4 HRS AGO - Photo by Ron Jenkins/Getty Images The value of interior defensive linemen has been skyrocketing recently. The league is increasingly recognizing that pressure up the middle can be as, if not more, impactful than pressure from the edge. As teams seek to avoid the exorbitant costs of signing established veterans in free agency, they are turning to younger talents to fill the gap. Quinnen Williams epitomizes this shift. Securing him with a contract extension was a prudent move. Historically, we’ve relied on hired guns to complement him at the other starting defensive tackle position and provide depth. However, given the ongoing inflation in the prices of interior defensive linemen, it makes financial sense to cultivate cheaper talent to develop alongside Quinnen. [1] Jer’Zhan Newton, Illinois - (Projected Round - Top 20) Top Strength: Natural pad level with top tier explosion off the snap Top Weakness: Has below AVG length [2] T’Vondre Sweat, Texas - (Projected Round - Round Collapse

14 HRS AGO - Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images Bringing your daily links to the NFL’s New York Jets Good morning, Gang Green Nation. I hope you’re all having a great start to the day. Tomorrow is the official start of the NFL draft, and I don’t know about you, but I’m incredibly excited. The New York Jets find themselves in a good position, sitting at tenth in the draft. They have the potential to take an elite playmaker, an elite offensive lineman, or potentially trade down to secure more picks. The Jets are essentially in a win-win situation, where the only way they could potentially ‘lose’ in the eyes of the fans is if the team drafts another defensive player - especially if it’s an Edge. However, even if that were to happen, there’s a lot of incredible players to like at those positions as well. After spending months tracking players myself, I’m just excited to see where these players will start their NFL careers - and who will be doing so in Green and White. With that, here are Collapse

1 DAY AGO - Adam Cairns/Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK Will the Jets target a wide receiver to trade up in the draft? The New York Jets do not have a second round pick in the upcoming draft, which has fueled speculation that they could want to move down in the draft in exchange for additional picks. However, the Jets could also use another blue-chip player (as could every team in the league), which could give them reason to move up rather than back. This week, general manager Joe Douglas spoke about the possibility, confirming that it is under consideration to some degree. Joe Douglas says they are having conversations this week about who the players are in the Draft that would make them think about trading up.— Brian Costello (@BrianCoz) April 19, 2024 From my perspective, this could make sense. Like I said before, every team could use another blue-chip player. If the Jets think a trade up (at a reasonable price) allows them to do that, and it can’t be done at 10, then Collapse

1 DAY AGO - Photo by Megan Briggs/Getty Images Bringing your daily links to the NFL’s New York Jets Good morning, Gang Green Nation. I hope you’re all having a great start to the day. It turns out that Joe Douglas and the New York Jets were able to do the unthinkable. Yesterday the team managed to trade quarterback Zach Wilson to the Denver Broncos for a pick swap, with the Jets receiving a 6th-round pick in return for Wilson and a 7th-round selection. The Jets also agreed to pay for half of Wilson’s salary for this season. To be honest, I never thought a team would make a trade to receive Zach Wilson given his historically bad performances since he was drafted by New York. With that said, I do believe there was some kind of ‘F You’ move involved by head coach of the Broncos, Sean Payton. While Zach Wilson won’t likely start any meaningful games for Denver, one can’t help but think that Payton is trying to prove he can ‘fix’ Wilson to stick it to Nathaniel Hackett. As you can all Collapse

2 DAYS AGO - Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports Should the Jets be interested in Jackson Powers-Johnson? By my assessment the New York Jets have done a tremendous job in terms of improving the upside of the offensive line this season. Most notably, they added offensive tackle Tyron Smith who simply might be the best tackle in the league when healthy. Beyond that, they added some decent starters in guard John Simpson and tackle Morgan Moses. Beyond those additions, they have reason to expect center Joe Tippman and offensive line Swiss army knife Alijah Vera-Tucker to be improved based on more experience (and hopefully health). However, there is always room to improve an offensive line. Whomever your projected worst lineman is should always be in danger of losing his job to a better option. The offensive line is just too important to settle for anything less than the absolute best you can do (within budget). To that end, the Jets have been regularly linked to offensive tackles in the upcoming Collapse

2 DAYS AGO - Photo by Nick Cammett/Diamond Images via Getty Images Bringing your daily links to the NFL’s New York Jets Good morning, Gang Green Nation. I hope you’re all having a great start to the day. Shout out to Mr. Wells for holding down the fort over the weekend as usual. The New York Jets have been favored to draft Georgia tight end Brock Bowers for the past couple of weeks - this coming after the team was favorited to select an offensive lineman with their first pick. I’ve talked about this previously on Flight Connections, but I truly believe the Jets would be better off skipping on Brock Bowers and getting an offensive lineman instead. That is, unless Joe Douglas is able to make a trade in which the Jets move back, add another pick in this year’s, or next year’s draft, and then select Bowers later in the first round. It’s not that I don’t like Brock Bowers, it’s that this team is still very far away from making luxury picks like this. We’ll see what Douglas and company intend Collapse

3 DAYS AGO - Photo by Nick Cammett/Diamond Images via Getty Images The Jets have Garrett Wilson and a whole lot of question marks at wide receiver Despite signing Mike Williams in free agency, wide receiver is still considered one of the Jets’ main needs heading into the 2024 draft. The New York Jets entered the offseason with a receiving corps that was sorely lacking in established talent other than number one receiver Garrett Wilson. New York didn’t draft a receiver last year and, in retrospect, perhaps they should have. However, at the time, there was plenty of optimism about the strength of the wide receiver unit, even though they had traded Elijah Moore a few weeks beforehand. Aside from Wilson, the Jets had Corey Davis and Denzel Mims on the roster and had signed Mecole Hardman and Allen Lazard in free agency. They also officially added Randall Cobb a week after the draft, although it was widely regarded as a foregone conclusion that he’d be added at some point. Even now, that group Collapse