The Jets took a player coach Rex Ryan is very familiar with in the sixth round of the NFL Draft on Saturday — quarterback Tajh Boyd of Clemson.
Ryan’s son, Seth, is a wide receiver at Clemson and played with Boyd last year. The Jets coach traveled to two games and watched the rest and knows Boyd well. The Jets had a long meeting with Boyd at the Senior Bowl and stayed on top of him throughout the recruiting process. The Jets traveled to Clemson last month to work Boyd out.
Boyd is a 6-foot, 222-pounder. He completed 283-of-413 passes for 3,851 yards with 34 touchdown and 11 interceptions and ran for 400 yards and 10 touchdowns.
Ryan admitted it was his pick and said the Jets definitely had inside knowledge on Boyd.
“We probably had more insight to his character with my son being there,” Ryan said. “My son had a thing with his leadership. He said he was the leader of that program as far as a player is concerned. … He said if Tajh would have called a meeting at 2 a.m. the entire team would have been there.”
Boyd will give Matt Simms competition for the third quarterback spot this year and the Jets will hope he develops.
Jets general manager John Idzik surprised some people by using all 12 of the team’s draft picks, including nine Saturday, instead of packaging them in a trade to move up. Idzik said there were some chances to trade.
“As you get closer to your pick, your alternatives you have there versus moving, we felt very good about the players we selected,” Idzik said. “Did we have opportunities? Yeah, we had opportunities. We felt like the players we selected, it was not worth moving out of that pick. We’d rather have them as a Jet.”
The Jets bolstered their offensive line in the fourth round by taking Dakota Dozier out of Furman. He played tackle for four years in college, but will move inside to guard in the NFL.
“I’ve really enjoyed it,” Dozier said of the move. “My O-line coach at Furman, Coach [Scott] Smouse, he made us learn all assignments at all of the positions not just tackle, so I already knew all of the guard stuff and was able to play our last two playoff games at guard. That was really exciting. Then going out [at the] East-West [Game] playing guard as well. I really enjoyed the opportunity. I showed that I could do that as well. I’m just ready to come in and play wherever it is. I’m very excited to be a Jet.”