Jets — 2026 Draft Recap

The Jets used the second overall pick on the guy who just led the entire country in sacks. Then they doubled down with two more first-rounders on the other side of the ball. Eight picks. Three first-rounders. A defense-led reset — with the most important swing landing on Day 3.

Start at pick two. David Bailey, Texas Tech edge, finished his college career with 14.5 sacks and 19.5 tackles for loss — first nationally in sacks, second in tackles for loss. Not the Big 12. The country. His Relative Athletic Score — a zero-to-ten grade comparing combine and pro-day testing to every player at the position since 1987 — came back at 9.65. Top four percent of edge defenders ever tested. So the Jets got the most productive pass rusher in college football, who also happens to be a top-five-percent athlete, at pick two. The motivator writes itself: in 2025 this defense allowed plus 137.33 expected points through the air and generated just 26 sacks across 17 games. You don't fix that with scheme. You fix it with a guy who lived in the backfield in the Big 12.

The passing game got the next two first-rounders, and the volume of investment matters: in 2025 the Jets' passing offense posted minus 100.03 expected points added and surrendered 60 sacks. They needed weapons. At 16, Kenyon Sadiq, Oregon tight end — 51 catches, 560 yards, 8 touchdowns (7th in the Big Ten), a plus 0.53 per-play predicted points added, and a 9.62 Relative Athletic Score that lands in the top four percent of tight ends ever measured. At 30, Omar Cooper Jr. out of Indiana: 70 catches, 961 yards, 13 touchdowns — 2nd in the Big Ten in receiving scores, 5th nationally. His per-play predicted points added of plus 0.73 is genuinely loud: elite efficiency on real volume in a power conference. The 9.15 Relative Athletic Score puts him in the top nine percent of receivers ever tested. Not a workout warrior with thin tape — a top-five-in-the-country touchdown producer who smashed the combine. Aaron Glenn shrugged at the positional overlap: two tight ends can play, three tight ends can play. The Jets are stacking pass-catchers and letting them sort it out.

Then came the Day 3 swing that might quietly be the most important pick in the class. Round 4, pick 110: Cade Klubnik, Clemson. A three-year starter, 257-of-392 for 2,943 yards, 16 touchdowns to 6 interceptions, plus 97.56 total predicted points added in the ACC. Glenn was direct: they had good grades on Klubnik entering the year, he got hurt early, played hurt through a down Clemson season, and a combine interview sparked a private campus workout. Glenn called the room natural. Said there was a connection. He also wouldn't cap the room behind Geno Smith — competition only. Klubnik's 7.82 Relative Athletic Score is solid, not freaky. The bet is on starts, experience, and a player better than his 2025 box score.

The rest of the defensive haul fills out the back end. Round 2, pick 50: D'Angelo Ponds, Indiana corner, tied for the Big Ten lead in pass breakups with 10 — 20th nationally — and an 8.09 Relative Athletic Score. A corner who plays the ball, dropped into a defense that allowed 36 passing touchdowns. Round 4, pick 103: Darrell Jackson Jr., Florida State, interior bulk against a run defense that surrendered 2,396 rushing yards and 20 rushing touchdowns. Then Round 7, pick 228: VJ Payne, Kansas State safety, whose 9.74 Relative Athletic Score is the highest number in this entire class — top three percent of strong safeties ever measured. Seventh-round dart, elite athletic floor.

The offensive line got one late investment: Round 6, pick 188, Anez Cooper, Miami guard, joining a unit that surrendered 60 sacks and absorbed 116 quarterback hits in 2025. A developmental body for a room that needed bodies.

Pick of the draft is Bailey. You can argue Cooper Jr., who profiles as the highest-floor receiver in this class on production-plus-testing. You can argue Sadiq, whose tight end athletic profile is genuinely rare. Bailey wins on positional scarcity and the size of the hole. Edge rushers who lead the nation in sacks while testing in the top four percent athletically do not exist on the board at pick two — they go first overall. The Jets generated 26 sacks across 17 games last year. One player isn't supposed to move that number. Bailey might.

The question for 2026 is whether the pass rush actually arrives. The Jets spent their highest pick and a chunk of their defensive capital on getting after the quarterback and taking the ball away — this defense generated just 3 takeaways across 17 games in 2025, which is functionally broken. If Bailey is who the tape and testing say he is, and if Ponds plays the ball the way he did at Indiana, the math on this pass defense looks completely different by November. The bigger stress test is the offensive line. One Day 3 guard against 60 sacks allowed is not a real answer — and whoever's playing quarterback, Geno Smith, Klubnik, or someone Mougey adds before camp, is going to feel it.