BTSC 2012 Community Mock Draft Pick No. 16 -- New York Jets Select Trent Richardson, RB, Alabama

Make that back-to-back-to-back players from 'Bama coming off the board! I never heard from steelers1963, which makes this my work here - I was totally going to phone it in, but a slow work day afforded me enough time to sort of put something together. Regardless, don't hold back if you want to rip on it and second-guess me. Next up: Cincinnati Bengals with their first pick of the 1st round (which they received from Oakland in the Carson Palmer trade) and they'll be represented by seton hall and the steelers.

By the way, take note of the cool little minute-long draft profiles from SBN NFL that are embedded with these picks. It's been Michael Bean's personal project to make these videos happen, and let us know what you think of them! -barnerburner-

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The New York Jets have had an offseason of interesting acquisitions, highlighted by the following:

• LaRon Landry, S - the former 6th overall pick in 2007 had a mutual parting from the Redskins and signed a one-year, $4 million contract. Landry has also been looking... well... just look here.
• Chaz Schilens, WR - the big 6'4 target had two injury-plagued campaigns in four seasons with the Raiders, and was signed to a cheap, one-year deal.
• Drew Stanton, QB - was signed from the Lions and spent all of five days as the presumed back up to Mark Sanchez, before the Jets traded for someone magical. Stanton immediately requested to be released or traded, and two days later, he ended up being packaged with a 7th round pick and shipped to Bruce Arians land in exchange for a 6th round pick.
• Tim Tebow, QB - acquired from the Broncos along with a 7th round pick, in exchange for the Jets' 4th and 6th round picks. May or may not back up Mark Sanchez. May or may not run the Jets' 'Wildcat'. May or may not run some other specialty/gimmick package. Will definitely get an even more disproportionate amount of attention now that he's under the microscope of the New York media. Will definitely also sell a ridiculous number of jerseys in the meantime.
• Hayden Smith, rugby star - no really, he's an Aussie that used to play professional rugby in England. Apparently they'll try to turn him into a tight end. Or a series of amusing training camp stories.

Let's cut to the chase - here's who I think their next acquisition should be in this scenario:

Needs and options:

The acquisition of Landry is trying to shore up a glaring weak area - Eric Smith reportedly struggled at one safety spot, while Jim Leonhard had locked down the other until he sustained a season-ending torn patellar tendon. More to the point, Leonhard is not currently under contract with the Jets, and the only other safety they have listed on their roster is Tracy Wilson, who was a rookie UDFA last year. If Mark Barron was available, I'd have considered him here.

The acquisition of Schilens was a move with low-risk, potentially decent reward to try to shore up a receiving corps that currently features Santonio Holmes and no one else of note right now. I guess Plaxico Burress could still potentially re-sign with them, but I have no idea 1) what his contract demands are, 2) if the Jets have the cap space for it, or 3) if the Jets are actively trying to bring him back. If Justin Blackmon fell or Michael Floyd was available, I'd have considered them here.

The acquisition of Tebow accounts for the Jets' need for fanfare and offseason press coverage.

There have been no acquisitions to bolster their pass rush. In 2011, they finished with a rather pedestrian 35 sacks that tied for 17th in the league with... wait for it... the Steelers! If Melvin Ingram was available, I'd have considered him here. I also did consider Courtney Upshaw, Whitney Mercilus and Nick Perry.

I also considered Michael Brockers and Fletcher Cox, since they are still on the board. I would be a little surprised if the Jets took a DE two years running in the 1st round (took Muhammad Wilkerson one spot ahead of us last year), but I could still see it happening and wouldn't knock them for it if the draft ended up breaking in a funny way. I started considering offensive line options, since they apparently have a need at right tackle (would've considered Riley Reiff if he was still available), but then I stopped because I realized I was over-thinking all of this.

Instead of going with any of the above options...

With the 16th pick in the 2012 BTSC Community Mock Draft, the New York Jets select Trent Richardson, RB, Alabama.

Yeah, it's not a surprise. You all can read titles. The video already went by. Just let me pretend to unveil it with a little bit of fanfare.

I went with Trent Richardson because he's an elite talent that has slid way too far. Moreover, the Jets can use him right now. Shonn Greene is their #1 RB by default, rather than Greene having established himself as the man that can shoulder the workload and who should be the go-to feature guy. Since LaDainian Tomlinson is not being retained, there's a collection of guys ranging from mid-round draft picks to UDFAs behind Greene (a former 3rd round pick, himself). Joe McKnight is a change-of-pace back and returner, Bilal Powell was a rookie 4th rounder and I don't really know what he offers, and then I'm not going to bother myself with trying to look into the rest of the guys on their RB/FB depth chart (the only other thing I know is that one of their FBs, John Conner, was a favorite on Hard Knocks and unsurprisingly has the nickname, "The Terminator).

Some Jets fans may be as confident in the potential of their RB depth chart as some of us are with our stable of late-round/UDFA depth backs (Jonathan Dwyer, Baron Batch, John Clay), but I'm not in that camp. If Shonn Greene goes down, or can't take a sufficient amount of pressure off of whoever-they-have-at-QB throwing to whoever-they-have-at-WR, then the Jets' offense could be in a real bind.

Trust your draft board, and take the elite talent that has slid into your lap. That's what this pick is.

BTSC 2012 Community Mock Draft Picks: