Jets sign 6th-round pick Blessuan Austin

The New York Jets have made it official with cornerback Blessuan Austin, the team’s sixth-round pick in the 2019 NFL draft.

With rookie minicamp kicking off this week, the Jets have started getting this year’s draft picks under contract. Austin officially joined the ranks Friday:

Bless Austin signs on to the squad. #TakeFlight

? https://t.co/MsLkm1JrNQ pic.twitter.com/2e1lbFnJ6u

— New York Jets (@nyjets) May 10, 2019

A born-and-raised New Yorker, Austin is thrilled to be making the quick trip from Rutgers to join his hometown team in the NFL:

It feels great to be on a New York team, a hometown team, to be able to represent and be close to home. It doesn’t get any better than this at all.

A talented athlete who had flashes of brilliance at the college level, Austin was held back by multiple injuries throughout his career. He’s confident he’ll be able to reward the Jets for taking a chance on him:

I wasn’t really sure what teams would think about it because if you ask me, I would’ve said I’d be perfectly fine going into it. Based off of how I heal, I’m a freakish athlete, so when I get injuries like that, I’m not worried about how I heal, I know I’m going to come back 100 percent. But the fact that the Jets truly believed that and 100 percent believe in me, they’re definitely going to get what they invested in.

With a clear need for more playmakers at corner, Austin should have every opportunity to earn playing time on defense once he’s at full strength. He should make an immediate impact on special teams, at the very least, before hopefully developing into something more down the road.

How to you feel about adding Austin to the Gang Green defense? Give us your thoughts in the comment section!