The New York Jets’ 2024 draft haul was generally well-regarded by analysts across the media landscape. Of course, it’s not just the drafted players that can make an impact. Undrafted players can as well. In recent memory, Bryce Huff, Tony Adams, Xavier Gipson and Jason Brownlee have made the active roster as undrafted free agents. The Jets’ 2024 haul of college free agents includes some intriguing prospects that can also crack the roster this season, including defensive linemen Eric Watts and Leonard Taylor III.
Thor Nystrom of Fantasypros recently ranked the 32 teams by their undrafted rookie signings and classes and the Jets’ were quite high on Nystrom’s list. Only the defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs were ranked higher on his list than the Jets, who landed at No. 2.
Here’s what Nystrom had to say about the Jets’ UDFA class:
I may not have been in love with the Jets’ decisions during the draft itself, but boy did they slaughter the UDFA process. New York signed three prospects inside my pre-draft top-153, and a fourth who I gave a draftable grade. They were edged out by the Chiefs for top UDFA class in my metrics by the slimmest of fractional margins.
I am most bullish on EDGE Eric Watts, who started three-of-four active seasons at UConn (the Huskies canceled their 2020 season due to COVID). Watts is not a finished product – but he has measurables that portend to NFL success, and his tape is dotted with flash plays both as a defender and as a special-teamer.
He posted 22.5 TFL over the last three seasons, and, over the last two campaigns, had nine sacks, two blocked field goals, and a blocked punt. On the measurable side, Watts was close to tops in the EDGE class in three very important categories: 40, vertical, and arm length.
DT Leonard Taylor III was forwarded as a likely second-rounder earlier in the process. That was rich. Still, the NFL may have ben overly punitive in not drafting him at all. Time will tell if the Jets can profit off that.
A former top-10 overall recruit, Taylor III was extremely inconsistent at Miami. That’s because his game hasn’t advanced beyond north-south bully tactics. He could overpower most ACC interior linemen, but the high pad level he played with at Miami with the same lack of refinement will send him into the wood-chipper at the next level if he doesn’t develop ancillary attack plans.
Pad-level and game nuance are the two primary areas the Jets must work with him on initially – the overall talent package is there, however. Last year, Taylor was 95th-percentile or higher in PFF pass rush grade, true pass set pass rush grade, and pass rush win rate.
EDGE Braiden McGregor is a former hockey player, as was his QB at Michigan, JJ McCarthy. Though McGregor did not live up to expectations in Ann Arbor, he was the top recruit in Michigan’s 2020 class, he has a prototype NFL frame, and he was a starter on last year’s title-winning team (his only campaign a a starter).
WR Tyler Harrell is a speed demon who averaged a ludicrous 29.1 YPC in 2021 at Louisville while taking one-third of his receptions to the house. But transfer-portal stops at Alabama and Miami proved disastrous – he caught only six balls combined over the last two seasons.
