About the only thing Jets general manager John Idzik is willing to admit about next week’s NFL Draft is that it is next week.
The Jets held their annual predraft press conference at the Florham Park Kremlin on Wednesday, and Idzik was barely willing to admit it was raining outside. Flanked by senior director of college scouting Terry Bradway and director of college scouting Jeff Bauer, who both looked scared to speak, Idzik delivered 30 minutes of non-answers.
The Jets have a whopping 12 picks in this year’s draft. Still, Idzik was unwilling to say the Jets will add a wide receiver, a position they desperately need help at, in the draft.
“I wouldn’t say it’s safe to say anything at this point,” Idzik said. “We’re going to take the draft one pick at a time and add the best players.”
You get the idea.
The biggest piece of news the Jets revealed was they made their draft room larger and installed some new technology in it. Now we know where all that extra cap space is going at least.
Idzik, Bradway and Bauer did not mention one player’s name during the press conference. The only name dropping was of Jets employees as Idzik thanked them for their work during the draft process.
Bradway said the Jets have visited 263 different colleges, interviewed 635 players, attended 115 pro days, 120 college games and written up 1,372 reports.
“We probably have more draftable players on our board than we’ve had in a few years, and with 12 picks I think that’s going to be pretty good,” Bradway said.
The 12 picks gives Idzik plenty of ammunition if he wants to move around in this draft.
“We’ll go in open-minded,” Idzik said. “The nice thing about having 12 picks is it does give you flexibility, some maneuverability within the draft. If you have fewer picks, I guess you’re less apt to do that.
“In a given round, if you have a group of players that you think are fairly equitable that you like and you feel like you may be able to trade down and still be able to get someone within that group, you may do it. On the flip side, if there are only one or two players at that stage of the draft that you really covet and he may not get to your pick, you may entertain trading up.”
The Jets may have to be aggressive in the first round to get the player they want. Ravens general manager Ozzie Newsome said Wednesday he is fielding a lot of calls from teams looking to move into the 17th spot, one ahead of the Jets. That could be teams trying to grab a wide receiver before the Jets take one at 18.
It seems highly unlikely the Jets would take a quarterback in the first round after drafting Geno Smith a year ago and signing Michael Vick this offseason, but Idzik would not rule it out.
“We remain open-minded,” he said. “We’re going to evaluate each pick, the players that are available to us at that pick, and we’ll pick who we feel is the best player.”
When Bradway was asked to give his overall assessment of the quarterback class in this draft without getting into specific players he looked so nervous it was as if he was asked to reveal his social security number and did not answer the question.
It was that kind of day at One Jets Drive.