No draft prospect comes to the NFL as a finished product. To give them the best chance to succeed, each coaching staff around the league must understand the strengths and weaknesses of their incoming prospects.
With that in mind, here is the primary area where each New York Jets rookie needs to improve at the professional level. By understanding these holes in their young players’ games, the Jets’ coaching staff can build a development plan that can help them prepare for the next level.
EDGE David Bailey
On paper, it is hard to poke any holes in David Bailey’s draft profile.
Not only was Bailey the nation’s most disruptive pass rusher in 2025, but even his stats against the run were formidable. Bailey earned an 81.5 run defense grade at Pro Football Focus, placing 16th among the 201 FBS edge rushers with at least 200 snaps against the run.
On film, though, Bailey’s run defense appears more dubious than his stats let on.
Bailey made plenty of splashy run stops on the basis of his pure physical advantages over collegiate competition, but his process and technique against the run were questionable. Once his physical advantages become smaller against NFL competition, his fundamentals will be exposed if he does not improve them.
The Jets’ coaching staff needs to work with Bailey on playing with more discipline, patience, and power against the run.
TE Kenyon Sadiq
For a first-round tight end, Kenyon Sadiq was not quite as productive in college as you’d like to see.
In his 2025 junior season, Sadiq caught 51 passes for 560 yards and eight touchdowns. He had just 891 career receiving yards, less than half the career totals of recent first-round tight ends Brock Bowers (2,538) and Tyler Warren (1,839). Colston Loveland (1,466) also has him beat by a wide margin.
Sadiq’s lackluster production was partially due to his drop-proneness. He had a career drop rate of 9.0% at Oregon. In 2025, he dropped six passes and had a 10.5% drop rate.
If Sadiq is going to live up to his status as the 16th overall pick, he needs to prove himself worthy of a high target volume. That won’t happen if he has a case of the dropsies.
To earn the trust of his quarterbacks and coaches, Sadiq must eliminate easy drops from his game. Ideally, this development happens early in his rookie year, because if he starts his career with a string of bad drops, the Jets may become hesitant to allow his pass-game role to expand.
WR Omar Cooper Jr.
For a receiver chosen 30th overall, Omar Cooper Jr. brings a lot of strengths to the table. He is extremely elusive, can separate down the field, and rarely drops passes.
Cooper has plenty of high-level traits, but he can struggle with some of the finer points of the position, which will limit his overall production ceiling until he figures those issues out.
One of those weaknesses is his reliability in the middle of the field. While Cooper has displayed tremendous hands on deep passes, he must become more dependable on intermediate targets.
Over the last two seasons, on intermediate targets (10-19 air yards), Cooper caught just 3 of 9 contested targets (33.3%) and had an 11.1% drop rate (3 drops, 24 receptions).
Intermediate passes are the bread-and-butter of most NFL offenses in today’s game. These are the passes that keep drives moving. For Cooper to be a trustworthy WR2 beside Garrett Wilson from down to down, rather than a mere gadget player, he must show the coaches that he can be counted on to secure throws in traffic over the middle.
CB D’Angelo Ponds
Ponds did it all at Indiana. He didn’t allow touchdowns (0 in 2025, 1 over last two seasons), he took the ball away (7 career INTs), he didn’t commit penalties (1 in 2025), he didn’t miss tackles (2 in 2025), and he provided strong run support (86.0 run defense grade in 2025).
He was only drafted as late as he was because of his frame. At 5-foot-8⅝ and 182 pounds with 29⅜-inch arms (2nd percentile among CBs), he is one of the smallest corners you will see in the NFL.
So, as great as Ponds was in college, the mystery is how any of his skills will hold up against bigger, faster, more talented receivers at the pro level. Until we see him compete against NFL competition on a routine basis, it is hard to say what Ponds will struggle with in the pros.
The one area of concern is Ponds’ lack of experience in the slot.
Due to his size and the makeup of the Jets’ depth chart, there seems to be a good chance that Ponds will start out as a slot corner for New York. However, Ponds only played 28 snaps in the slot across his entire college career, so it’s something that he essentially has no experience with.
To give himself the fastest track to playing time in his rookie year, Ponds will have to master the slot position this summer.
DT Darrell Jackson Jr.
The Jets are confident in Darrell Jackson Jr.’s skills against the run. But to become more than just a situational run-stuffing nose tackle in the NFL, he will have to improve his pass rushing.
Jackson showed potential as a pass rusher back in 2024, when he tied for 18th among FBS defensive tackles with 30 total pressures. Concerningly, though, Jackson declined greatly as a pass rusher in 2025, dropping to 16 total pressures despite playing six more pass-rush snaps.
The Jets need to help Jackson rediscover the pass-rush ability he showed in 2024. If he can tap back into that production, he could become a valuable two-way player in the NFL.
QB Cade Klubnik
Cade Klubnik has a multitude of issues to address after a nightmare 2025 season. If he had to pick one to focus on, though, it would have to be his deep passing.
Klubnik’s downfield prowess was the backbone of his breakout 2024 season. He completed 35 of 78 deep passes (44.9%) for 1,240 yards, 16 touchdowns, and three interceptions. The 35 deep completions ranked third in the country, right between future first-round picks Jaxson Dart (37) and Cam Ward (34).
In 2025, though, Klubnik declined to 17 deep completions on 49 attempts (34.7%) for 535 yards, nine touchdowns, and three interceptions.
Even if Klubnik continues struggling in every other problem area, he can be a useful NFL backup simply by recapturing the deep production that he showcased in 2024. Without that in his game, he would have a very long way to go to become a rosterable NFL quarterback.
G Anez Cooper
For a sixth-round guard, Anez Cooper offers a solid reputation in pass protection. This past season, his 78.9 pass-blocking grade at Pro Football Focus ranked 22nd among 119 Power Four guards with at least 300 pass-blocking snaps.
In the run game, though, Cooper was mediocre by NFL-prospect standards, posting a 67.4 run-blocking grade at PFF. He was particularly poor on zone concepts, earning a 58.8 zone-blocking grade, which ranked 86th among the 105 Power Four guards with at least 250 run-blocking snaps.
Considering that Cooper ran a 5.52 in the forty, it is not surprising that he struggled as a zone blocker. Zone-blocking concepts often require swift lateral movement skills from the offensive linemen.
Cooper can still be a useful NFL backup on the basis of sturdy pass-blocking in a phone booth and strong downhill run blocking. But he may not be capable of developing into a starter if he cannot improve his athleticism or at least discover some tricks to become a semi-competent zone blocker in spite of his athletic deficiencies (which is possible, but difficult).
S VJ Payne
With 4.40 speed and a 9.74 Relative Athletic Score, the Jets are probably hoping that VJ Payne can become a special teams contributor. Defensively, though, he needs plenty of work before he can be considered a viable option.
Payne missed 32 tackles across four seasons at Kansas State, including eight this past season. His tackling is especially poor against the run; seven of his eight missed tackles were in that phase.
Tackling will be the main focus for the Jets’ coaches when working with Payne this summer. He cannot be trusted defensively until he can wrap up consistently, and it will be difficult for him to even make an impact on special teams if he cannot finish plays.
Speed raises an NFL defender’s ceiling, but it arguably lowers their floor, too. The more speed that a player must harness, the more challenging it is to break down and wrap up. Having 4.40 speed could take a safety out of the play in a situation where another safety may be somewhat late to arrive, but at least keeps the ball carrier in front of them.
You need your safeties to be a dependable last line of defense. The Jets will have to work on that with Payne if he wants to become a seventh-round steal.
