Jets GM Darren Mougey addresses David Bailey narrative amid renewed Arvell Reese chatter

Numerous members of the NFL community are convinced the New York Jets will make Ohio State pass-rusher Arvell Reese the second overall pick of this year's draft after the club recently canceled its scheduled top-30 visit with Texas Tech defensive end David Bailey.

While speaking with reporters on Tuesday, Jets general manager Darren Mougey addressed the Bailey matter.

Are Jets using smokescreens regarding David Bailey, Arvell Reese draft pick?

"With top-30s, every team uses them differently, and has different ways of using that mechanism, some don't even use the top-30s at all, right? I would say for us, when we do top-30s, every single player and case is different," Mougey said, per Ben Krimmel of SNY. "Sometimes I want this player to meet with our player engagement department. Sometimes I want this player to meet with our sports performance. Sometimes it’s purely medical. Sometimes it’s a recruiting process. Sometimes it’s a smokescreen."

Jets/NFL reporter Connor Hughes of SNY and Jeff Howe of The Athletic are among those who aren't buying what Gang Green is trying to sell regarding Bailey. Both Hughes and Howe predicted in their latest mock drafts that the Jets will select Reese at pick No. 2. 

"Why would you cancel it unless it’s the smokescreen of all smokescreens?" one executive from another team told Howe about the Jets' Bailey decision. "But that wouldn’t make sense because you’d want to spend as much time with him as possible before you draft him."

Outsiders shouldn't "look too much into a cancellation" as Jets decide between David Bailey, Arvell Reese?

"In regards to David, we had good touchpoints with him at the combine," Mougey added about Bailey. "We went to his pro day and had a good dinner with him, and we were just kinda juggling our 30 and how to use them. I wouldn't look too much into a cancellation, 'cause there were other ones that we may have changed as well."

Mougey also insisted that he feels the edge-rushers available to the Jets in this year's draft class "is a pretty good group." For what it's worth, DraftKings Sportsbook had Reese as the betting favorite at -360 odds to be the draft's second pick as of Tuesday morning.