NFL Draft: LI's Jeremy Ruckert can't wait to start his career with Jets
Almost exactly 12 hours after the biggest moment of Jeremy Ruckert’s life, the excitement still hadn’t worn off.
“Woke up a New York Jet,” he tweeted Saturday morning, with a GIF of Bart Scott’s famous “Can’t Wait” moment attached.
Such is life when your favorite team growing up picks you in the third round of the NFL Draft.
The Jets took the former Lindenhurst star and Ohio State tight end with the 101st overall pick on Friday night. Ruckert got the call at 11:21 p.m., sending the draft party of about 40 friends and family at his house into an eruption of cheers and “J-E-T-S! JETS! JETS! JETS!” chants.
“I can’t even put it into words,” Ruckert said Friday night via Zoom after the pick became official. “It was deafening once I put that hat on and once they found out who was on the other end of that call.”
Ruckert attended training camp practices at Hofstra as a kid, and he and his family would make the approximately 90-minute trip from Lindenhurst to East Rutherford to watch them play. Now he’ll attend practices in Florham Park as a player. His family still will make the trip to MetLife Stadium, but they’ll be going because of him.
“It’s hard to believe, but this means just as much to them as it does for me,” he said. “And that means a lot to me in general, just because of all the support that they’ve given me throughout my life, doing everything they could to help me be where I am today.”
Ruckert was the 2017 co-winner of the Hansen Award, given to Suffolk’s top player, and a three-time All-Long Island selection at Lindenhurst. He had only 54 catches for 615 yards and 12 touchdowns in four years at Ohio State, but that’s because tight ends aren’t usually featured in the Buckeyes’ offense; instead, they’re often required to stay in and block, leaving the playmaking to the wide receivers (one of whom will be joining Ruckert in Florham Park: first-round pick Garrett Wilson).
Ruckert was just fine with that, though: He was able to round out his game and become a better blocker, turning it into one of his strengths. And he still had his hands. In fact, sometimes he needed only one, such as when he made a highlight-reel touchdown catch in the 2021 national championship game.
Even though the Jets signed tight ends C.J. Uzomah and Tyler Conklin in free agency, general manager Joe Douglas and coach Robert Saleh are excited about unlocking Ruckert’s full potential. Saleh said Ruckert is “an absolute bulldog in the run game” — fitting, given that Lindenhurst’s nickname is the Bulldogs — and Douglas called him a “tough-minded individual” and a “dynamic athlete.”
Ruckert didn’t do drills at the NFL Combine or Ohio State’s pro day because of a foot injury suffered during Senior Bowl week, when the Jets got an up-close look at him as one of the game’s two coaching staffs. Douglas said he doesn’t expect him to miss “any significant time.”
Coan, Williams sign as UDFAs
Jack Coan, the former Sayville High School star who started at quarterback for Wisconsin and Notre Dame, was not drafted this weekend, but his dream of playing in the NFL lives on — and he’ll be staying in Indiana, signing a rookie free-agent deal with the Indianapolis Colts.
Coan, a three-time All-Long Island selection and former Hansen Award winner with the Golden Flashes, helped lead Wisconsin to the Rose Bowl in 2019, but a broken foot the following year led him to transfer to Notre Dame for the 2021 season.
Villanova cornerback Denzel Williams, who played at Newfield, also signed a rookie free-agent deal with the Baltimore Ravens. Williams was a three-sport star for the Wolverines, also playing basketball and competing on the track team. The Sacred Heart transfer had two interceptions with Villanova last season.
Nick Klopsis is Newsday.com's sports editor. He often can be found studying NFL and college football film for his latest draft breakdown.
