The dilemma is real for the Jets as they embark on Thursday night’s NFL draft first round.
The Jets must break from the age-old draft mantra cliché that says to take “the best available athlete’’ when their No. 10 overall pick arrives and instead chase “the best available player who can help them win now.’’
The Jets have no choice but to get it right this time in the draft, because there will be no next year for general manager Joe Douglas and head coach Robert Saleh if they don’t win in 2024.
What does “win’’ mean?
It means, at the very least, a playoff berth.
We’re going on 14 years since the last time the Jets were in the postseason, and owner Woody Johnson is growing understandably impatient.
Johnson, who’s 77, is fast approaching the stage of impatience his predecessor Leon Hess reached in 1995, when he famously declared: “I’m 80 years old and I want results now’’ the day he fired Pete Carroll and hired Rich Kotite.
We all know how that worked out. Hess never got the results he sought.
Johnson hopes quarterback Aaron Rodgers, who’s presumably healthy and recovered from his ruptured Achilles suffered in the season opener last year, can deliver those results he so craves.
If the 40-year-old Rodgers is going to be able to do that, though, he’s going to need some more help around him on offense — and that means more skill-position talent.
That means drafting one of the top receivers (Marvin Harrison Jr., Malik Nabers or Rome Odunze) or the top tight end (Brock Bowers) in the first round.
Do the Jets need help on the offensive line?
Absolutely they do. Don’t they always?
But Douglas, who arrived here in 2019 with a reputation as an offensive line specialist, has failed spectacularly in his efforts to build a great offensive line for the better part of the five years he’s held the post.
The days of building the team for the future are done for Douglas. The only way he should take an offensive lineman in the first round is if, for some reason, Notre Dame’s Joe Alt falls into his lap. Alt, by all accounts by draft experts, is a plug-and-play prospect who would help immediately.
If you read the tea leaves from Douglas’ pre-draft press availability last week, you got the feeling he was greasing the skids to pick a skill-position player.
His owner, after all, was recently quoted as saying “offense, offense, offense’’ when asked what his team needs.
Johnson, to be sure, was not referring to more offensive linemen who may or may not (Mekhi Becton) work out. He was referring to players who can get into the end zone, which has been a less-traveled place for the Jets for far too long.
Harrison caught 14 touchdown passes in each of the past two years for Ohio State. Nabers caught 14 TD passes last season for LSU. Odunze caught 24 in the past three seasons at Washington, including 13 last season. Bowers had 26 receiving TDs and five rushing the past three years for Georgia.
That’s a lot of firepower from those four players — production that would only be enhanced by Rodgers, who has a gift for making the players around him better.
“When you look back at some other situations where a player like Aaron has gone, there have been key playmakers around him,’’ Douglas said. “We have some dynamic players around him already with Garrett [Wilson], adding [receiver] Mike Williams, [running back] Breece [Hall]. We love our tight end room where it’s at with Conk [Tyler Conklin] and Ruck [Jeremy Ruckert]. So, we feel like we have a lot of good players around [Rodgers].’’
They need more.
“There are a lot of special players on the offensive side of the ball,’’ Douglas said of this draft. “Guys that are top level playmakers, dynamic playmakers and they are all a different flavor. Whether you want a precision route runner that is super productive or you want an explosive freak, whether you want a high-level route runner who can go up and get the ball, but also run by people.
“There are different flavors of blockers too and a tight end [Bowers] that is a Swiss Army knife that can move the ball around the formation and can really stress the defense. It is a really cool group.’’
Douglas has no choice but to go get one of them with that 10th overall pick Thursday night.
