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If you’re a Jets or Giants fan and you weren’t compelled by the 2023 NFL Draft, you may need to examine what actually interests you. If you didn’t come away happy with what took place the past few days, you may have to examine what brings you enjoyment.
The Giants, in the first three rounds, conducted a master class in addressing team needs with value picks while deftly manipulating the draft board with key trades.
The Jets, for the first time in memory (ever?) actually conducted a draft without a deep feeling of desperation to fill an immediate need. Like, say, at quarterback.
The Jets, as you may recall, used the No. 3 overall pick in 2018 to draft Sam Darnold (now with his third team) and the No. 2 overall pick to draft Zach Wilson (now relegated to the bench as a backup until further notice). Neither of those picks worked out so well.
This draft might have been the most anticlimactic one in Jets history, because in the days before the first round began, they already had landed their big fish, when the trade for Aaron Rodgers was consummated Monday and he was officially introduced Tuesday.
After the Rodgers acquisition, every pick the Jets made in this draft felt like a complementary piece to a roster already stocked with pretty good talent on both sides of the ball and a way to enhance their chances of winning a championship with their four-time MVP quarterback.
This draft felt far removed from most of the past ones, when there was a dread that if a high pick didn’t become an immediate starter and contributor, the team was doomed.
This draft, for both the Jets and Giants, was sprinkled with some unexpected moments as well as some cool karma and coincidence.
It kicked off for the locals on Thursday night when Kyle Stickles, a 13-year-old Jets fan from Ghent, N.Y. (a bit south of Albany), bravely stepping to the podium on the big NFL Draft stage in Kansas City and announcing the Jets’ first-round pick, edge rusher Will McDonald IV, with such rabid enthusiasm it made you want to jump through the television set in helmet and pads.
Stickles, who has battled bone cancer that was diagnosed in 2020, was a beneficiary of the Make a Wish Foundation and made the walk of his life Thursday night when he strode to that podium, took the microphone from NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and barked out, “With the 15th pick in the 2023 NFL Draft, the New York … J-E-T-S, Jets, Jets, Jets … select Will McDonald, linebacker Iowa State. LET’S GO. YEAH!!’’
“I was very nervous leading up to the moment, but the second I started speaking on stage I just let it go and wasn’t nervous,’’ Kyle told The Post via email on Saturday. “I practiced this speech for many weeks and even got a speaker and microphone to help practice.’’
The Jets’ interesting draft continued in the second round, in which they drafted Wisconsin center Joe Tippmann. His coach and mentor, since he was in the fifth grade, has been Jason Fabini, a right tackle with the Jets from 1998 to 2005.
“It makes a good story,’’ Fabini told The Post on Saturday. “He’s going to be a good player for the Jets. He’s got a great football IQ, knows the game, is a hard worker and he loves the game.’’
The Jets’ fourth-round pick, Carter Warren, a tackle from Pittsburgh, is from Paterson, N.J., the hometown of former Giants star receiver Victor Cruz and about a 15-minute drive to MetLife Stadium.
Warren turned out to be a piece to another weird twist to this Jets draft: He was taken with a pick the Jets received in a trade with Bill Belichick and the hated Patriots on Saturday. The Patriots moved up from 120th overall (the spot at which the Jets took Warren) to the Jets’ original spot at 112th to draft Maryland kicker Chad Ryland.
Fatalistic Jets fans can only hope never to see Ryland line up for a game-winning field goal against them and nail it.
So many twists of fate.
The Giants, too, had their share of draft-week twists. Their second-round pick, Minnesota center John Michael Schmitz, attended the Giants’ wild-card win over the Vikings last January in Minneapolis. When he was asked who he was rooting for, Schmitz coyly responded with a laugh: “I was at the game just watching football, that’s all I’ve got to say.’’
Giants general manager Joe Schoen happened to be scouting on the sidelines for the game in which Jalin Hyatt, the team’s third-round pick from Tennessee, caught six passes for 207 yards and five TDs against Alabama last October.
“I was on the field, and you could really feel his speed,’’ Schoen recalled.
“I never thought a guy like that will be at the game and later on down the road he’ll draft me,’’ Hyatt said. “It’s crazy how things work.’’
It was that kind of draft for both the Jets and Giants.
Crazy.
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