We have reached Mock Draft season.
ESPN guru Mel Kiper Jr. , and he has the Jets taking Ohio State cornerback Marshon Lattimore with the No. 6 overall pick. Lattimore is a highly regarded player, but there are some questions about him because he only started inജ college for one season.
The more interesting part of Kiper’s projection is he has the Jets passing on Clemson quarterback Deshaun Watson. The question aboutꦗ the Jets is going to be the usual: Will they draf☂t a quarterback? They took Christian Hackenberg last year in the second round, but he did not play at all in his rookie season.
“You have a coach [Todd Bowles] that has to win,” Kiper said on a conference call Thursday. “You already drafted Hackenberg in the second round. You could say, ‘Well, he didn’t show anything.’ But who does when you don’t play, and you had the struggles late in your [college] career? You’ve got to kind of recreate what we saw as a freshman under Bill O’Brien [at Penn State]. So all of a sudden, do you give up on a quarterback you drafted just because as a rookie he didn’t play? I don’t believe that.”
K🧔iper has the 49ers taking North Carolina quarterback Mitch Trubisky, the highest-rated quarterback, at No. 2, which would take him out of the equation for the Jets.
“I don’t think Trubisky will be there at six,” Kiper said. “I think Watson certainly could. And if he is, sure, he’d be under consideration. But when you need to win, you’ve got to get a player that can be a hole-filler. And Marshon Lattimore could. Or Mike Williams, the wide receiver from Clemson, would be a great addition. I think there are going to be too many players that fill holes — that are impact players hopefully as rookies — over a quarterback, when you drafted one in the second round last year.”
There is no doubt the Jets could use a cornerback. Darrelleꦦ Revis is expected either to be cut or moved to safety. Could Lattimore fill that void?
“I think when you look at Lattimore, every time you watched him, you saw a guy who could be a shutdown corner,” Kiper said. “He was able to elevate his game. He just jumped out ꧋at you. I’m not saying he’s going to be Darrelle Revis 🦩in his prime or Richard Sherman or all that, but he’s got a chance to be one heck of a corner. Patrick Peterson, I loved him coming out of LSU … I see a similar skill set. I see a similar ability to what I saw in Peterson coming out of LSU, that he can be that lockdown guy.”
The Jets have not done very well taking cornerbacks in the first round since Revis in 2007. They se🔯lected Kyle Wilson in 2010 and Dee Milliner in 2013, and neither became a reliable starter.
Kiper said Lattimore stands out in a deep cornerback draft. ꦐKiper has him rated as the 10th-best prospect in t🥀he draft.
“The other corners I thought were good, there were some things that concerned you maybe just a bit to say, ‘Are they going to be super-elite?’” Kiper said. “They’re going to be good, but are they going to be in that elite category? I think the one that has a chance to be one of the top three corners in the league is Lattimore. I really think he has a higher ceiling than any of the other corners. That’s why I have him as far as grade at No. 10 and have him going to the Jets at No. 6.”