Why NFL Executives say the New York Jets won the NFL Draft | 4 Downs
League insiders sound off on their favorite picks, and the teams whose draft hauls moved the needle the most.
The NFL Draft is over, and we’re probably at least two seasons from knowing which team mined the best value from a draft that nobody seemed to want any part of.
“Everyone won the draft,” one veteran scout deadpanned, when asked by Between The Hashmarks which teams he thought helped themselves most. “You can’t effectively judge a draft until at least two to four seasons later.”
That’s unequivocally true.
However, not every general manager and not every head coach has two to four seasons of patience from their owner; not every franchise entered this past draft weekend with the same mission statement in mind.
After all, there are not 32 teams chasing a Super Bowl victory each season.
Some teams are in the infancy of their rebuild, others are scouring for the quarterback they hope leads them to the Promised Land, while some teams are in fact throwing every last chip into a Lombardi or Bust pursuit. Still other front offices and coaching staffs are in the young talent accumulation phase, hoping that a window pops open in the next couple of years.
The most significant milemarker of the NFL offseason is fading into the horizon through the rearview mirror with minicamps, training camp, and the 2026 season rapidly approaching in the distance.
So, for this column, we surveyed over a half dozen scouts, executives, and coaches on their opinions of which teams moved the needle the most during this draft. Both for the present and the trajectory of their franchise.
First Down: Darren Mougey Builds Out the Jets’ Blueprint
It’s wholly obvious that general manager Darren Mougey and staff entered this draft with as clear a vision as the New York Jets have had as a franchise in decades.
Whatever debate there was in the weeks leading up to draft night, about whether to select arguably the premier defensive player in this class, Ohio State EDGE/LB Arvell Reese or the premier pure pass rusher, Texas Tech’s David Bailey, Mougey made a decisive decision that set the tone for the weekend.
Bailey at No. 2, genuine after the catch pass-catching weapon, Kenyon Sadiq at tight end at No. 16, and trading back into the first round to snag big-bodied Indiana wide receiver Omar Cooper without relinquishing any of the draft capital from New York’s stockpile in 2027, which includes three first-round picks, was a genuine franchise-altering masterstroke.
It was also only the beginning.
No team was mentioned more in our conversations with league executives on the draft’s biggest winners, than the Jets, who also came away with a developmental quarterback, depth in the trenches, and competition in a cornerback room that is in the midst of a complete overhaul.
“The Jets,” one rival AFC Scouting Director tells Between The Hashmarks, was the team that helped itself the most. “Darren grabbed the best pass rusher, the best tight end, a starting wide receiver, and the best nickel cornerback in this class. That was just the first two days.”
Echoed a long-time AFC South scout, “The Jets had a really solid class.”
In a lot of ways, the two people who will benefit from this class the most, are head coach Aaron Glenn and whichever of the young quarterbacks the Jets select at the top of the first round next spring, when they have three first-round picks at their disposal.
New York’s war chest of draft capital all but guarantees the passer who is the apple of their eye begins his NFL career in The Big Apple.
This will be a critical season for Glenn, to prove to Mougey and owner Woody Johnson that he’s worth keeping around to coach the Jets’ next quarterback.
That’s where Bailey, and his 14.5 sacks and 73 pressures last season in Lubbock, enters the chat, along with cornerback D’Angelo Ponds, whose physicality and attitude set the tone for the Hoosiers’ National Championship run last season. Ponds arrives in Florham Park after holding quarterbacks to a ridiculously low 42 passer rating and allowing just 18 completions in 346 snaps in pass coverage.
One NFC Executive suggests Ponds is the best player that the Jets added during the draft.
But, the Jets also added a lottery ticket to offensive coordinator Frank Reich’s quarterback room, and if the season goes off the rails before Thanksgiving, New York will have the benefit of evaluating just how seriously they need to take investing a more significant resource in a quarterback next spring.
“Klubnik is a sneaky good pick,” the Scouting Director says. “He has starting caliber talent.”
Few are expecting Klubnik, who began the 2025 season with legitimate first-round buzz, to make a genuine push to become the Jets’ franchise quarterback of the future, but if he does, it would be one of the better value selections in any draft in recent memory.
At 6-foot-2 and 210 pounds, Klubnik completed 65.6 percent of his passes last season for 2,943 yards with 16 touchdowns to six interceptions, but concerns about his footwork, pocket presence, and consistency pushed him down draft boards … until the Jets moved up in the fourth round to stop his slide.
Whatever Klubnik turns into is almost a bonus, given the talent that Mougey added during this draft.
But, the Jets’ draft is merely a piece of steel drawn on a much larger blueprint during an offseason that may prove to be foundational in turning New York into consistent contenders — or at minimum, begin to climb the ladder in the loaded AFC East.
“Don’t forget,” the Scouting Director says. “The Jets also brought in veterans during free agency, like Minkah Fitzpatrick and Demario Davis. You look at guys like Dylan Parham, David Onyemata, and Nahshon Wright, and all together, they’re huge upgrades on that roster.”
By pairing these blue-chip rookies with established culture-setters, Mougey didn’t just raise the floor for the Jets in 2026, but also attempted to perform a personality transplant on the entire franchise.
If this works, the safety net that Mougey built for Glenn and the defense, combined with the new weapons he dropped into one of the least prolific offenses in the sport last season, could all but assure whoever is under center in 2027 walks into a nearly turnkey situation where he won’t be asked to save the entire organization but rather merely execute the system.
That’s just the beginning … Unlock the full column, and support fully independent NFL journalism, by subscribing today!
Second Down: Kansas City Chiefs Reload for Steve Spagnuolo
The AFC West has made meaningful progress over the past two offseasons building rosters capable of not just sustained success, but in some cases, overtaking the Kansas City Chiefs.
