New York Jets rookie edge rusher David Bailey has managed an odd kind of quiet heading into training camp: the kind that makes a player with top-of-the-draft billing feel almost invisible.
That isn’t Bailey’s doing. In a market like New York, silence can be a good thing, and the rookie has certainly done nothing to create noise for the wrong reasons.
Still, for a player who went No. 2 in April, the lack of buzz is striking. Outside the tri-state area, some fans may have already lost track of him.
There’s a reason this stands out. Since the NFL moved to its current three-day draft format 17 years ago, and with the current collective bargaining agreement now in its 16th season, Bailey belongs to a very small group of No. 2 picks who arrived with this little preseason attention.
Jaguars left tackle Luke Joeckel in 2013 and Rams left tackle Greg Robinson in 2014 are the closest comparisons. If you remove those two because they were offensive linemen, Bailey may be the clear winner.
Mitchell Trubisky in 2017 can be part of the discussion, but that’s only among the seven quarterbacks selected No. 2.
The usual No. 2 pick profile looks nothing like this. Ndamukong Suh in 2010 was one of the most dominant college defensive linemen ever seen.
Von Miller might have gone No. 1 in 2011 if not for Cam Newton. And in the three-year stretch from 2018 through 2020, everyone knew Saquon Barkley, Nick Bosa, and Chase Young were coming.
More recently, Aidan Hutchinson in 2022 had been discussed as a possible No. 1 pick, while Travis Hunter in 2025 arrived as the reigning Heisman Trophy winner and a two-way unicorn.
Bailey’s lack of attention isn’t just a casual-fan thing, either. D’Angelo Ponds has arguably gotten the most notice of any Jets rookie not named Cade Klubnik, and Ponds wasn’t even a first-round pick. National conversations about rookie defenders have also tended to center on Arvell Reese, Sonny Styles, and Reuben Bain.
This isn’t being framed as a knock on the media. It’s more a reflection of a weird rookie class, one shaped in part by the fact that no rookie quarterbacks are entering training camp with a real shot to start.
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