New York Jets recent winning streak is helping 2020 NFL Draft plans

The New York Jets winning in 2019 actually is helping its 2020 NFL Draft plans. Here are all the details and why it actually makes a lot of sense.

The New York Jets are 4-7 after winning three straight and things couldn’t be going better. Well not exactly.

Despite the recent winning streak by the team, a large portion of the fan-base is upset at the Jets because of how it’s affecting their 2020 NFL Draft plans.

In theory, every NFL team wants to accomplish one of two goals. They either want to win the Super Bowl or suck as bad as possible so they can acquire the highest draft pick possible.

That place in the middle is called purgatory.

It’s the worst possible place you can be in the NFL. You aren’t good enough to win championships, but you aren’t bad enough to acquire blue-chip players who are so few and far between on draft day.

Jets fans probably know this better than anybody, back in 2015 the team missed out on the playoffs despite going 10-6. The result?

The Jets playoff drought continued and they ended up with the worst possible draft pick (20th overall) which the team used on linebacker Darron Lee. We all know how that worked out.

While usually, I’d side with the fan base who is complaining, this year is an exception.

If the team couldn’t make the playoffs, the next best goal was developing Sam Darnold. If he’s getting better and the team is winning, that’s better than any possible top draft choice.

On top of that, there’s another reason why the Jets’ recent win streak is actually helping their 2020 NFL Draft plans.

According to several NFL Draft experts, the 2020 offensive line class isn’t elite.

Connor Rogers of The Stick to Football Podcast spoke to Paul ‘Boy Green’ Esden on Drive Time Sports on Monday to share the details:

“I think there are good players at the top of this class that have above-average NFL starting talent. That’s hard to find in the NFL and I think a lot of people are turned off by that when they hear it. Fans want franchise-changing talents like Tyron Smith or Zack Martin, but I think there are a lot of good guys in this class.

Andrew Thomas the left tackle out of Georgia is the best run-blocking tackle in this class and best overall guy. Tristan Wirfs out of Iowa is another round one guy who is super technically sound.

Beyond round one, you have guys who will be in the top 50-75 range like Trey Adams out of Washington. With him, he’s a great player on the field and has franchise tackle ability, but he’s had a lot of surgeries in the past that’ll scare teams.

Also, there’s Trey Smith on Tennessee who will probably be a guard at the next level and he has as much talent as anyone in the country, but he’s had health issues in the past with blood clot issues.

There are a few guys at Alabama like Alex Leatherwood and Jedrick Wills are tackles who will go in the first few rounds.

When you look at this group there are starting level players, if the Jets keep winning games some of those guys will still be available in the middle of the first round.”

So in other words, it doesn’t appear offensive linemen are projected to go high in the 2020 NFL Draft. This means if the Jets happened to be in that territory they could rationalize going in a different direction based on value.

The green and white have neglected the offensive line position in the first round for long enough, it’s time to cash in. If the Jets continue to win they’ll stumble into the correct range to pull the trigger on an offensive lineman in the first round.

Matt Miller of Bleacher Report shared that sentiment this week with another mock draft on Twitter saying this:

“10. NYJ – OT Tristan Wirfs, Iowa *Winning puts them in range for impact OT; will make move to LT in pros.”

Looking at the roster, the New York Jets could have as many as four or maybe even five new starters from 2018 to 2019. They’ll need help not only in free agency and trade but also in the 2020 NFL Draft.