5 Players the New York Jets should have never let get away

1. John Abraham, Defensive End

This one would have never happened had the Jets never traded Keyshawn Johnson, but the fact is the Jets did trade their No. 1 wideout during the 2000 offseason. Their best return on that investment came in the form of John Abraham, who was added with the Bucs No. 13 overall pick.

That season, the Jets own pick was No. 12 which they used on Shaun Ellis and then added the South Carolina product with the very next selection. Both players helped improve the defense, but Abraham was the superior pass rusher.

By his second season, he had recorded 12 sacks and followed it yo with 10 more in 2002. He missed time over the next two seasons but still showed off plenty of ability as an edge rusher before again hitting double digits in 2005 — which also ended up being his final season with New York.

Abraham was sent to the Atlanta Falcons that offseason in exchange for the 29th overall pick. Again, they ended up landing a good player as they took Nick Mangold but it’s hard to say that was worth sending away someone as talented as Abraham.

The edge rusher spent the next seven seasons with the Falcons and played his best football. He had 233 tackles, 68.5 sacks, and forced 24 fumbles in that span. He continued to excel late in his career as he even headed to Arizona in 2013 and registered 11.5 sacks as the age of 35.

His final season came in 2014 when he was able to appear in just one game. Still, he went down as one of the best to ever attack the quarterback. Too bad he didn’t do that in New York for his entire career.