It’s not often that an undrafted rookie gets a lot of buzz heading into training camp, but for Jets cornerback Isaiah Dunn, the buzz is real.
Jets defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich said after minicamp that Dunn looks so good that he could be competing not just to make the roster but to become a significant contributor to the Jets’ defense as a rookie. Dunn says that’s what he wants to show he can do.
“I don’t feel like the typical undrafted dude. I don’t look at it like ‘OK, I went undrafted and I need to prove something.’ I’m proving to myself that I belong here,” Dunn told the New York Daily News. “I don’t sit around and talk about ‘Oh if I was drafted, this would have happened.’ I don’t do that because that’s neither here nor there. I’m just focusing on the task at hand and to make the team.”
Dunn got off to a good start in his college career at Oregon State, but he didn’t play much during the COVID-shortened 2021 season, and that resulted in him going undrafted. Still, enough teams were interested in him as an undrafted free agent that the Jets had to guarantee him $185,000 to get him to sign. Now Dunn thinks he has a chance to earn a starting job.
“Competing for this job now is exciting, because of the competition that’s going to take place,” Dunn said. “I was competing my butt off for those few days we had OTAs and minicamp practices. I’m really just amped up, ready to go get it. I want to see how my competition is coming. It’s just an exciting feeling to know that there’s one thing that everybody wants, and it comes down to who’s gonna get it.”
Dunn seems to have a real shot to get real playing time as an undrafted rookie.