D’Angelo Ponds received a blunt message from his father upon joining Jets

Of all the teams that D'Angelo Ponds expected to draft his son, the New York Jets weren’t exactly atop the list.

Not that the elder Ponds is complaining, mind you.

In an interview with The Athletic, Angelo Ponds shared how surprised he was that the Jets selected his son, D’Angelo, during last month’s draft. New York used the No. 50 pick on Ponds, a dynamic cornerback who earned All-American honors at Indiana last year.

“I never even had the Jets on my mind,” the senior Ponds admitted.

The 5-foot-8, 182-pound D'Angelo Ponds is expected to immediately start at cornerback.

“I told him: ‘You landed in the perfect situation,’” Angelo Ponds said.

Jets rookie D’Angelo Ponds should already be motivated to impress

Although Ponds more than proved himself at both James Madison and Indiana, his smaller frame dropped him to the back half of the second round.

Whether it’s his size or simply the fact that he’s playing for the Jets, Ponds is already falling through the cracks.

Then again, as The Athletic’s Zack Rosenblatt pointed out, that’s nothing new for Ponds and his family.

According to Rosenblatt, college coaches visiting Ponds’s high school paid far more attention to fellow cornerback Ryan Turner, who stands six feet and signed with Ohio State out of high school.

Ponds primarily earned scholarship offers from mid-major and non-FBS programs. Syracuse was the only Power 4 school to offer him.

However, Ponds instead signed with James Madison and grew into an All-Sun Belt cornerback. He followed Dukes coach Curt Cignetti to Indiana.

Yet, not much has changed in the years since Ponds first enrolled at JMU.

ESPN’s Field Yates turned heads earlier this month when he omitted Ponds from a list projecting which non-first-round rookies will have the greatest Day 1 impact.

What was especially surprising was that Yates included Giants rookie defensive tackle Bobby Jamison-Travis, a sixth-round pick who will open the season behind D.J. Reader and Shelby Harris.

Luckily for Ponds, he’ll begin his career playing for a former undersized Pro Bowl cornerback in Jets head coach Aaron Glenn.

The Jets are already all-in on Ponds, with Glenn publicly raving about his newest cornerback.

As Angelo Ponds put it best, this really could be the perfect situation for D’Angelo Ponds.

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