HUGGING IT OUT: North Carolina defense end Quinton Coples, drafted No. 16 by the Jets, hugs commissioner Roger Goodell after being picked last night.
When North Carolina defensive end Quinton Coples visited the Jets a week before the NFL Draft, coach Rex Ryan made him a promise.
“I knew Coach Rex Ryan promised me if it got to that pick and I was still there, he was definitely going to take me,” Coples said last night. “I’m just thankful that he was a man of his word.”
Ryan indeed lived up to his word when the Jets selected Coples with the 16th pick of the first round last night. The Jets feel they have landed a pass-rushing defensive end with great size and speed to give their defense a boost.
Unlike four years ago when the Jets unsuccessfully converted Vernon Gholston from defensive end to linebacker, the team will keep Coples as a down lineman. He will play the 5-technique (lining up on the tackle’s shoulder) in Ryan’s defense.
“What he does is put his hand in the dirt and rush the passer and he’s very athletic for a big man,” Ryan said. “This guy’s 6-foot-6, prototypical pass rush size. This guy can run. It’s unusual to get a guy this athletic.”
Coples had 24 sacks as a Tar Heel, playing both defensive end and defensive tackle. He had a monstrous junior season, with 59 tackles and 10 sacks as a tackle. That led to lofty expectations entering last year. His production slipped (55 tackles, 7 1/2 sacks) when he moved back to defensive end, but there were strange circumstances at North Carolina.
An agent scandal led to the firing of head coach Butch Davis just before the season started. The unrest in the program created difficult circumstances for Coples. He also had to adjust to playing on the left side after playing on the right as a junior.
“It’s unbelievable,” Coples said of getting drafted after the drama of the last two years. “The perseverance that it took to make it through the situation that was going on at Carolina and to get rewarded and becoming a Jet is just unbelievable.”
The Jets began falling in love with Coples at the Senior Bowl in January where he had a monster week. Ryan traveled to his pro day in Chapel Hill, N.C., and put Coples through linebacker drills, something Coples was unprepared for. Ryan also lined up against Coples as a blocker at one point.
“I definitely could tell that he had some kind of feeling about me and what he could do with me,” Coples said.
Coples was the second pass rusher selected in the draft. The Jets chose to take Coples over South Carolina’s Melvin Ingram, Syracuse’s Chandler Jones and Illinois’ Whitney Mercilus. All of those players would have been projections to outside linebacker similar to Gholston.
It is the second straight year the Jets used their first-round pick on a defensive end. They selected Muhammad Wilkerson last season and he was an immediate starter. Wilkerson actually played a role in the selection of Coples, as the two were teammates at Hargrave Military Academy in Virginia.
Jets general manager Mike Tannenbaum asked Wilkerson about Coples.
“He’s a great teammate and he’s a better player than me,” Wilkerson said according to Tannenbaum.
Several mock drafts had Coples going in the top 10 of the draft. The Jets said he was the highest-rated player left on their board when their pick came up.
“We felt really good about the value of getting Quinton,” Tannenbaum said.
Tannenbaum said the Jets fielded some calls and made some calls about trading their pick during a first round filled with movement. Ultimately, though, Tannenbaum decided to stand pat and select Coples.