A New York Jets rookie is making some early noise during OTA practices.
Zack Rosenblatt of The Athletic joined me on “Boy Green Daily” and revealed that undrafted free agent defender, Eric Watts, out of UConn has turned some heads this week.
“I mean it was one practice, obviously no pads, shorts and all that stuff so take it with some grain of salt but Eric Watts kept standing out to me. He has Carl Lawson’s [old] number, No. 58. We kept seeing 58 make plays, and multiple times people were like who is 58? I saw him beat Olu [Fashanu], I saw him beat some of the backup offensive linemen like he was doing his job in this setting,” Rosenblatt explained to me on “Boy Green Daily” this week.
“Yeah, he is an intriguing guy because they obviously just got rid of JFM [John Franklin-Myers]. I think there are still some questions about what Micheal Clemons can do. There is an opening for that versatile defensive end/tackle type of guy and he has that type of skillset … He caught my eye the most out of all the young guys. I didn’t get to watch all of them particularly closely but he definitely jumped out and made some plays. That’s all you can ask for from a UDFA,” Rosenblatt explained.
Follow the Jets’ Money Trail
On top of all of those first-hand observations from Rosenblatt, he also pointed out that the money quotient is another factor in the Watts evaluation.
“Yeah I mean if you look at the signing bonuses that they [the Jets] gave out it was heavily favored toward the defensive line. You can usually tell what positions they felt like has the best chance of making the team,” Rosenblatt explained to me on “Boy Green Daily.” “They gave him [Watts] the most in terms of signing bonus. [That] doesn’t necessarily lock in anything but it means they wanted to bring him into the roster pretty badly.”
Watts got $245,000 guaranteed from the Jets as an undrafted free agent, per Rosenblatt. When the draft ends, the power shifts from the teams to the players.
Every NFL team comes crawling to those players and attempts to lure them to their teams in a hotly contested free agency period that gets incredibly competitive. The Jets didn’t want to risk losing Watts to another team so they paid the iron price to bring him in.
Jets Earned Incredibly High Praise for Its Work on the UDFA Market
Jason Fitzgerald from Over The Cap explained that the average number of UDFAs to sign to an NFL team this offseason was 12.5 players. Three NFL teams in particular went above and beyond to bring some new talent in with the Baltimore Ravens (24), Los Angeles Chargers (21), and the Jets (20).
The Jets didn’t just attack quantity after the draft, they also got credit for the quality of players they were able to bring in.
Thor Nystrom of Fantasy Pros ranked every UDFA class in the league following the draft. During that exercise, he placed the Jets at No. 2 on his power rankings.
“I may not have been in love with the Jets’ decisions during the draft itself, but boy did they slaughter the UDFA process. New York signed three prospects inside my pre-draft top-153, and a fourth who I gave a draftable grade. They were edged out by the Chiefs for [the] top UDFA class in my metrics by the slimmest of fractional margins. I am most bullish on EDGE Eric Watts, who started three-of-four active seasons at UConn (the Huskies canceled their 2020 season due to COVID). Watts is not a finished product – but he has measurables that portend to NFL success, and his tape is dotted with flash plays both as a defender and as a special-teamer,” Nystrom explained. “He posted 22.5 TFL over the last three seasons, and, over the last two campaigns, had nine sacks, two blocked field goals, and a blocked punt. On the measurable side, Watts was close to tops in the EDGE class in three very important categories: 40, vertical, and arm length.”
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