The Jets got very little out of the 12 players they drafted in 2014. It could turn out that their biggest contributor from the 2014 draft class is a player drafted by another team.
Tight end Austin Seferian-Jenkins was drafted 38th overall by the Buccaneers in 2014, 11 spots before the Jets drafted Jace Amaro. Amaro’s career is now hanging by a thread in Tennessee and Seferian-Jenkins has a chance to turn his career around with the Jets.
The 24-year-old Seferian-Jenkins says he has quit drinking alcohol and he’s shed about 30 pounds. He’s impressed the Jets at organized team activities and minicamp and no longer is playing for tight end-averse offensive coordinator Chan Gailey.
“I feel like a different person on and off the field,” Seferian-Jenkins told the Jets’ website. “The weight loss has been tremendous and I’m just really happy I have the opportunity to show the Jets taking a chance on me is going to pay off. I’m just trying to work every single day on the team like everybody else.”
The Jets took that chance on Seferian-Jenkins when the Buccaneers released him last September. Seferian-Jenkins caught 21 passes in each of his first two seasons, then got thrown out of a practice and arrested for DUI. The Bucs had enough and the Jets picked him up. He appeared in seven games for the Jets, missing time with various injuries and catching a total of 13 passes for the season. He checked into rehab in January.
Seferian-Jenkins will have to wait two games before he can put his words into action on the field. He’s suspended for the first two games of the season for violating the NFL’s substance abuse policy.
But following an offseason in which the Jets traded 2014 first-round bust Calvin Pryor, Seferian-Jenkins can help repair some of the damage from John Idzik’s final draft.
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