The Jets desperately need a premium pass rusher to make their defense work in 2026, but they

cannot base their draft strategy on short-term thinking like that. Locked-on Jets starts now.

You are Locked-on Jets, your daily New York Jets podcast, part of the Locked-on Podcasts network, your team every day.

I'm Jopi from gangreneation.com, and on today's episode, we are going to lay out three draft strategies for the New York Jets in 2026. Two of them, I think,

are good strategies, and one is a bad strategy. We'll start with the bad one. The Jets, of course,

own the second overall pick in the 2026 NFL draft. In an ideal world, the Jets would be able to

take a quarterback at number two overall. As the offseason began, it felt like Dante Moore was

very likely going to be the pick, and then something surprising happened. Moore decided to return

to Oregon for another season. I don't think that was the worst thing in the world for the Jets.

Moore was a quarterback with plenty of talent, but also with plenty of question marks, including

a lack of playing experience.

So there's not really a quarterback worth taking second overall. With all due respect to Ty

Simpson, I know there are some big Ty Simpson fans who would debate that. I'm just not a Thai

Simpson guy. I don't love him at two overall. I don't love him at 16 overall. I don't even love

him at 33 or 44 overall. I think there are

enormous question marks with him. I think it's essentially all of the Dante Moore question

marks and they're all bigger. So most of the attention now is on two pass rushers, R. Val Rees

out of Ohio State and David Bailey out of Texas Tech. And depending on what day of the week it is, one seems like the favorite.

And then the next day, the other seems like the favorite.

We've been on like a two-week stretch where all of the buzz from insiders was that,

oh, the Jets love David Bailey.

And then early in the week, news came out that the Jets canceled a top 30 visit with Bailey. And what that means is each team is allowed to bring 30 players who do not have local ties into the team facility for a visit. They can do medical tests. They can interview the player. They can go over film. They can break down X's nose. It's a chance to really get to know a player. Well, the Jets have canceled that with David Bailey.

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