After a few weeks of deep dives into the NFL Draft and the possibilities for the Jets, especially with the No. 2, in our “Now Boarding” series, it’s time to take your seats, make sure your tray table is in the full and upright position, sit back and prepare for takeoff.<\/p>\n
With the draft, April 23-25 in Pittsburgh, no longer far off on the horizon, it appears that the Jets’ choice will come down to a pair of elite defensive players: hybrid Arvell Reese and edge David Bailey.<\/p>\n
Either player would bring more exciting skills and potential. Reese, 20, is a freakish, speedy (4.46 in the 40 at the NFL Combine) and versatile athlete (6-4, 243) with long-term upside, though he didn’t rush the passer much during his time at Ohio State. Bailey (6-3, 250), 22, is a seasoned pass rusher who was more productive in college (14.5 sacks last year at Texas Tech, tied for the lead in the FBS) chasing the QB than Reese.<\/p>\n
Some analysts see Bailey having a more immediate impact along the defensive front, with Reese growing into his role, though some believe he has generational talent.<\/p>\n
Here we offer a snippet of analysts’ comments culled from their comments in chats with senior reporter Eric Allen on the “Now Boarding” series.<\/p>\n
Field Yates: Leaning Toward Bailey
“I think the Jets’ most logical and likely path is to take a pass rusher with that second overall pick,” said Yates, an ESPN NFL insider. “They’re sort of doing the dance: Who’s the best player, but how much does premium position matter to you as well. It’s easy in the leadup to the draft to dismiss positional value, and to a degree you’ll see teams doing that every year. And I think this particular draft you’re going to see that down the board, because you do not have a ton of blue-chip talent.<\/p>\n
“I lean toward Bailey. I lean towards one of those two. Maybe it’s 55\/45 Bailey at this moment. If I had to do a mock draft five minutes after we wrapped up, well, the Jets obviously did address the pass rush this offseason, a blend of younger and older players, to impact that defensive front seven. But I don’t know if there’s a single team in the NFL that has enough pass rush.”<\/p>\n
Jordan Reid: Bailey Could ‘Contribute Right Away’
“I mean, you talk about somebody at 6-4, 243, pounds, he was everything for that Ohio State defense this past season,” said Reid, a draft analyst at ESPN.<\/p>\n
For the Buckeyes last season, Reese amassed 69 tackles (34 solo), 10 TFL, 6.5 sacks and 2 passes defended in his third and final season for Ohio State.<\/p>\n
“You could put him at off-ball linebacker,” Reid said. “You could put him at edge rusher. He’s that jack-of-all-trades player that you can use on the second or even the first level as well. I really love how [DC] Matt Patricia used him this last season. He was able to utilize all those tools that he has. So for Darren Mougey and Aaron Glenn, I think they’re going to fall in love with the skillset of what he has presently, but also what he can be in the future.”<\/p>\n
Speaking about Bailey, Reid said: “From just a pass rush perspective, he obviously is the most productive. And you talk about explosiveness out of the starting blocks, I think he’s clearly better than the other two [Reese and Miami’s Rueben Bain Jr] in that facet. He still needs to improve a little bit as far as consistency as a run defender. But I mean, 14-and-a-half sacks last year — the production speaks for itself, 19-and-a-half tackles for loss this past season as well.<\/p>\n
“So he’s able to get after the quarterback, but he doesn’t only create pressure. There’s a lot of other things that he can do as well. That’s why I think if they want somebody that can contribute right away, as far as being a 10-plus sack guy, even early on as a rookie, I think David Bailey can be that right away.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After a few weeks of deep dives into the NFL Draft and the possibilities for the Jets, especially…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":204149,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[34086,22597,78771,85,9,24,55,54,12,56,61900],"class_list":{"0":"post-204148","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-2026-nfl-draft","9":"tag-draft","10":"tag-draft-previews","11":"tag-latest-headlines","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-city","14":"tag-new-york-city-headlines","15":"tag-new-york-city-news","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-ny","18":"tag-path-to-the-2026-draft"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=204148"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204148\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/204149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}