New York Jets: The ten plagues of the NFL Draft part I
Mike Nugent
This may not have been a first round pick but it still is a pick the team would probably like to have back. Unless the player’s name is Sebastian Janikowski, does it ever really work to draft a kicker early in the draft? As Jason Licht of the Buccaneers how it works when you draft a kicker early in the draft. Roberto Aguayo was selected in the first round and after one year he was no longer on the roster.
Yes this was long before the Aguayo move was on the landscape. But it’s not as if kickers were drafted near the top of the draft frequently. For some reason, Terry Bradway decided that the second round was long enough to wait before selecting Mike Nugent out of Ohio State in the 2005 draft. It probably is no coincidence that this was also Bradway’s last season as the general manager.
Nugent was never a bad kicker for the team, that isn’t the point. He could have been selected later in the draft. He was never known as this lights out great kicker like Janikowski. The need could have been filled later on. Players that were selected shortly after Nugent include Jonathan Babineaux, Frank Gore, Justin Tuck and Evan Mathis. This second round resource could have been used much more effectively.