Kiper: Jets should use 10th pick on TE or trade
Jets general manager Joe Douglas has a difficult decision to make with the No. 10 pick on April 25 at the 2024 draft.
ESPN draft analyst Mel Kiper Jr. has the Jets taking Georgia tight end Brock Bowers in his latest mock draft, but Kiper acknowledges they could take an offensive tackle instead … but not at 10.
“I could take either one — Bowers or the lineman,” Kiper said in a Zoom call with reporters Thursday. “If I’m going to take the lineman, I’m going to trade off of 10. If I’m taking Bowers, I’ll take him at 10. If I really want Bowers, you take him there. If you want a lineman, I think you can move off of 10. The key there is getting a second-round pick back. Right now, the Jets don’t have one. They could move down and get that secondround pick back and still get a really good offensive lineman as the sixth man. That would be the thought process for me.”
It is a fascinating debate. Do the Jets need to get Aaron Rodgers more protection or more playmakers? The team signed tackle Tyron Smith and guard John Simpson in free agency, and traded for tackle Morgan Moses in a makeover of the offensive line. But Smith and Moses are 33 years old, and both have health questions.
Bowers is the best tight end in the draft, and Kiper said people should not view him as a tight end but rather as an offensive weapon.
“I just went with Bowers as a weapon. They need that,” Kiper said. “People say, ‘Well they don’t have to have a tight end.’ But he’s a guy that can do so many different things.
“Could you look at an offensive lineman? Sure. You could take a JC Latham or a Taliese Fuaga or a Troy Fautanu because that would give you insurance. You have five guys that if you keep them healthy that are good. Do you want that sixth man who could be insurance in case your two bookend, veteran, 33-year-old tackles that have injury issues get hurt? And [Alijah] VeraTucker has had injury issues. You get a sixth man as an insurance policy with Aaron Rodgers at 40 years of age coming off an Achilles.”