Notable Jets draft-week trades
Jets owner Woddy Johnson, left, presents Mark Sanchez with his jersey as he is introduced to the media at the Jets practice facility in Florham Park, N.J., on April 26, 2009. Credit: AP/Rich Schultz
The Jets are no strangers to moving up and down in the first round of the NFL Draft.
Here are some of the notable draft-day or draft-week trades the Jets have made in franchise history:
1980
Jets received: Pick No. 2 (Johnny "Lam" Jones)
49ers received: Picks No. 13 (Earl Cooper) and No. 20 (Jim Stuckey)
The Jets traded up to the second overall pick on the morning of the draft, but instead of taking one of two eventual Hall of Famers in tackle Anthony Munoz (who went third) or receiver Art Monk (15th), they took Jones, an Olympic gold-medal sprinter who only played five seasons due to health and substance issues.
1993
Jets received: Pick No. 4 (Marvin Jones), Johnny Johnson
Cardinals received: Pick No. 3 (Garrison Hearst)
By trading down a spot with the 49ers, the Jets were able to fill two needs with one pick. Johnson, a 25-year-old running back entering his fourth season, ran for 1,752 yards and six touchdowns in two seasons with the Jets. The real prize, however, was Jones, who spent his entire 10-year with the Jets. The linebacker started 129 games and racked up 1,029 tackles, 10 forced fumbles, nine sacks, eight fumble recoveries and five interceptions.
1997, Part 1
Jets received: Picks No. 6 (traded to Buccaneers), No. 67 (traded to Broncos), No. 102 (Dan Neil) and No. 207 (traded to Eagles)
Rams received: Pick No. 1 (Orlando Pace)
The Jets owned the No. 1 pick in a draft headlined by two future Hall of Fame tackles (Orlando Pace and Walter Jones), but they already had Jumbo Elliott protecting Neil O’Donnell’s blind side. So, in the two days immediately before the draft, Parcells engineered two trades down. The first came with the Rams, who gave up four picks – including No. 6 overall – for the right to take Pace.
1997, Part 2
Jets received: Picks No. 8 (James Farrior) and No. 104 (Leon Johnson)
Buccaneers received: Pick No. 6 (traded to Seahawks)
The day before the draft, Parcells moved down again, sending the newly acquired No. 6 pick from the Rams to Tampa Bay and moving down two spots. From there, he took Farrior, who played in 76 games (43 starts) over five years with the Jets before becoming an All-Pro linebacker with the Steelers. The No. 6 pick that Parcells sent to the Buccaneers would be traded again, this time to the Seahawks for Walter Jones in exchange for a package involving the No. 12 pick, which turned into Rookie of the Year running back Warrick Dunn.
2001
Jets received: Pick No. 16 (Santana Moss)
Steelers received: Picks No. 19 (Casey Hampton), No. 111 (Mathias Nkwenti) and No. 181 (Rodney Bailey)
The Jets traded Keyshawn Johnson before the 2000 draft, and despite taking Laveranues Coles that year, they still needed a big-play receiver. They moved up three spots in 2001 to get one in Moss, who ran a 4.31 40-yard dash and posted a 42-inch vertical jump at the Combine. Moss played in 51 games (29 starts) in four seasons with the Jets, catching 141 passes for 2,416 yards and 19 touchdowns and also returning two punts for touchdowns. He was traded to the Redskins in 2005 and spent 10 years in Washington.
2003
Jets received: Pick No. 4 (Dewayne Robertson)
Bears received: Picks No. 13 (traded to Patriots), No. 22 (Rex Grossman) and No. 116 (Ian Scott)
The Jets had two first-round picks in 2003 after the Redskins signed Coles as a restricted free agent. They packaged both of those picks in a big jump up the board for Robertson, a 317-pound defensive tackle who had 10 ½ sacks in his junior season at Kentucky. He never had more than four in a single season with the Jets, however, and had just 16 in six years (including one season with the Broncos).
2009
Jets received: Pick No. 5 (Mark Sanchez)
Browns received: Kenyon Coleman, Abram Elam, Brett Ratliff, picks No. 17 (traded to Buccaneers) and No. 52 (David Veikune)
The Jets, fresh off of the Brett Favre experiment, needed a quarterback. However, the chances of getting one at No. 17 were slim, so GM Mike Tannenbaum moved all the way up to the fifth spot to take Sanchez. "The Sanchize," supported by a stout defense and a strong running game, helped lead the Jets to back-to-back AFC Championship Games in his first two seasons but never lived up to expectations after that. (For what it’s worth, a quarterback did go 17th overall: the Buccaneers traded up with the Browns for Josh Freeman.)
Nick Klopsis is Newsday.com's sports editor. He often can be found studying NFL and college football film for his latest draft breakdown.
