Sports

Gardner, Wilson and Johnson become the Jets’ present and future

By VINCENT DAVIS Special to the AmNews

It’s been a long time since pundits and disgruntled Jets fans have been overly satisfied with the team’s draft selections. The 2022 NFL Draft hasn’t made up for all of their bad choices, but it has given the fan base hope.

Last Thursday in Round 1, the Jets took University of Cincinnati cornerback Ahmad “Sauce” Gardner with the No. 4 pick. They made Ohio State wide receiver Garrett Wilson the No. 10 selection and followed that up with taking defensive end Jermaine Johnson II from Florida State at No. 26. On Friday, the Jets maneuvered up from the 38th pick to the 36th and grabbed Iowa State’s Breece Hall, who many draft analysts had rated as the top running back.

There were few complaints directed at Jets general manager Joe Douglas by the end of the draft on Saturday night. He was widely credited for doing a masterful job of getting the best players available to fill the Jets’ needs. “I feel like we’re a better team now than we were going into this weekend,” said Douglas in conducting his first post draft press conference of the 2022 season. “I feel like we’re a better team now than we were to start the entire offseason.”

Douglas was quick to compliment his staff’s work, sharing the credit for what he believes was a successful draft.

“A lot of that credit goes to Coach [Robert Saleh] and his staff, Rex [Hogan, assistant GM], all our personnel staff working together,” he stated. “It’s just a real team effort to give us this chance to go into a season improved at some different spots, adding quality depth to the team, adding some guys that we feel can be explosive, dynamic playmakers for us.”

In Round 3, the Jets added Ohio State tight end Jeremy Ruckert, a native of Lindenhurst, New York, with the 101st pick. They had two picks in the fourth round and used them on Max Mitchell, an offensive tackle from Louisiana with the 111th pick, and defensive end Michael Clemons from Texas A&M at 117.

AMNEWS Ahmad “Sauce” Gardner, Garrett Wilson and Jermaine Johnson II were all selected by the Jets in the first round of this year’s NFL Draft (newyorkjets.com photo)

04/07/22

First round picks Evan Neal and Kayvon Thibodeaux, pictured with Giants general manager Joe Schoen and head coach Brian Daboll, are major additions to the team (Giants.com photo) 0 74470 22784 7 01154

AMNEWS 04/07/22

The Giants shore up their trenches in drafting Thibodeaux and Neal

By JAIME C. HARRIS

AmNews Sports Editor

Although the 2022 NFL Draft took place over the course of three days last Thursday through Saturday, within roughly one hour of the event, the Giants could already claim it was hugely successful. With the No. 5 pick the team selected University of Oregon defensive lineman Kayvon Thibodeaux and at No. 7 selected University of Alabama offensive lineman Evan Neal.

The duo were considered by many draft analysts as the best prospects at their respective positions and they fill critical weaknesses for Giants. Overall, the team chose 11 players, the most they have acquired through the draft in a single class since 2003.

The offensive line in particular has been a problematic unit for the Giants for the better part of the last decade. The 21-yearNeal, a native of Okeechobee, Florida, who played multiple positions on Alabama’s line, will initially be plugged in at right tackle opposite left tackle Andrew Thomas, who was the No. 4 pick in the first round of the 2020 draft by the Giants.

“I think I told you guys at the [NFL Scouting] Combine,” said Schoen to the media on Saturday, “we had maybe five healthy bodies, offensive lineman, on the roster, and that’s my point. There were several holes, and we didn’t have a lot of depth throughout the roster. “So start there, start up front,” he expanded, “let’s see the best version of Daniel Jones we can, and it starts by hopefully keeping him on his feet. And that’s going to help Saquon and that’s going to help the receivers because he’ll have more time to get him the ball. I think we upgraded the offensive line, which hopefully we did. We’ll see how the competition in training camp goes. But, yeah, I’m happy where we are with the depth overall.” Thibodeaux, a two-time All-Pac-12 first team performer in 2020 and 2021, will give the Giants a disruptive force coming off the edge of the defensive. The Giants have lacked a consistent pass rush in recent years which made Thibodeaux a primary target of the team entering the off-season. He is already off to a positive start having Giants legend and Pro Foot-

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04/14/22 0 ball Hall of Famer Micheal Strahan as a mentor. The South Los Angeles, California product has 74470 22784 7 aspirations of modeling Strahan’s career both as a player and postfootball success. “I have some good people at Oregon who already had envisioned me being like him one day and how big he’s become,” said Thibodeaux at his introductory press conference on Saturday at the Giants’ facilities in East Rutherford, New Jersey. “So we’ve had mutual friends through Oregon and the people there and they connected us. I was able to get on Zoom with him, chop it up with him. I think this was when I was still in school. So I would say last year, probably fall camp, actually, was when I first had the first Zoom with him and then I got to meet him. Now, actually seeing him and really talking to him and building that relationship has been dope.”

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