John Idzik Talks About Draft Preparation with the New York Jets

Dec 8, 2013; East Rutherford, NJ, USA; New York Jets general manager John Idzik walks off the field with the ball after the game against the Oakland Raiders at MetLife Stadium. The Jets defeated the Raiders 37-27 Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

Three days away is the NFL draft. John Idzik and company finally get to go to work, and show us the results of all of this preparation. A full off-season with John Idzik is finally going to be realized.

We know how quiet Jets’ headquarters has been since Idzik took over. So anytime we get a little bit of insight from Idzik and his office, it becomes an interesting read. John gave us a little bit of that insight during the team’s pre-draft press conference.

Our college staff led by Terry Bradway and Jeff Bauer. So much goes into it with our staffs and it is a coordinated effort in the various phases that we go through. I just want to acknowledge a few people that are very important to us, and certainly integral parts of our draft preparation. Obviously our college staff Jeff will get to. But our coaches, we ask a lot of them because they’re doing a lot of things in tandem. We get into our postseason evaluations, free agency prep, and then, alongside of that, we’re doing draft prep. By that we’re asking them to grade players. They’re playing a little catch up on film work. They’re going out on pro days, the Indy combine, all of those things. So Rex [Ryan] and his staff have done great work that way and are very coordinated with our college guys.

Idzik also gives us a little glimpse as to why working a full year in his position helps:

No doubt. Last year, as you said, I didn’t get the benefit of scouting the college season with the Jets staff. I came in in January so I got the tail end and the bowl games and the Indianapolis combine. Even so, it was kind of a hybrid where we were going to flip the switch and create a new system on the fly. So it was a little bit of Jets and a little bit of change last year as we were going. This year we set that table way back in May of last year, and then as Jeff indicated, we brought some new scouts in. We went through the entire cycle together, not only with the college staff but the coaches and everybody else that is involved. Simple things like setting up our pre-draft visits, our local day, it was the first time through last year. Well, this year we had somewhat of a template. That’s going to be massaged to a certain degree, but much less so this year. So, yeah, there is a higher comfort level this year.

It’s just interesting to hear some insight from the GM’s perspective, especially when it is John Idzik, a guy that doesn’t like to talk a lot.