2000, our best draft?

In the draft week spirit I cant help but remember the excitement of the 2000 draft. At the time we needed a lot of upgrades and the future was looking like an encroaching black hole. Was it our best draft? That is debatable. But it certainly got us a lot of weapons and saved a post Parcels/Bilicheck slide. It probably helped that Parcels managed the draft, and it really helped that we got NE's first rounder for losing Bilicheat to them.

That pick turned out to be pick #16 and the pick the Jets earned was 18. During the season we had two mid round firsts. That's when things got more exciting. We cashed out on the 96 draft by trading Keyshawn Johnson. That year the Bucs were an offensive playmaker away from the SB and they held two first round picks. Bing bang boom, Parcels sends Keyshawn to the Bucs for both of their first rounders.

Now going into the draft our first round picks were: 13, 16, 18, 27. At the time the most firsts in the history of the league.

Draft day starts and the Browns pick DE Courtney Brown first overall...lol. This would help us. Six of the next ten picks would become pro bowlers and one of them a HOFer - Brian Ulracher, taken 9th. The Forty Niners held pick 12 and this was when we learned Parcels had a plan. He wanted both John Abraham and Sean Ellis to seal the ends of our d-line. At least one, if not both players, were expected to be gone by then (thanks Cleveland) but now it became clear we'd get one at 13. So BP trades our second rounder to SF to swap from 16 up to 12, and takes Ellis. Next pick is our 13 from Tampa - we grab Abraham. Boom, instant great pass rush. Ellis would spend all of his best years with us and become one of the all time great Jets.

Now were heading towards picks 18 and 27 and I was pumped already. We got Ellis and Abraham! It was a celebrate moment and we still had picks.

Picks 14-17 would all become probowlers. Now were at our earned pick, 18, and we take what was kind of a surprise to me. Chad Pennington. Good o'l Chad. He's on the HOF IR list of jets history. He beat Brees and Manning in the playoffs. Shoulda beat Rothsburger. But at the time we took him Vinny was still the guy, so didn't think much about the pick.

Only one more pro bowler would be taken between Chad and pick 27 - Sean Alexander at 19. At 27 we take Anthony Becht. A decent TE who produced in roles for us. He was also better then the TE taken next - Erin Kinney. All four of these guys would play big roles in getting us to the playoffs twice in the next four years.

Losing our second rounder to the trade up for Ellis, our next pick wasn't until 78, and it would be the last one that hit big. We snagged Laveranues Coles out of Florida state. Really great player who played two different stints with us. (Though the second stint cost us our 2001 first rounder Santana Moss in a trade.)

The next three picks were amusing busts. Richard Seals and Tony Scott did next to nothing. Then there was WR Windrell Hayes. He only caught 6 passes but he had one rush for 9 yards and a pass attempt for 2 yards. He was basically a triple threat.

One other note, our 1996 first rounder, which was 1st overall, turned out to be Keyshawn for 4 seasons (two of them pro bowl seasons), John Abraham, and Anthony Becht. No to bad in the end for one pick.

SO what do you think guys? Was that our best draft? There have been a few other really good ones. One thing I remember is it was easily the funnest first round.