As it turns out, drafting Mark Sanchez brings with it a form of Draft PTSD. Since selecting the USC quarterback with the 5th overall pick in the 2009 NFL Draft, the Jets have used 8 consecutive picks on defensive players.  That includes four busts (Wilson, Coples, Milliner), two hits (Wilkerson, Richardson), and three players where it’s probably still too early to evaluate.  Richardson has been great at times, but has also been frustrating on and off the field; in any event, his tenure with the team is likely coming to an end soon.  Pryor and Lee are still works in process, so it’s been mostly a mixed bag for the Jets over the last seven years:

Will that streak end tonight? If not, the Jets will set a record by becoming the first team to use 9 consecutive draft picks on players on one side of the ball. Right now, New York shares the distinction with three other franchises who have used eight consecutive first round picks in the NFL draft on efforts to rebuild one side of the ball.

The Giants used eight consecutive first round picks — from 1987 to 1995 — on offensive players. Take a look:

Note that this doesn’t even include Dave Brown, the Duke quarterback the Giants used a 1st round pick on in the 1992 Supplemental Draft; that wound up costing New York the 9th pick in the 1993 Draft. For 9 straight years, the Giants avoided using a first round pick on a defensive player, taking one QB, three RBs, two WRs, two OL, and one TE instead, and most of those players turned out to be disappointments.  Of course, had more of those early selections hit, the Giants probably would have stopped drafting offensive players in the first round.

From 1999 to 2005, the Detroit Lions had 9 first round picks, courtesy of multiple picks in ’99 (Detroit traded up from the 39th pick to the 27th pick) and ’04 (Detroit traded up from 36th to 30th).  In ’99, Detroit drafted a linebacker with the 9th pick, before using three straight first round picks on an offensive lineman.    Detroit then drafted their quarterback of the future — except he wasn’t — and drafted three wide receivers in four years, too.

The only good news for the Lions: despite top 10 picks on wide receivers in ’03, ’04, and ’05, that didn’t stop the team from using the 2nd overall pick on Calvin Johnson in 2007. In fact, Detroit used 12 of 13 straight first round picks, beginning at the end of the first round in 1999 and running through 2009, on offensive players; linebacker Ernie Sims was the sole exception.

Other than the Jets, only the Dallas Cowboys have used 8 straight first round picks on defensive players. For a decade, the Cowboys didn’t draft a single offensive player in the first round:

It lasted a decade because the Cowboys traded first round picks in ’00 and ’01 to Seattle for Joey Gallway. In addition, the Cowboys “lost” a first round pick in ’04 but that’s only because Dallas traded that pick to Buffalo — who wanted J.P. Losman — for a second round pick and the future first round pick added in 2005 (Spears).

So will the Jets streak reach 9 tonight? It’s very possible, in part because most of the top prospects this year are defensive players. In addition, the Jets had a bottom five pass defense in 2016, whether measured by passer rating (30th), expected points added (28th), or ANY/A (29th). Other than Williams and Wilkerson, and perhaps Lee and Pryor, the Jets don’t have much in the way of longterm building blocks on defense.