Jets cut 68th overall pick Jachai Polite
Posted by Michael David Smith on August 31, 2019, 2:48 PM EDT
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In a sign of just how much Jets coach Adam Gase and now-fired General Manager Mike Maccagnan disagreed in this year’s draft, the Jets have just cut a player they took with the 68th overall pick.
Jachai Polite, a linebacker from Florida whom the Jets used a high third-round pick on in April, has been released, according to Manish Mehta of the New York Daily News .
Maccagnan was fired less than a month later amid reports that he and Gase had strongly disagreed about the draft. Joe Douglas was hired to replace Maccagnan and it’s safe to say Douglas and Gase both think Maccagnan erred in using such a high pick on Polite.
As a first-team All-SEC linebacker last year, Polite was viewed as a potential first-round draft pick. But he turned in an ugly performance at the Scouting Combine (not unlike his former Florida teammate Teez Tabor), and that sent him plummeting down draft boards. The Jets were the team that ended his fall on the second day of the draft, but he didn’t last long there. Now he’ll go on waivers and perhaps some team will be willing to give him a longer look than the Jets did.