No one works the draft like Bill Belichick. He has an excellent understanding of the draft process and a keen sense for the value in each round and moves up and down accordingly. 

He likes to collect 2nd round picks in order to avoid the large signing bonuses that accompany first round selections.  This allows him to manage his salary cap and as a result, the Patriots tend to have plenty of money to sign players in free agency.

The Miami Dolphins are coming off a surprising 11-5 season that won them the AFC East crown and a trip to the playoffs.  This was an impressive turnaround for a team that went 1-15 the year before but then again any Bill Parcells-led team should expect such improvement.

Parcells is the king of reclamation projects.  He turned around the Giants, Patriots, Jets and Cowboys with similar proficiency and has already changed the culture in Miami.  But 2009 could be different for the Dolphins.

Now that the 2009 NFL Draft is in the books, let’s take a look at each of the Jets’ AFC East opponents to see how they fared in this year’s draft.  In this first installment, we look at the Buffalo Bills who got off to a great start last year only to finish the season losing 8 of their last 10.

In one of the more peculiar off-season acquisitions, the team brought in Terrell Owens who at 35 can still get it done at the WR position.  Owens caught 69 balls for 1,052 yards and 10 TD’s last year for the Cowboys but he will not be the number one receiver in Buffalo.

The buzz leading up to the draft surrounded Mark Sanchez as some teams were testing the waters to see what it would take to move up to the top of the draft to get the talented signal caller from USC.

In the end, the Jets just wanted him more.  It didn’t hurt that a few stars aligned, making the trade a move that appeared destined to happen.

Matt Slauson is an interesting story.   He has had a stuttering problem since he was a kid. After being teased by jocks in his class, he tried out for the football team and punished those same kids out on the football field.

He is huge and stands 6-5, 316 lbs and no one messes with this guy.  He is a tough, nasty, physical offensive lineman that any offensive line coach would love to have.  In fact, were it not for his new OL coach, Bill Callahan, he might not have been drafted.

Mark Sanchez Video

Shonn Green Video

I am not a big Shonn Greene fan.  He had a good year for the Hawkeyes but is too one dimensional for my taste.

There were a few other running backs I liked better and they could have been had without moving up.  In particular, Rashad Jennings from Liberty and Kory Sheets from Purdue are two players who I believe have more upside.

The trade for Mark Sanchez was a tremendous move by the Jets.  To move up 12 spots and get into the top-5, a team will normally have to surrender their first round pick next year in addition their 1st and 2nd (and maybe their 3rd) this year. 

But the Jets only had to surrender their 2nd rounder.  That’s impressive.

The players they gave up are not front line guys so the team did not take a significant hit to its roster.  We are going to look back on this trade and see that the Jets got their franchise QB for a song. 

During Rex Ryan’s interview on SNY’s Jets Nation he told Steve Overmeyer he thought this was going to be a special day for the Jets.  Ryan was sporting  grin at the time and it struck me in that moment that he knew something the rest of us did not.  

The Jets were determined to get Mark Sanchez and Mike Tannenbaum’s relationship with former head coach Eric Mangini was a key to the deal.  Mangini needed players he was comfortable with and the Jets had them in abundance.