Were the mock drafts right about the New York Jets in the NFL Draft? Not bad but not right
The mock drafts weren’t all that far off for the New York Jets, one of the few times that the national consensus was close to what a team did in the first round of the NFL Draft.
At No. 11, the Jets ended up taking left tackle Mekhi Becton, who projects as an instant starter and a Pro Bowl caliber talent for the Jets. He is an instant upgrade for the offensive line and addresses what was the weakest area of the depth chart coming into the draft.
And Becton was the second-most mocked player to the Jets among all mock drafts according to the NFL Mock Draft Database, a tremendous resource for this type of research.
Becton was the pick for the Jets in the first round on 18.9 percent of all mocks according to the database, second-most of any player. The most mocked player was Oklahoma wide receiver CeeDee Lamb at 19.5 percent. Lamb went off the board six picks after Becton was selected by the Jets to the Dallas Cowboys.
So while Becton was a popular and trending pick for the Jets, he still was not the pick in 81.1 percent of all the mocks. To be fair, this was a turbulent and unusual draft in many regards.
Two offensive tackles were taken ahead of Becton. The New York Giants selected Andrew Thomas at No. 4 and the Cleveland Browns took Jedrick Wills at No. 10. Thomas was among the biggest surprises of the draft as few had projected him in the top 10. He wasn’t among the top three mocks to the Giants at No. 4 according to the database.
Coincidentally, Wills was the third-most mocked player to the Jets among all mock drafts. He registered at 13.9 percent to the Jets.
Becton initially rose up the draft boards in late February, following a standout performance at the NFL Combine where he ran a 5.1 time in the 40. But then he began to slip down a week about the draft after a report that he allegedly had a flagged drug test at the combine.
