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Keidel: Regardless Of Availability, Jets Are Better Suited Passing On Both Winston And Mariota

By Jason Keidel
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Odd as it sounds, Jets fans should exhale over their place in the draft.

They don't have to bang heads, brooding over Jameis Winston, who has great athletic gifts but a troubling chasm between the ears -- in logic, not intelligence. Indeed, Winston,  who was accepted to Stanford, is a smart chap, but not a swell chap.

Quarterback is not a position that allows for the luxury of character defects. That's largely the domain of wideouts and cornerbacks. The Jets wouldn't know if they're getting Andrew Luck or Ryan Leaf.

And Marcus Mariota -- despite Chip Kelly's gaseous assertions of multiple Mariota Super Bowls -- is too much of a variable to bank on with a top 10 pick. If Kelly thinks Mariota is all that, then why trade for the forever-injured Sam Bradford instead of elbow your way up the draft for your star pupil?

If you browse the mock draft on CBSSports.com, you'll see all four experts have the Jets taking Mariota. But just because you need a quarterback, it doesn't mean you risk your draft on one.

At first, fans and pundits were gleefully comparing Mariota to Colin Kaepernick. Now those glowing analogies don't sound so lovely anymore, especially with the 49ers' QB struggling once defenses adjusted to his rugged, freestyle approach.

Oregon was up way too much way too often to test Mariota's mores as a passer, which is what will either make or break him in the NFL. We still don't know if he's a runner who can throw or a passer who can run.

Robert Griffin III landed like a meteor on Washington, D.C. His rookie season was a revelation. Until he blew out his bejeweled knee. Then he became a brand, a social media lab rat, a cautionary tale on what Bill Parcells called celebrity quarterbacks.

Mariota is way too modest to morph into a self-involved star, a Twitter behemoth who has one eye on the gridiron and the other on his next endorsement. If character were the main QB metric, teams would be drawing swords to get him. But talent means just as much as temerity.

Then there's the reality that Oregon hasn't produced an All-Pro quarterback, despite their pyrotechnic success in college. While it's not Mariota's fault that Akili Smith and Joey Harrington bombed in the pros, the question still remains: Does the quarterback make Oregon or does Oregon make the quarterback?

Frankly, UCLA's Brett Hundley and Baylor's Bryce Petty look pretty decent. Why not risk a second- or third-round pick on either of them rather than the No. 6 pick on someone who will give you a similar return?

It's not like the Jets don't have other valleys to fill. A linebacker or pass rusher would be nice. And a few are expected to fall early in the first round, like Dante Fowler, Vic Beasley, and Alvin Dupree. Take someone Todd Bowles can bank on and develop right away, not a coin-flip quarterback.

If you watched Mariota at the combine, at Jon Gruden's QB camp, and the assortment of meat-market parties that lead up to the draft, you saw a good player. But the Jets need to get a great player to kick-start their new and, presumably, prosperous era. Whiffing on the first pick could end the Bowles' honeymoon before it begins.

Follow Jason on Twitter at @JasonKeidel 

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