Well, sure that should give Joe Douglas something to think about, right?
There are many reasons why you can avoid thinking about DeVonta Smith with the second draft pick. Conventional wisdom says don’t choose such wide receivers. Conventional wisdom says that if you choose so high, it’s best to take a cornerstone position (quarterback, running tip, left attack) to make sure you don’t climb so high again.
Conventional wisdom says, if you can change that selection to get an amount of assets, make the call and make the deal.
But it’s funny: conventional wisdom doesn’t explain what we all saw Smith do Monday night, when he assaulted the Ohio State Buckeyes for 12 catches and 215 yards and three touchdowns in the first half, lighting up the Crimson Tide in his path to a 52-24 thrashing that won Bama’s sixth Nick Saban era championship.
Conventional wisdom doesn’t explain how Smith, who only won the Heisman Trophy last week, who was only the dominant force in all of this year’s college football, somehow faced off against Ohio State. . Maybe they didn’t have any stories about Heisman’s winner in the Columbus Dispatch last week.
Or maybe Smith is so good.
If you’ve seen Smith this year, if you’ve seen him score 20 touchdowns (34 in the last two years), if you’ve seen the way he always manages to make a play, make good defenses tremble, make coaches hold their breath whenever a starting point or kick is pointing in your direction, you know how good it is.
Heisman voters knew it, giving him the big trophy even in a year when Trevor Lawrence was the sport’s light-haired young man and it became an award-worthy season. And it wasn’t particularly close, Smith got twice as many votes in the first place as Lawrence and voted for him in 1856-1.187.
What should Douglas do?
There are many years in which a 2-14 season would have been a fast lane to election number 1. But the Jaguars were totally uncooperative, went from 1 to 15 and will therefore draft Lawrence. If the option is Lawrence vs. Smith, then there is no option: go with the generational quarterback.
Number 2 is a different animal. For ten days, it looked like the land had shifted to Columbus, thanks to the game forever that Ohio State quarterback Justin Fields posted against Clemson, in which he completely outscored Lawrence. There was a feeling that people who felt that way might be talking about it and Fields wasn’t overwhelming against Alabama on Monday night. He could still be an excellent professional. But at number 2?
BYU’s Zach Wilson is the other fashion quarterback; is a franchise-worthy selection at number 2? Penei Sewell, of Oregon, could equip with Mekhi Becton to get a formidable pair of attacks (although Becton’s presence means Sewell would probably play a correct attack, another position would argue conventional wisdom at number 2) . There is no broker that modifies the franchise.
So would it really be to wander so far from the envelope to pick the best football player, or at least the best not to be called Trevor Lawrence, at number 2? Because based on his career, based on this season, based on an epic first half that represented the night’s work after moving a finger to his first goal in the second half, it sure would seem to be DeVonta Smith.
And something else?
Behind the Jets, at No. 3, are the Dolphins, Miami who own the first round of Houston. It’s certainly not unthinkable that they want to reunite Smith with his college quarterback, Tua Tagavailoa. And then the Jets would have the pleasure of getting there face Smith twice a year for the foreseeable future.
Look, Douglas wouldn’t be an easy choice. It would open up to the same criticisms that Dave Gettleman made three years ago when he caught Saquon Barkley at No. 2, conventional wisdom shouting that one can find a great way back in the draft, often outside the first round, just like estelada.
But in this case, the idea was that the Giants missed a golden opportunity to pick a franchised quarterback. They chose to wait a year to try to fill that need, as none of the candidates ignored them (they were probably right in the case of Sam Darnold and Josh Rosen, except when it comes to Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson).
If there’s a quarterback who captures Douglas ’fantasy, and he’s 100% sure, that’s one thing. If a team offers a lot of selections, of course, that’s something to keep in mind.
But if it’s April 29th and the Jets wonder who’s the best player on the board? We saw him Monday night. He wore the number 6 in red. He could look tremendously good wearing Mark Sanchez’s green number.