Another New York Jets Cautionary Draft Tale
Every year around NFL Draft week, my thoughts return to the first round of the 2008 Draft when I was the Jets’ Director of Media Relations and the team drafted Vernon Gholston, DE, Ohio State, with the sixth pick overall.
The Jets were picking sixth in 2008 because of the way the 2007 season ended, with a 13-10 overtime win over the equally dreadful Kansas City Chiefs on December 30. That hollow victory improved the Jets’ record to 4-12, tying them with the Atlanta Falcons, Oakland Raiders, and Chiefs. Due to the tiebreaker, the Jets finished behind all three teams in the draft order. So instead of drafting third, the Jets were awarded the No. 6 pick in 2008.
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A top-3 selection would have given them the choice between QB Matt Ryan, who had a borderline Hall of Fame career, and RB Darren McFadden, who gained over 5,000 yards rushing in his career.
At No. 6, they were left to take Gholston, a stud on paper, a workout warrior whose Scouting Combine numbers were historic for defensive linemen. Gholston also had great numbers at Ohio State. He recorded 14 sacks in his junior season in 2007, including one of only two sacks allowed by Michigan tackle Jake Long in the annual Ohio State-Michigan game. Long was drafted first overall in 2008 by Miami.
The week leading up to that draft, one of the Jets’ assistant coaches came into the media relations office to shoot the breeze. He said he had his doubts about Gholston after watching his college tape. Even though Gholston played well against Michigan and in some other games, he said that sometimes Gholston would simply “disappear,” meaning there were stretches where he didn’t show up on film. To that coach, that was a red flag.
My job during the first day of that 2008 Draft, then a Saturday-Sunday event hosted at Radio City Music Hall, was to cross the bridge from the Jets’ Hofstra University offices on Long Island to go on site at Radio City.
When the Jets picked Gholston on Saturday afternoon, I became his escort through the media gauntlet. In 2008, that meant a series of continuous radio and television interviews in the theater, phone interviews on my BlackBerry, and then across the street to the old SNY studios on 6th Avenue for an in-depth interview with the Jets’ media partner. Once the media obligations were done in Manhattan, he was driven to Hofstra to meet the Jets coaches and executives.
Gholston undoubtedly looked the part: Six-foot-three, 260 lbs., well-spoken, mild-mannered. He said all the right things. New York was ready to crown a new superstar, and perhaps Vernon was ready to be that guy. Revisionist history says the Jets should have known. But besides that assistant coach, NOBODY KNEW.
Most know the rest of the story. Gholston played three seasons for the Jets, 2008 for head coach Eric Mangini, and then two more seasons for Rex Ryan. He never recorded an NFL sack. I remember Rex saying when he was hired as the Jets’ head coach in 2009 that he had the key to unlock Gholston. Rex prided himself on maximizing a player’s strengths on defense, putting defenders in the best position to make plays. But it never materialized.
After the Jets released Gholston in 2011, he went to training camp with the Chicago Bears but didn’t make the team. In 2012, he spent a week in training camp with the St. Louis Rams before he was waived, ending his NFL journey.
Funny thing about Gholston’s first Jets training camp in 2008: Gholston’s slow progress as a rookie would have been the story of that camp going into the season. But Vernon caught a break and struggled in virtual anonymity because late into the night, as August 6 became August 7, the Jets traded for Brett Favre and waived Chad Pennington. That’s a story for another day.
It’s impossible to know for sure why Vernon Gholston didn’t pan out as an NFL player. The scouting process leading up to the draft is an inexact science, to say the least, and that’s why football fans pay attention to the draft.
I know Jets fans will feel the familiar sense of dread over the next few days as the team decides how to use their four draft picks in the top 44 (No. 2, No. 16, No. 33, No. 44), hoping for a different result this time.