New York Jets: The ten plagues of the NFL Draft part II

Vernon Gholston

If this guy’s name were to come up at the Seder, or anywhere else for that matter, the wine won’t just be part of the ceremony it will be consumed in large gulps. The Jets were in the spot they have ended up in more than once lately, the sixth overall draft position. They were searching for the elusive pass rusher that always seems to evade them. They ended up with Vernon Gholston out of Ohio State. He was a prolific pass rusher with 22.5 sacks over two years, so there were high hopes.

As any Jets fan knows, those hopes came nowhere near being realized. Gholston never seemed to get the pro game. The speed of the game and the basic football awareness seemed to evade him. Similarly to Geno Smith, Gholston just didn’t “get it”. Rex Ryan tried to bring him out, and say what you want about Ryan but he has the ability to get results from defensive players. When he couldn’t get Gholston to produce we knew it was over. He was out of the league, never recording a sack.

If they wanted to find a pass rusher, a guy by the name of Calais Campbell was selected later in that draft. The Jets could have tried to get back into the second round to select him. Other talented defensive players selected after Gholston include, Jerod Mayo, Leodis McKelvin, Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, Aquib Talib and Kenny Phillips. For offensive weapons, Brett Favre and then Mark Sanchez would have salivated to have Jordy Nelson in the fold, also taken in that draft.

Enough about Vernon Gholston. Moving on.