These 2022 NFL draft prospects are tailor-made for New York Jets general manager Joe Douglas
Over the past week, I’ve been delving into the drafting tendencies we’ve seen from New York Jets general manager Joe Douglas. We’ve learned a lot about how much he values athleticism, age, and leadership.
It’s time to bring everything together and identify the 2022 NFL draft prospects who are the most perfect matches for Douglas’ tendencies.
Here are Douglas’ two strongest tendencies over his first two drafts:
- Team captains: Of Douglas’ 19 draft picks from 2020-21, ten of them were team captains in college (52.6%). That’s an extremely high rate; for reference, just 29.0% of the top-200 ranked prospects in the 2022 draft class (rankings via NFL Mock Draft Database) were team captains.
- Top-tier athletes: Douglas drafted seven players with a Relative Athletic Score (RAS)* of 9.0+ from 2020-21, tying for the most in the NFL over that span.
*RAS is a 0-to-10 rating that takes into account a player’s performance in various testing drills relative to their height, weight, and position. When multiplied by 10, the player’s RAS indicates where their athleticism ranks all-time among players at his position; i.e., a 9.0 RAS ranks at the 90th percentile.
I examined all prospects on the consensus big board at NFL Mock Draft Database and identified the non-quarterbacks who met both of the following two criteria:
- RAS of 9.0+
- Was a team captain in college
Without further ado, these are the 2022 NFL draft’s tailor-made “Joe Douglas guys”.
| Board Rank | Player | Pos. | School | RAS | Captain? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Aidan Hutchinson | EDGE | Michigan | 9.88 | Yes |
| 7 | Kyle Hamilton | S | Notre Dame | 9.33 | Yes |
| 14 | Jordan Davis | DT | Georgia | 10.00 | Yes |
| 20 | Devin Lloyd | LB | Utah | 9.59 | Yes |
| 28 | Zion Johnson | IOL | Boston College | 9.75 | Yes |
| 36 | Breece Hall | RB | Iowa State | 9.96 | Yes |
| 43 | Travis Jones | DT | Connecticut | 9.40 | Yes |
| 52 | Jaquan Brisker | S | Penn State | 9.14 | Yes |
| 65 | Chad Muma | LB | Wyoming | 9.77 | Yes |
| 75 | Alec Pierce | WR | Cincinnati | 9.82 | Yes |
| 76 | Troy Andersen | LB | Montana State | 10.00 | Yes |
| 99 | Josh Paschal | EDGE | Kentucky | 9.70 | Yes |
| 100 | Damone Clark | LB | LSU | 9.87 | Yes |
| 120 | Zamir White | RB | Georgia | 9.82 | Yes |
| 123 | Zyon McCollum | CB | Sam Houston State | 10.00 | Yes |
| 136 | Charlie Kolar | TE | Iowa State | 9.12 | Yes |
| 142 | Pierre Strong Jr. | RB | South Dakota State | 9.34 | Yes |
| 156 | Bo Melton | WR | Rutgers | 9.25 | Yes |
| 161 | Tycen Anderson | S | Toledo | 9.49 | Yes |
| 170 | Chris Paul | IOL | Tulsa | 9.45 | Yes |
| 174 | Daniel Bellinger | TE | San Diego State | 9.67 | Yes |
| 175 | Thomas Booker | DT | Stanford | 9.88 | Yes |
| 183 | Matt Waletzko | OT | North Dakota | 9.95 | Yes |
| 206 | Mike Rose | LB | Iowa State | 9.06 | Yes |
| 209 | Malcolm Rodriguez | LB | Oklahoma State | 9.27 | Yes |
| 233 | Nick Zakelj | OT | Fordham | 9.83 | Yes |
| 247 | Micah McFadden | LB | Indiana | 9.47 | Yes |
| 271 | Matt Hanningsen | DT | Wisconsin | 9.33 | Yes |
| 332 | Baylon Spector | LB | Clemson | 9.13 | Yes |
| 333 | Ryan Van Denmark | OT | Connecticut | 9.44 | Yes |
| 370 | Andrew Ogletree | TE | Youngstown State | 9.35 | Yes |
| 410 | Bryant Koback | RB | Toledo | 9.72 | Yes |
| 459 | Jack Koerner | S | Iowa | 9.19 | Yes |
| 483 | Jason Poe | IOL | Mercer | 9.47 | Yes |
| 516 | Tony Adams | S | Illinois | 9.74 | Yes |
| 597 | Michael Griffin II | S | South Dakota State | 9.11 | Yes |
Could Georgia defensive tackle Jordan Davis or Utah linebacker Devin Lloyd be higher on the Jets’ board than many think?
Among players who have been frequently mentioned as options for the Jets with one of their two top-10 picks in the first round, only Michigan edge defender Aidan Hutchinson and Notre Dame safety Kyle Hamilton qualified for the list.
While the list doesn’t feature many players who the Jets might consider with one of their first-round selections, it features plenty of under-the-radar names to watch closely beyond the first round.
Connecticut defensive tackle Travis Jones, Penn State safety Jaquan Brisker, and Wyoming linebacker Chad Muma are three players to watch on the second day of the draft. Don’t overlook Montana State linebacker Troy Andersen or Cincinnati wide receiver Alec Pierce.
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Among well-known prospects, the two players who most narrowly missed the cut were Ohio State wide receiver Chris Olave and Iowa center Tyler Linderbaum. Both players were team captains but posted RAS marks of 8.68 and 8.83, respectively.
Keep in mind that some players did not complete enough testing drills to qualify for a RAS, so there are a few prospects not listed above who may have qualified if they did participate in a sufficient amount of testing.
Alabama tackle Evan Neal, USC wide receiver Drake London, and Georgia linebacker Nakobe Dean are the highest-ranked prospects who were team captains but did not test enough to earn a RAS.
It will be interesting to see whether Douglas continues to uphold the trends he showcased over his first two drafts or if he shows some malleability and simply tosses these tendencies out the window.
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Interesting analysis. Where do some of the more common names mentioned fall according to this analysis e.g. Sauce, Thibodeaux, Travon Walker, Jameson Williams, Garrett Wilson, etc? Do you think JD ends up not taking many of the people that are being mocked because of the trend?
All of those guys have good athleticism (although Sauce didn’t test enough so we don’t know his exact number) but just weren’t team captains. Obviously it’s not a huge deal and that’s just nit-picking. This list was just identify some of the players who were flat-out perfect Joe Douglas matches.
In fact, Douglas has only drafted two players who had both a 9.0+ RAS and were a team captain. Typically he prefers drafting one or the other. Early in the draft, he favors high-level athletes who usually aren’t captains, and later in the draft, he’s tended to value athleticism less and leadership more.
So, I don’t think these trends eliminate any of the top prospects in this class since the majority of them have excellent athleticism. Wilson is one player who I’m a tad skeptical of, since his 7.77 RAS is below what Douglas usually targets in his R1-R3 picks. He has yet to take a player in R1-R3 with a RAS lower than Elijah Moore’s 8.68, and Moore is his only R1-R3 pick below a 9.00. So Wilson might not be quite as incredible of an athlete as Douglas prefers in R1. But other than that, Thibodeaux, Walker, Gardner, and Williams all seem to be athletic enough to fit Douglas’ trends so far. (Williams doesn’t have a RAS either but it seems likely he would have had a great one if he were healthy enough to test).
I’m tired of mock drafts, let’s get this show on the road already! Good article. Can’t wait to see which of these guys become Jets.
Based on this list, I can see Douglas picking up additional sixth round picks. Very impressed on what JD did last year in the sixth. Looking at Alec Pierce WR at 38, new guy Matt Waletzko OT in the fifth. Hold on to this list and check it against the draft and UNDFA’s
Fascinating !!! So many players on this list who will be available to us especially in rounds 2-5. I’ve bern coming around to the idea of Sauce at 4 Jermaine Johnson at 10 – if he’s there and taking 2 wr later.
A Sauce/EDGE combo at 4/10 is definitely quite enticing; obviously, it just puts a lot of pressure on them to nail WR with a later pick (or multiple picks for that matter). Since this WR class has stronger depth than top-end talent I could possibly see them taking this route instead forcing the need-based pick in the top 10. (If they personally see WR as a reach at 10)
It’s a perfect storm. So many picks. So many needs. So many options. We have to help Zach more but on the other hand a defense that could actually get off the field on occasion would help him. The line is already better the Tight ends are going to be huge and overall the team is already quite a bit better. I have a couple other thoughts. The first five picks have to be impact picks this year. They have to be five players that help us THIS year. One other thought I had was that if we do trade down with Pittsburgh we give them 10 for 20 and Diontae Johnson – that solves the receiver issue and we still have two first round picks .
I agree that they need some instant-impact guys. Which is why I could potentially see Douglas maybe lean a little bit toward older/higher-floor players rather than his usual tendency of younger/higher-ceiling players. Particularly in the later rounds.
I mentioned in another post that if Philly has thier sights set on someone high, with the depth in this draft I might consider trading #4 to Philly for #s 15 and 18 giving us 10, 15, 18.
We could easily get, in no particular order Drake London wr, Devonte Wyatt dl and Trent McDuffie cb in round 1.
round 2 cb Kaaor Elam and S Lewis Cine.
rounds 3/4 Chad Muma LB, Darrien Beaver LB,
round 5 Jerome Ford rb, DJ Davidson DT