Todd McShay Doubles Down on David Bailey Jets NFL Draft Buzz

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Texas Tech defender David Bailey getting ready ahead of a play during a college football game against Arizona State.

There has been a lot of buzz over the last 10 days that the New York Jets will take Texas Tech defender David Bailey with the No. 2 overall pick.

Todd McShay did nothing to deter that notion in his latest mock draft. In fact, he not only predicted that it would happen, but also explained that it is nearly a certainty.

“This pick has come full circle. My early intel was Bailey to the Jets at no. 2 because he’s the most proven pass rusher in the class. Then there were folks in the league who thought the Jets—as they’re building for 2027, when they’ll land their QB—might prefer the ‘higher upside’ guy in Arvell Reese because they have time to develop him,” McShay wrote for “The McShay Report.”

“Now we’re back to Bailey, and it’s close to a foregone conclusion in NFL circles. While the Jets are miles away from playoff contention, HC Aaron Glenn needs to build positive momentum in 2026. Bailey gives them an elite pass rusher immediately. He’ll take his lumps as a run defender, but the real value at edge (the league’s second-most valued position) is pass rush production. Pairing Bailey with Will McDonald IV will give the Jets a strong, young defensive foundation,” McShay said.

Other Reporters and Insiders Are Following Suit

The Bailey Jets hype has gone into overdrive.

Last week, ESPN’s Peter Schrager played a key role in the Bailey Jets movement. During an appearance on “The Pat McAfee Show” this week, he, like McShay, doubled down on that take.

“Bailey, I will back up what I said. I believe Bailey is still the target at No. 2 for the Jets,” Schrager told McAfee. “He had arguably the greatest college football pass rushing season we have seen, with maybe the exception of Myles Garrett (2017 Texas A&M) and Aidan Hutchinson a few years back from Michigan … Everyone seems to think that if you’re building a team right now and you need to hit it right on the fairway and you need a guy who is going to produce, it is David Bailey. That seems to be the Jets at [pick No.] 2.”

Another Double Down Situation

Bailey to the Jets isn’t the only hot draft buzz right now.

Over the last calendar week, two prominent experts have predicted that the Jets will make a sizable trade up in the first round.

Daniel Jeremiah of the NFL Network predicted a trade up from the Jets at pick No. 16 to the Washington Commanders at pick No. 7. That was a move for the Jets to go get Ohio State wide receiver Carnell Tate.

Now McShay has entered that realm. In his latest mock draft, he predicted that the Jets would make that same trade.

New York Jets receive: a 2026 first-round pick (No. 7 overall)

Washington Commanders receive: a 2026 first-round pick (No. 16 overall), a 2026 second-round pick (No. 44 overall), and a 2026 fourth-round pick (No. 140 overall)

“The Jets have plenty of draft capital, and they’re not interested in sitting back at 16 and watching the top three receivers come off the board. In this scenario, they move up and secure the most complete wide receiver in the class in Tate,” McShay wrote.

“Tate brings the profile they’re missing. He’s over 6-foot-2 with massive 10 1/4–inch hands, which helped him secure 85.7 percent of his contested catch opportunities in 2025. He’s not a pure burner, with 4.53-second 40 speed, but plenty of top NFL receivers have lived in that range, and Tate wins where it matters as an exceptional deep route runner with strong ball skills. With Tate at X and a healthy [Garrett] Wilson at Z, the Jets would finally have the kind of perimeter firepower needed to stabilize the offense and properly support a future franchise quarterback from the loaded 2027 class,” McShay added.

When a regular analyst predicts a trade, it’s interesting to talk about. When an insider predicts a trade, your ears perk up.

In the 2023 NFL draft, Jeremiah predicted that the Houston Texans would take quarterback C.J. Stroud with the No. 2 overall pick and that they’d trade up to No. 3 overall to take pass rusher Will Anderson. That ended up coming to fruition.

Could another accurate prediction be on the horizon?

Paul Esden Jr. covers the New York Jets for Heavy.com. A New York native, he co-hosts a morning show, “The Manchild Show with Boy Green Digital.” Before joining Heavy in 2021, Esden Jr. covered both national and New York sports for FanSided, Elite Sports NY, and The Score 1260. More about Paul Esden Jr.