Joe Douglas is going to want all of the draft picks he can get as he looks to reshape the Jets this offseason. Well, it turns out he has one more selection than initially thought.
That’s because the Colts returned the conditional sixth-round pick they acquired from New York for CB Nate Hairston last August, according to the New York Post’s Brian Costello. The conditions attached to the pick were not met, so the Jets have eight picks instead of seven.
Douglas now has one choice in the first, second, fourth and fifth rounds of April’s draft, as well as two slots each in the third and sixth rounds. The Jets are currently without a seventh-round pick.
It’s not clear what the conditions surrounding the Colts pick were, but Hairston didn’t appear in five games and only played 35.71 percent of New York’s defensive snaps despite a lackluster cornerback room that was plagued by injuries and inexperience throughout the season. In his 11 games (six starts), Hairston record 24 tackles, two for a loss, three passes defended and one interception.
Now Hairston could be a potential cap casualty. The Jets would save $2.1 million if they were to move on from him. On the other hand, the team still has a lot of uncertainty at cornerback; hanging on to Hairston as a depth piece may not be a terrible idea.
Either way, though, the Jets didn’t suffer any losses in the trade for Hairston. He wasn’t exactly a reliable backup in 2019, but he also didn’t cost them a draft pick in the end.
That should be useful to Douglas as the draft draws near.
