IT’S A PICK-SIX
Slotted into No. 6 spot, Jets expected to go with QB
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — The Jets did not tank the season, but they still wound up with a pretty good draft pick.
The team will select sixth in April’s draft after finishing 5-11. This will be the third time in four years the Jets will pick sixth. They selected Jamal Adams in that spot last year and Leonard Williams was the sixth pick in 2015.
The Jets are expected to take a quarterback in the draft. Wyoming’s Josh Allen could be the one who is there at No. 6. But there are three teams that could be looking to draft quarterbacks ahead of the Jets. The Browns, Giants and Broncos all may be in the market for a quarterback. It sets up four months of draft intrigue.
Adams had a postgame mission — find Patriots quarterback Tom Brady. When he did, he wished Brady luck in the playoffs and gave him some respect. The rookie did not quite have the nerve to ask him what he wanted to, though.
“I look up to Brady, man, since I’ve played football, just watching him,” Adams said. “He’s a true professional. I really wanted to trade jerseys with him but I didn’t really want to ask. I’m def initely a fan of him, of his game, just the way he carries himself and how professional he is, how he goes about his craft. He cares about this game. We need a lot more people in this league that plays like him.”
Adams, 22, called the 40-year-old Brady the “GOAT” as in greatest of all time.
“He’s old enough to be my Pops,” Adams said. “I didn’t tell him that. He’s an outstanding player. Everybody knows that, a future Hall of Famer.”
If Brady were Adams’ father, he might have told him it was not wise to run around in pregame Sunday shirtless like Adams did. It was 13 degrees with a wind chill of minus 2.
Adams said he was trying to show it is a mentality to fight the cold.
“It gave me a little cough coming in,” Ad- ams said. “I’m not going to lie to you. threw a little shirt on after that.” Adams also heard from home. “I know my mom texted me and she was mad,” he said. “I put my shirt on real quick. Mom wasn’t happy. ‘Put your shirt on baby.’ Sorry, mom.”
DE Muhammad Wilkerson was inactive for the third straight week. That is going to be a sad ending to Wilkerson’s Jets career. The team is expected to release him before his 2018 salary becomes guaranteed in March.
ESPN reported that Bill Belichick had thermometers hung in the tunnel the Jets walk through to get to the Gillette Stadium field to remind them of how cold it was Sunday.
The 2018 schedule is now set for the Jets: They will face the Patriots, Dolphins, Bills, Packers, Vikings, Colts, Texans, Broncos at home. These are their away games: Patriots, Dolphins, Bills, Bears, Lions, Titans, Jaguars, Browns.