D’Brickashaw Ferguson approached the podium to announce the New York Jets‘ 2023 second-round pick at No. 43 overall. Jets fans assumed that the pick would be a center. Virtually everyone thought that the player selected would be Minnesota’s John Michael Schmitz.
Instead, the Jets’ long-time bookend read out the selection of Wisconsin’s Joe Tippmann. Not only did they take Tippmann, but Schmitz fell to their crosstown rivals, the New York Giants. Both teams needed centers. Both teams selected centers. The Jets took the consensus second-best center, and they will live to see the results.