Brian Costello

Brian Costello

NFL

Jets’ GM plays it much straighter than predecessor

Just a few minutes after making their ninth selection of the day and 12th pick in the draft Saturday, the Jets brass sat down for a press conference armed with a list of their newest players.

“It’s like a scorecard,” longtime Jets executive Terry Bradway joked to coach Rex Ryan.

“It’s like, ‘Oh yeah, we drafted that kid,’ ” Ryan joked back.

Call it the Jets’ Draft Day Dozen.

They took players from big schools, small schools, players from 5-foot-9 to 6-foot-5, a player from a two-stoplight town and a 26-year-old who spent two years in Sweden on a Mormon mission.

It’s a diverse group, and the Jets hope it is the foundation of their future.

The pressure was on general manager John Idzik in his second draft with the Jets. He had compiled 12 picks and in a mild surprise, ended up using every one of them.

His predecessor was known as “Trader Mike” for all the moves he made. Idzik is “Stand Pat John.”

It wasn’t that Idzik did not attempt to make trades. The Jets tried to move up in the second round to get wide receiver Marqise Lee and made calls about moving up in other rounds. But Idzik is a bargain hunter; he has shown that in free agency and in the draft. He was not going to surrender picks without a premium return.

“We’re always going to be about developing alternatives,” Idzik said. “So, yes, there will be multiple conversations and you’ll say, ‘Hey, can we package some deals up and move up, perhaps?’

“Did we do that? Yes, we did that. You weigh that vs. what you think is going to come to your pick, and ultimately when we had a class of players surrounding each one of our picks, we felt very comfortable. And then ultimately when we were on the clock and we knew that we could select our guy, that we were very comfortable with that.”

So how did he do? Check back in a few years and we’ll let you know. There is no way to know which players will pan out and which will be flops. The last time the Jets drafted 12 players was 1998, when Bill Parcells was making the picks and Jason Fabini was the only one who became a starter.

We won’t know if Calvin Pryor, Jace Amaro and the rest will work out until we see them on the field, and even then, it takes a few years to have any certainty.

But Idzik addressed the glaring holes on this team in a big way, and that is a positive. He drafted three wide receivers and two cornerbacks — the two positions that needed the most help. He added depth on the offensive line and at linebacker and quarterback.

Idzik preaches competition and he provided some fuel for that competition in the draft. The wide receiver room will be particularly fascinating to watch — after Eric Decker and Jeremy Kerley, it’s going to be a fight for the other spots on the roster. Idzik took two receivers in the fourth round Saturday (Jalen Saunders and Shaq Evans) and another in the sixth (Quincy Enunwa). They will be competing with veterans Stephen Hill, David Nelson, Clyde Gates and others for those roster spots.

This is what the Jets need at wide receiver and other positions. The team has suffered from a talent deficit in recent years, not only at the top of the roster but throughout it. Former general manager Mike Tannenbaum went for it in 2009, ’10 and ’11 when he felt the team was close to a Super Bowl.

It’s hard to blame him for the strategy. It almost worked.

But Tannenbaum’s aggressiveness led to fewer picks in the draft and the roster became top-heavy with a few high-paid stars and no middle class. Only one player remains on the Jets roster from the 2008, 2009 and 2010 drafts combined — cornerback Kyle Wilson, who probably won’t be a Jet at this time next year.

In this way, Idzik is the anti-Tannenbaum. All seven players Idzik drafted in 2013 made the team last year and five became starters. This year he has 12 players. It seems unlikely all will make it, but Idzik is sticking to his vision. He is filling the Jets’ locker room with players he and the Jets scouts think are talented.

The verdict on whether they picked the right players won’t be in for a while. Right now, Jets fans have to have faith in Idizk … and start learning all those new names.