it was April 30th, 2015. Draft day was upon us and I couldn't be more excited. I got my popcorn and my beer ready and sat my ass down on the couch ready for it to start. I am a huge mock draft/ draft analysis junkie, as I followed each player and every single mock draft I could lay my eyes on. Basically every single mock draft had Leonard Williams going second or even possibly 4th to the raiders at the very latest. I could not recall seeing any mock draft or simulater having Leonard Williams falling to the jets. Which I was actually ok with. Most of them predicted Amari Cooper falling to the jets and I knew he would be ours. I was estatic. Now back to draft day... It was pretty much a given that the first 3 picks would be Winston, Mariota, Fowler Jr. And it happened exactly as it was predicted. Then it came to the raiders pick at 4th I remember Rodger Godell walking up to the podium and reciting the following "with the 4th pick in the 2015 NFL draft, the Oakland Raiders select" and I actually lip synced the name "Leonard Williams" because I was all to certian it would be him. But boy was I wrong. The raiders took him. They took Amari Cooper. I was stunned and completely upset that Amari Cooper was within one pick of going to jets nation. The best wide receiver prospect coming out of college in quite some time. I am an avid watcher of crimson tide football and I literally watched every snap Amari Cooper play in college and I knew this kid was something else. A new breed of wide receiver the league has never seen before. We ended up selected Leonard Williams with the 6th pick and I was content at best. Amari Cooper would have gave this jets franchise a deadly offensive weapon for the next decade but we ended up with a d lineman I instead. Leonard Williams is alright I guess but goddam Amari Cooper is incredible and I'm extremely Buthurt about this draft and keep invisioning what could have been. Marshall, Decker, Cooper ),: Imagine?
Cooper's a great player. Don't worry about Leonard Williams though. Interior pass rushers take a season or two to really hit their stride. If the Jets put him outside in a 4 man look most of the time things might be moving a bit faster for him. I'm thinking Williams is going to be a consistent 8 to 10 sack guy when he gets going and for his size that's great production.
if they were both available id still want williams. there are 2-4 great WRs in every draft these days. its much harder to build your front 7. considering we will likely need to trade or walk away from at least one of richardson/wilkerson it makes williams that much more valuable. i also think its easier to get top talent at WR in the 2nd around as opposed to top talent at DL in the second round i love cooper, but you have to go williams over him
And of course there's the Mo factor. Williams was a great pickup given that we're 50/50 or less to be able to retain Mo.
Well if we're going back in time and crying over players we never had a chance to draft I find it much more rational to be crying over missing out on Mariota than Cooper. Cooper is a great talent, so is Williams but unfortunately neither is a QB which is still the biggest need going forward.
I would have traded our 1st and 2nd round pick for 4th overall. I would still trade Williams and Smith for Cooper. I absolutely hated the Williams pick and I'm still not a fan. Beasley or White would have been much more preferred.
You can't unspill milk so why bother beating yourself over something like this. You do know that the Jets NEVER draft offense in the 1st round. Not in recent times anyway so even if Cooper were there, the BPA would have magically transformed into another Safety or CB. Just the way it is with the Jets...
I feel strongly in saying if Cooper and Williams were available at 6, we would have taken Cooper. If Washington had taken Williams, we would have taken Kevin White. We were going WR until Williams fell to us.
Im having a hard time understanding what the point of this thread is. Had we passed on Cooper, I could see a thread.................
We lost Amari Cooper along with both QB's when we beat Tennesee. The only shocker was Williams falling past Washington.
Don't forget about pick number 5, because had Cooper fallen to 5, Washington would have probably taken him.
If the Jets can get at least three decent players from a draft I am content. Williams is contributing, Maudlin looks like a future starter and Petty might be mover farther the line. I don't ask, "what if." We could still have Idzik and miss on 11 god d-mn picks.
Yeah you're right. In retrospect we definitely should've taken Ed Reed over Bryan Thomas. EDIT: wrong thread?
Everyone always talks about trading up for Winston or Mariota but Cooper was the guy to get. IDK if he was attainable but he is the next AJ Green or Julio Jones. No doubt about it the highest ceiling of any player in this past draft. I have very high hopes for Leonard. He'll be a star in this league IMO. But Cooper will be better.
This. It was pretty obvious they wanted a receiver to grow with Carr. Might be one of the more dangerous tandems in the next decade with how Carr is looking this year.
