Well, this should definitely give Joe Douglas something to think about, right?
There are many reasons why you can talk yourself out to consider DeVonta Smith with the second choice in design. Conventional wisdom says you don’t choose broad receivers that high. Conventional wisdom says that if you choose that high, you better take a cornerstone position – quarterback, edge rusher, left tackle – to make sure you don’t choose that high again.
Conventional wisdom says, if you can trade that choice for a ton of assets, call and close the deal.
The funny thing is, conventional wisdom doesn’t explain what we all saw Smith do Monday night as he scoured the Ohio State Buckeyes for 12 catches and 215 yards and three touchdowns in the first half, igniting the Crimson Tide on the way to a 52-24 thrashing that captured the sixth Bama championship in the Nick Saban era.
Conventional wisdom doesn’t explain how Smith – who only won the Heisman Trophy last week and was only the sole dominant force in all of college football this year – somehow ran wild against the state of Ohio. Maybe they didn’t have a story about the Heisman winner in the Columbus Dispatch last week.
Or maybe Smith is just that good.
If you’ve watched Smith this year, if you’ve seen him score 20 touchdowns (34 in the last two years), if you’ve seen how he always manages to make a game, make good defense, let coaches take their breath Every time a kickoff or punt comes in his direction, you know how good he is.
The Heisman voters knew and gave him the big trophy, even in a year when Trevor Lawrence was the sport’s blond young man, turning in a season worthy of the award. And it wasn’t particularly close, Smith got twice as many votes for first place as Lawrence and out-polling him from 1,856-1,187.
So what should Douglas do?
There are many years where a 2-14 season would have been a fast track to the No. 1 pick. But the Jaguars were totally uncooperative, went 1-15, and so they’ll command Lawrence. If the choice is Lawrence vs. Smith, there is no choice: you choose the quarterback of the generation.
No. 2 is a different animal. For ten days, it seemed Earth had shifted toward Columbus, thanks to the forever game that pitted Ohio State quarterback Justin Fields against Clemson, knocking out Lawrence completely. There was a sense that people who felt that way might be talking about that, and Fields wasn’t overpowering to Alabama Monday night. He could still be an excellent professional. But at number 2?
BYU’s Zach Wilson is the other buzzworthy quarterback; is he a franchise-worthy pick at number 2? Oregon’s Penei Sewell could team up with Mekhi Becton for a formidable pair of tackles (although Becton’s presence means Sewell would probably play the right tackle would be another position that conventional wisdom argues against at No. 2). There is no franchise-changing edge rusher.
So would it really stray that far beyond the envelope to simply pick the best footballer – or at least the best who isn’t called Trevor Lawrence – at number 2? Because based on his career, based on this season, based on an epic first half that stood for his night work after dislocating a finger on his first target of the second half, that would surely seem like DeVonta Smith.
And something else?
Behind the Jets, at No. 3, are the Dolphins, Miami who have Houston’s first round pick. It is certainly not inconceivable that they would want to reunite Smith with his quarterback, Tua Tagavailoa. And then the Jets would have the undeniable pleasure of getting there face Smith twice a year for the foreseeable future.
See, it wouldn’t be easy for Douglas to choose. He would open up to much the same criticism that Dave Gettleman had three years ago when he put Saquon Barkley at number 2, shouting conventional wisdom that you can find a great return lower down the draft, often from the first round, the same as a big star .
But in that case, the idea was that the Giants were losing a golden opportunity to pick a franchise quarterback. They chose to wait a year to fill that need as none of the candidates overthrew them (they were probably right in the case of Sam Darnold and Josh Rosen, and less so in the case of Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson).
If there’s a quarterback that captures Douglas’s imagination, and he’s 100 percent certain, that’s one thing. When a team offers a plethora of choices, that’s definitely something to consider.
But what if it’s April 29 and the Jets wonder who is the best player on the board? We saw him Monday night. He wore No. 6 in red. He might look really good with Mark Sanchez’s old number in green.