Kiper: Coples will be a bust if Rex can’t motivate

Speaking on ESPN’s radio show “Mike & Mike in the Morning,” Mel Kiper Jr. rattled off a bunch of teams he thought fared extremely well in the first round of Thursday night’s NFL draft.

The Jets, were not one of them.

Granted, the Quinton Coples pick wasn’t as much of a shocker as the Bruce Irvin-to-
Philly move. But Kiper was a tad surprised the Jets selected Coples, the UNC defensive end, ahead of Syracuse’s Chandler Jones.

“I’m not saying Quinton Coples isn’t boom or bust, but Chandler was red-hot and then New England goes up and grabs him,” the ESPN draft guru said Friday. “I think we’ll judge this pick: Jones and Coples against Irvin to see where they are two, three years from now.”

Asked to rate Coples, Jones and South Carolina’s Melvin Ingram, Kiper said Ingram “was the guy,” but questions about his physical attributes scared teams off/

“He became a tweener,” Kiper said of Ingram. “4-3 teams didn’t like the short arms, 6-1 1/2 and 3-4 teams -- I don’t know why. If I’m the New York Jets, I’m looking very hard at Melvin Ingram at that point where they were picking ... But for whatever reason, I think the short arms bothered people there. That’s what I’ve heard a lot...But certainly, I think when you look at Chandler Jones, if he would not have missed those first five games with the knee injury he would have been a much higher pick.”

Kiper called Coples “a roll of the dice” given the many questions about his motor and his diminished statistics in his senior year.

“He’s one of those guys where I think Rex feels like, ‘Hey, I’ve got to motivate this guy. I need to get those most of out of this guy. I can do it here. Let’s see,’” Kiper said. “This is on Rex to motivate Quinton Coples to be the player he can be. If not, you’ve got yourself a bust.”