackle if you remember.  He followed Bill to Dallas and performed well for him too.  Leon Johnson did some nice things, and Farrior is a good player, although he didn’t stay with us quite long enough.

We will look at more recent drafts on the next page.