NY Jets make questionable picks in Mel Kiper's first 2022 mock draft

The NY Jets are still a few months away from the 2022 NFL Draft and so much is bound to happen between now and the draft that it's nearly impossible to predict the direction the team might take come late April.

But where's the fun in that?

Mock drafts are a fun, albeit insignificant way of gauging how a draft might unfold, even if almost every one of them is entirely wrong. That's the beauty of them.

ESPN's Mel Kiper officially released his much anticipated first mock draft of the season on Wednesday. Kiper's reputation always has some excited for his mock drafts, even if his accuracy has been stunningly poor in recent years.

Some of the picks Kiper has projected in recent memory have been questionable, to say the least. That was once again the case with his two Jets picks this year.

Who did Mel Kiper have the NY Jets picking in his first mock draft?

Kiper has the Jets selecting Notre Dame safety Kyle Hamilton with the fourth overall pick and USC wide receiver Drake London with the 10th overall pick in the 2022 NFL Draft.

You could make a reasonable argument for both selections, but it's clear that most probably will not agree with those picks. Some other surprising selections saw Purdue's George Karlaftis falling all the way to 23, Arnold Ebiketie going 16th overall, and players like Cameron Thomas and Kyler Gordon being selected in the first round.

Hamilton is undoubtedly a fantastic prospect with many dubbing him the best player in the draft class, but it's hard to see Jets general manager Joe Douglas drafting a safety (no matter how great he is) in the top-five.

And as for London, some scouts have concerns about his ability to separate at the next level and he's not even a consensus Round 1 prospect at this stage. The top-10 definitely seems a bit rich for him right now.

Kiper's history in Jets mock drafts in recent years is suspect, to say the least. This time last year he was projecting the team to draft DeVonta Smith or Kyle Pitts with the second overall pick and insisting that Sam Darnold should be their Week 1 starting quarterback.

Needless to say, he missed wildly with those projections.

Only time will tell if Kiper's predictions have improved. But given who he projected the Jets to take here, that seems unlikely.