A Scouting Report of the 2024 Jets Draft Class (Part 1)

Published Jul 11, 2024, 11:00 AM
Hear from the scouts that helped GM Joe Douglas put together the 2024 Jets draft class. This special episode features T Olu Fashanu, RBs Braelon Allen and Isaiah Davis and DB Jaylen Key.

Hey there, I hope everybody's enjoying their summer. Today, we're going to do something a little bit different and take you up behind the curtain here at One Jets Drive. The Jets twenty twenty four draft class was made up of seven players, as you all know, from Olu Fashion in the first round to the last pick in the draft, mister irrelevant Jalen Key. In the days and weeks after the draft, our entire reporting team talk to the Jets college scouts about their findings on each selection. We wanted to find out what was unique about each player and why do they have a chance.

To succeed with the Jets.

Today, we're going to start a two part series with a look at the scouting of Penn State tackle Olufashion, new running backs Braylan Allen out of Wisconsin and Isaiah Davis out of South Dakota State, and then finally Jalen Key out of Alabama. Let's get the conversation started with Jets Director of college scouting John Carr on Fashnu, the jets eleventh overall selection of the twenty twenty four NFL Draft.

Well, yeah, you know, Olu fashionu our primary area of scout is Thomas Whitty who handles that area in the northeast for US and Ja Mandalizi is the national Scout and we had a couple of people take a look at him as a third look. But Thomas did such a great job of identifying the traits of this young man and at the same time getting all the pertinent background information that we need on this guy. And Jay did a great job as well as far as in his evaluation and background information he gathered on this guy. But we were super excited about Olu. You see the success he's had as a left tackle plan in a high level conference in the Big Ten. I don't give up any sacks, but just from his quick initial quickness off the ball, it's contact balance, his anchor ability, plays with very good awareness, and we had him pretty high on our board, and that when we made the trade and we were at the eleventh pick, he was still there. I think it was a consensus in the room that he was our guy.

All though, such a talented dude, I'm sure he could fit well in a lot of places, But what makes him the best fit for the Jets, And with that being said, what qualities stand out the most about him.

Well, not only is he a good person, a good character, and he's smart, right, He's very intelligent. He's not a high rep type player. He's a guy that can play left tackle or right tackle and he works at it as well. So those things checked the box for him. But when you look at the size and the length and the athletic ability, his quickness off the ball, those things were very important in our style of offense. You know, we run a lot of zone scheme type runs and even in our pass pro drop back and movement in the pocket. This guy has the ability to do all of those things. He has a lot of range as a player as a pass protector, and so those things were pretty high on our list as far as the qualities that he checked that he can be successful in our scheme.

For those avid listeners of the podcast We Salute You, you might remember that Penn State head coach James Franklin recounted the story of how he told Fashion he should enter the twenty twenty three draft. Fashio, of course, elected to stay, but he had been on the radar of National scout jamn Elisi and Aria scout Thomas Whittie for a long time.

We've known about Oler for a couple of years now. He was a very highly coveted prospect last year. In my opinion, he was one of the best tackles last year. And you know, I think a lot of people were surprised when he decided to go back. But I mean, you talk about a young man that has his priorities straight, and you know, I know his mom wanted him to go back to school and get his degree, and he saw an opportunity to refine some of his game. And you know, he's he wasn't looking to just jump to the league, and he knew what he had to do to get a little better. So he decided to go back for this past season. And you know, we're glad he did because it gave us an opportunity to draft him here this year. But I mean, an outstanding young man as we went through this process, very few holes in terms of the person the player. You know, he's played at a high level, he's been productive, he's smart, it's tough, he's everything we look for, you know, to bring into our organization.

So going through the school and I guess it was twenty twenty two, it's Oulu's true junior year, and you get out to the practice field and see big number seventy four, and I mean right away you're like, all right, who's that guy? And then you know, you see him play games. You turn on the tape and you see him move, and you get really excited about the player, and then you hear about the person too, and just couldn't say enough good things about him. Definitely try not to scout the helmet, that's number one, but but just seeing his his sheer size, his athleticism, that just that transcends everything you're looking at there. So so I think with a with a guy like him, you know, maybe not doing what we're asking to do in terms of scheme, but when you see him move, when you see him get out in space, it's something that that he can unlock. And then you see him run the forty at the combine as well and really get out there. It's definitely something he might have not shown as much on tape, but but it is in his body.

All right.

So it's agible's off the charts. He's so impressive. Like you said, he comes from a tremendous family, but you're talking about smarts and toughness and people get on me and say, Okay, well it's.

More than that.

When you look from a scouting perspective, this guy playing left tackle, what does he.

Bring to the table consistency? Right, Like, he's athletic, he's big, he's strong. I mean, like he just checks the box. From a traits perspective, Yeah, you know he can play left.

He could.

I personally think he could play right. You could maybe play guard, Like I wouldn't bet against the kid, you know, playing anywhere on the offensive line. So you know he's done it at a high level. He gets it. You know they rave about him at the school. He just kind of checks every box.

From that standpoint, key talk about creates it. You guys are looking at whether that be hands, length, feet, all those.

Athletic obviously long, right, he's only he's only twenty one years old. He's got the frame that you look for, he's got the feet, he can pass protect, he's really strong. I mean you look at some of the stuff online with him in the weight room getting after it. Yeah. So I mean he can do it all. He can. He can slide, he can mirror, he can he can run, block, you know, he can position, he knows angles, you know, all that stuff checks off.

As you go in and through the process, you have about a year or two years worth of data there that eventually the player is going to tell you who he is. So I think with Olui, he's someone that everything came up, came up, he checked all the boxes, and he continued to check those over his two years as he started there. I think his size, length, his pass protection, his ability to anchor and doing it at the Big ten level, all all really stood out this year especially just really impressed with the player and the person and his ability to pass protect would really be the calling card. I just think, I mean, everything he's shown so far, he's calm, he's cool, he's collected, doesn't get too high, doesn't get too low, always onto the next rep, and just ready to dominate his one on ones.

That's what he does.

So when you guys are in pre draft meetings, do you actually discuss, okay, more than just the prospect. I imagine, what's the fit here and can you explain why you think this is a good fit. Because what stood out to me during all his post raft interviews is that, hey, I looked up to Tyron Smith. Basically my whole life. When I was grown up in Maryland, I was watching tapes in high school this guy play and what a prototypical left tackle he was, and I see similarities in terms of my body type. Do you guys talk about Okay, not only can can he come in and he's a good player, but he can learn from these folks we already have in the Billy Yeah.

No, just like with Olu, We've we've been working on him for a couple of years, right, so having Tyrone is awesome, but like we've been we've been evaluating him before Tyron got here. And ultimately, when you evaluate these guys, yes, it matters what our depth chart looks like, but we want to just get the player right, like what do we see the player being? And the cool thing about Oloo in my mind is yes, Tyron and Morgan are great guys to learn from. But in my mind, I'll lose the perfect guy to learn too. Like he's gonna he's gonna soak it all in, he's gonna be a professional, he's gonna wait his turn, and ultimately, like you can never have enough offensive lineman, and when you have a twenty one year old left tackle, like you jump on it.

Braylan Allen, a fourth round selection in the Jets, taken with the one hundred and thirty fourth overall pick, had twenty one hundred yard rushing games at Wisconsin. Car College scout Drew Morris and senior regional scout Jonathan Stiegel broke down the youngest player in the NFL draft, the twenty year old Allen, who's a monster at six foot one, two hundred and forty five pounds.

Yeah. So Braylen Allen and the three man look that we normally do with some of the top schools. Drew Morris was the primary for that area, followed by Jonathan Stiegel as a second look, and I was actually the third look. I visited Wisconsin, So tell us about your visit, John. It was a great visit, and Wisconsin's always a great visinits. They're always going to have tough minded young men that played there. The type of football they played, obviously being able to be tough and playing that kind of weather that they play in the season, the style of play they you know, downhill, physical, dig ten type back. And he checked all the boxes from sitting down with the coaches there as far as his character, you know, his love for the game, his competitiveness, and you know when you see him in person, you know, you when you first go there, you're thinking, well, this guy's gonna be six two two thirty five. Is he's gonna be a little chubby, you know. And when you saw this kid in person, he looked like a grown man. You could see the work he's put in in the weight room and for that size for him to run with such good balance and body control, and he has such quick feet, and you know he's a finisher. He's a positive yard type runner, and he's going to get you those tough yards from the short yards goal line. And I think he has the play speed where I call those explosive plus twenty type runs. He's not gonna be that home run hitter, but he'll get you those plus twenty runs. And he showed that. And you look at his twenty twenty two tape where he played in a more conventional pro style offense, wheever more downhill one cut, you saw a lot of the traits that got not only myself excited, but you know the scouts that visited the school along with our coaches as well.

Oh gosh, as a seventeen year old freshman, maybe even a little before that, because I'm tied in a little bit with some of the high school coaches around here, and you know, kind of the guys from a local. He's actually just right down the street from me in Fondilac where he grew up. And then the first time you go out to practice and you see this guy and how big he is, and then he's just continued to get bigger over the last three years. I mean, he's built like a like a Mac truck. I might be dating myself a little bit, but he looks like he should be on the cover of the old video game NFL Blitz.

I mean my first interaction was, you know, seeing him live. I'm like, you could see the video that he had sized, but when you walk up on him and practice, you're kind of amazed of how big and how well built he is. You know, through his body. You know he's got freakings traits, and I think he's shown that, you know, this season per se, I think the switch of offense from what was viewed in the past, I don't think he really showed everything that's in his body. I thought he did the year before, it was in a different offense. You know, they've done a really good job at Wisconsin, you know, filling that stable of running backs, and they've had production at Wisconsin, they've had production.

In the league.

I think if he would have stayed in that same inside zone, the downhill scheme or outside zone more, I think it would have been you know, he would have had more stats. And I think that's why he was overlooked a little bit. I think we got a really good value and a really good player.

I think first off, like watching him as a seventeen year old rushing for almost thirteen hundred yards, I believe in the Big ten is is absolutely wild. And in terms of his frame, like he came in as a big kid and he just continued to get bigger in their weight room. You talk to those guys over at Wisconsin and they never limited it in terms of that because he really has the frame to carry it. Like when I was there, he was about two hundred and forty five pounds in August. He was about two forty three I believe when I came back in October, and he carries that weight extremely well. In terms of him as a player, Like obviously the size is going to stand out, the strength the power, the ability to break contact. I think that's something that he was able to do from freshman on. Outside of that, when you look at it, he's improved a ton in the passing game, both as a pass protector and as a as a receiver catching the ball out of the backfield. I think that's one of the most evident things that you see from watching him as a freshman to watch him now is how much better he's got in terms of pass protection. And as you mentioned, being the youngest guy in the draft, Like, there's still a lot of growth potential in this guy in terms of his skill set. I mean, he's twenty years old. Most of the guys you're seeing get drafted are twenty two, twenty three years old. Like, there's still a lot left on the bone for a guy who is an extremely productive college player. I mean, he was five semesters at Wisconsin. That's it. A lot of these guys are ten plus semesters now with everything going on. So I think there's a ton of upside and still room for him to grow and even get better from what she saw at Wisconsin.

Would you find out about him from the people on campus, because that's a big part of your job as well as not just to valuate the tape, not just to watch these guys at practice or games, but actually do the research on the ground to find out who they are and how they're gonna fit in your program.

Yeah.

I mean he's he was raised in a good home. He's a Wisconsin kid. You know, there was no red flags off the field or any issues or concerns that way. You know, he was a guy like you know I just said before, you know, the character stuff all checked out, that was not going to be an issue. Everybody likes the person you know in the building, out of the building, and then you know through the process of combine and everything, you know he's a good person, responsible, accountable, all that stuff. You know, it was just you know, like I said, the production this year, playing or playing in that passing offense and not seeing you know, all of his skill set being used.

Do you think about December and January when you're looking at a guy like this, because you guys have a star running back in the backfield in Brice Hall. But obviously you can't give him every rep out of the backfield, So how much does that factor in the equation where you guys are the division that kind of stuff.

This is especially playing in his division, playing in Buffalo, you know, New England, especially later in the year when it's cold and you need to run the ball. I mean, obviously we saw that last year with Breese. You know, having a big back that can handle the load and adding another one to the stable, especially for a long season, is a really good problem to have.

I like to see the Braylen Allen where it's third and three, third and two and you see him get that extra yard and be able to run through contact. I think that's the skill set that really projects well in terms of the NFL and what he's going to be able to do there. The guys obviously scored a lot of touchdowns throughout the years, but I think the most fun is watching him run through guys and the other stuff too. I think when you go through his tape is that he's got really impressive feet, like his foot agility working through the bags. I mean, just watching him float through the agility bags at Proday is one of the more impressive things I've seen. For I believe he was two hundred and thirty six pounds at PRODA. For a guy that size being able to move through the bags and change direction that the way he is. I think that's probably one of the most underrated parts of his game, is how good his feet truly are at that size. But he's also done a lot of things like outside of that. You know, obviously he said the weight room to size, the ability, the highlights on the field, like those are extremely impressive things. But I think the growth of him, you know, talking to those coaches that are in there, from seventeen years old to nineteen years old last year, has really been in terms of like his diligence, his classroom study, his ability to watch. Hey, those type of things have really come a long way. Those aren't necessarily things that you learn in high school. Those are things that you have to learn, have to dedicate yourself to at the college level. And he's done a really good job of getting himself prepared from a mental standpoint and being mentally ready for the NFL as much as he has physically.

The Jets added even more depth behind star Breesall with the addition of Isaiah Davis in the fifth round, the number one hundred and seventy three overall selection in the draft. A stud at South Dakota State. Here's a kid who rushed for four five hundred and forty eight yards and fifty touchdowns in forty six games. While Carr and Morris will recount their unique scouting experiences in regards to Davis, national scout Don Green also touched upon the adversity he overcame to get to this point.

Cool story with Isaiah. You know when we got when I got there, they practiced like I think the price at four point thirty or five o'clock and one of the coaches told me, he said, he's one of those kids that's you know, he's always first one to get out and he goes to his little routine before practice, and you hear that a lot of times, and you know sometimes you saw talk right, And so I went out to practice. Sure enough, there's Isaiah Davis out there doing footwork drills. He's got two other players with him, and the strength coach told me, this is an everyday thing. Is genuine. This guy loves football. He's going to be the last one to leave. And I was just super impressed with that and the success he's had on the FCS level again, a winner, they won the national championship, and you know he has a crazy stat where you know, the last two years, I mean, this young man had over four hundred and eighty carries and just one fumble and that's a that's a big stat, especially at the running back position. So super excited about Isaiah. He was a Red Star candidate, which is one of our top guys that fits the cad gory from a character and football player for us. And he's going to be a course special teamer and he's going to be another good addition to that running back rome.

Yeah, he actually was put on my radar a little bit as a freshman. It's kind of an interesting story. So in twenty twenty one, they played in the spring because of COVID, So South Dakota State played sam Houston State in the National Championship Game, and that was when we were still mostly at home scouting. I was actually at my in law's house watching a game with my father in law and that was the only football on really at the time in the spring. Right, So I'm watching South Dakota State play sam Houston State in the National Championship Game and there's this big freshman out there, Isaiah Davis. He's returning kickoffs, he's running a ton of explosive runs. That was really the time where I was like, Wow, this guy's got something to him, and then been able to follow him for the last basically that spring of twenty one. Then they played again in the fall of twenty one, and then really kind of honing in on in the last two years and two twenty two and then twenty twenty three. So it's interesting because a guy like that. South Dakota State is a big time FCS program, and they actually had a running back that he split time with those first two years, Pierre Strong, who was I believe a third round pick with the Patriots. So for him to be able to step in and compete right away at a program like South Dakota State where most of their guy's red shirt have to kind of wait their turn, and to be as productive as he was as a freshman is also extremely impressive. Like this guy really, like I said, I'm sitting there, you know, drigging some beers with my father in law, and this guy's jumping off the tape. In terms of that, like, Okay, this is a name. I believe I might still have it somewhere, but I just kind of make notes in my phone there's one that says Isaiah Davis South Dakota State, interesting or something like that. Going back to it. So, you know, usually at the FCS level, there aren't guys that like, oh, wow, this guy's on my radar as a freshman. But with a guy like Isaiah Davis, just in that moment and how he jumped off the tape, like that's the guy that you put on your radar right away of hey, this is going to be an NFL player in a couple of years.

Drew was really excited about this player and again watched him over the summer and you know, came away feeling the same way. I mean, Isaiah is another great kid, a small town guy. Joppling, Missouri's been through him and his family. He's been through a lot of adversity over over their life. He went whether to Tornado, Tornado and Joplin, Missouri when he was nine, Him and his family lost everything, had to overcome that, you know, wound up being Missouri's Gatorade Player of the Year his senior year. Didn't have a lot of offers, was a small school guy. You know, I think he had two offers coming out of high school. So he wasn't like highly touted mister five star or anything. But he's just a guy that's just got great makeup, consistent, tough, you know, everything you want, and a jet Isaiah Davis is it.

So a lot of that information into of like work ethic and things like that you're going to get from talking to coaches and building relationships with those coaches, and then you really just want to see it like reinforce, Like when I go out to practice and hey, this guy has tremendous work ethic, and I know it to be true that Isaiah Davis has tremendous work ethic. He's extremely focused, he's driven, and when you're out there scouting it, you want to see it. Like you want to see that he's out there early to practice. You want to see that he's the first in line out there in reps. You want to see that he's going all out in all of his indie periods. You want to see that he's doing little things off to the side to get better. You want to see at the end of practice that he's got a couple of things that he's working on or he's working on with other guys. I think you're taking the information and then every time that you have a chance to see a player, whether that's in person to practice, whether that's in an All Star game, Isaiah was at the Senior Bowl, whether that's talking to him at a pro day at again Isaiah talking to at the Senior Bowl. You're trying to reinforce all that information and just stamp it in terms of, Okay, everything I've heard about this guy, now I've seen it with my eyes, I've heard him talk about it. All of those things are true, and Isaiah checks every single box in that regard. I think the other thing about Isaiah is in terms of his versatility. And he's a bigger back. Obviously, he can run through contact, He's strong. I think the physicality piece of Isaiah Davis is a big thing, not only as a runner but in pass protection, and I think that transitions really well to being a special teams player for us. He's returned kicks in the past, punts, kickoffs. You go back and you watch him at the Senior Bowl and you watch him play on punt team and you're like, all right, this guy can cover kicks at the NFL level. I think that's where he can come in and immediately help us as a special teams player.

Isaiah's got great balance and body control and got good quickness and strength and power to him. So those are the things that I really liked about him. He was again he was my Red Star for this year, so I can't speak enough on him. He's a great, great, phenomenal person.

So background there on the Red Star. Don Green's Red Star player, of course, was former South Dakota State standout Isaiah Davis. As Jets senior football advisor Phil Savage told us earlier on the podcast, the tradition is every scout should be able to nominate a Red Star from the area or group of schools. That is, a player who checks every box from an intangible standpoint. The twenty twenty four NFL Draft covered seven rounds and two hundred and fifty seventh picks, with the Jets owning the final selection. Alabama defensive back Jalen keys family was watching Day three of the draft in the living room when he exited to the garage with nerves as the final selections were made and Key got a call from the Jets and got the news that he's headed to New Jersey to start his NFL career. Here's College Scouting Director John Carr, College scout Andy Davis, and National scout Dom green On what's relevant to mister irrelevant.

All came back in the room there to talk about the seventh round pick there mister irrelevant, and Jalen's name just kept coming up. You know. He was a guy that, you know, very mature young man that kind of bet on himself right, transferred from UAB after graduating there and was kind of a laid out on at Alabama. And you know, anyone knows Nick Saban's defense can be very difficult to learn right away, you know, and for him to come in and quickly pick up that defensive scheme and and kind of become the communicator in the back end, and this kid has wired the right way. It was kind of a no brainer throughout the room, especially the guys that covered that area with Andy Davis being the primary, with Don Greenby in the National and Phil Savage with his relationship at Alabama, you know, you know at one time working there, those guys were all on board. And I watched the kid on tape as well. You got a guy that's good, good in his key and diagnosed and you know, got good short air quickness, recovers well in coverage, and he's got a really good clothes and he's not afraid to throw his body around. So that's gonna be a good addition to our defensive room.

How interested are you to see what actually unfolds during training camp? And we could use the safety position as an example, because you guys resigned Chuck Clark. We know Tony Adams was an undrafted free agent that you guys found. Now he's in the starting lineup. Bring back Ashton Davis, but you got two young guys he took in consecutive years there late in the draft.

JBC.

I think people often forget about him because of his first year, and then also obviously bringing in Key as well.

I think it's important that we have good competition. It's going to make our team better, right. You know you spoke of a Cook and Adams and Ashton Davis being resigned as well. Those guys are going to definitely help us on deep has been proven on tape. And then you know, with the addition of JBC, another versatility guy that can play corner, he can also play safety. We're going to see how he does at both positions this year. And then bringing in these two young guys, again, it just makes our team more competitive. And we want these guys because they're hungry. They got the character that they're going to come in and they want to start, and so that's what you want. And they're intelligent that we can move them around. So I'm really excited to see how all those guys compete on the back end. And we got a good safeties coach and coach Manuel that does a great job with those guys, and coach Obrick puts us all in the right put those guys in the right position to have success. So I'm excited to see when they all get there and get working together and OTAs on how these two young guys will pushing some of the other guys.

Two seasons ago at UAB, going through there, they had some players that were prospects and you see Jalen on the field. He obviously looks the part and you're like, all right, that looks like an NFL player. And again you start talking to position coaches and staff there and they love him and he's a great kid. They ended up having staff change and I think late in the summer or during the summer, Jalen was a late transfer for Alabama, and it was really like a remarkable situation. He's obviously transferring to a huge program defenses and emphasis there, and Jalen didn't have another year, so for him, like that's a big gamble to go make that move, and it's like, hey, I'm either going to play or I'm gonna waste a year of my eligibility here. So I thought it was remarkable that he made the transfer, got there, and was able to earn the trust of the coaching staff and coach Saban to get on the field right away.

So that's how I've initially found out about him. I was asking questions about the guys to the guys there at UAB about Jalen again, same type of demeanor, person, toughness, all that stuff, wired like you want them, all that stuff, And I circle back, go back to Alabama to see this guy. And he's a great looking kid, big, strong, rocked up lean, you know what I mean. You tell he's been working, he's taking care of his body, really smart. He's started learned Nick Saban's system really fast, which is really hard to do because it's complicated, and you know, wound up being a good player for them. And had a great season for him. Couldn't be more impressed was Jalen's overall character, his passion, and his smarts, because, like I said, Coach Saban's system is really difficult. Normally it takes guys, you know, two sometimes three years to pick it all up. He picked it up a matter of a couple of months. So it's a feather in his cap going to Alabama and learn it and not only learn it, but learn it to the point to where he could start for him and make an impact on film.

You see a good athlete. He's versatile, he's big, he's strong, has good arm length. I think, just really for him, like he's a physical kid. He plays under control, he can play the deep part of the field, he can play near the line of scrimmage because of his frame and allows him to do both. And really he's a high motor, smart player.

We have a meeting on the Saturday, and we you know, he asked for you know who the guys are excited about, you know what I mean? And so you know, guys, you know, the guys that we took were guys that we were excited about, you know. So just so happened Jalen was the last pick, you know what I mean. So it's like I told him on the call, doesn't matter if you're the first pick, last pick, you know your job's come in here and you know whoop some tail and take some names and earn a spot, right, So that's what it's all about.

On our next pot, we'll take a deep dive on the Jets scouting of wide receiver mail Kai Corley, quarterback Jordan Travis, and defuse it back Quantza Stickers