The Jets, making their second choice of the 2025 NFL Draft, their first of draft night No. 2, and the draft’s 42nd selection, overall, made another pick for their offense with tight end Mason Taylor of LSU.
Taylor (6-5, 251) is the son of Pro Football Hall of Fame DE/LB Jason Taylor, who tortured the Jets on frequent occasions for Miami, then came north to One Jets Drive to play 19 games, including playoffs, for the Jets in 2010, and Mason’s uncle is Dolphins MLB legend and fellow Hall of Famer Zach Thomas. JT patrolled the halls of the Jets’ training center only for that one season, but now Mason will call it his home as he gives QB Justin Fields and the offense a new weapon to train on the Dolphins and all their other opponents in ’25.
NFL.com draft analyst Lance Zierlein called Taylor “an ascending tight end with plus catch talent and Hall of Fame bloodlines. With just three seasons under Taylor’s belt, more growth is expected in both his game and frame. He’s a smooth athlete with adequate acceleration and the tools to become a more effective route runner in time. … His game needs polish, but Taylor has the ability to become a higher-volume target for a team looking to upgrade at the ‘F’ tight end spot.”
Taylor was born in Plantation, FL, and built his football profile at TE and DE at famed St. Thomas Aquinas HS in Fort Lauderdale. He built his college career over the last three years in Baton Rouge, starting
Last season he cemented his billing as “the most productive tight end in LSU history,” according to the Bayou Bengals’ sports information department. He set the school season record for TEs with 55 catches, in the process becoming the only tight end in school annals with career totals of 100-plus receptions and 1,000-plus receiving yards. For his career, in 38 games he totaled 129 catches for 1,308 yards and 6 TDs. He finished his college career with a 28-game pass-catching streak.
He joins a Jets TEs room that lost productive Tyler Conklin in free agency but returns young veterans in Jeremy Ruckert, free agent addition Stone Smartt, and first-year players Zack Kuntz and Neal Johnson.
Taylor is the sixth LSU player drafted by the Jets and the second in the past three years following CB Jarrick Bernard-Converse in 2023 (Round 6, No. 204). First-round Tigers taken by the Green & White include RB Jerry Stovall in the 1963 AFL Draft (third overall, never played for Jets) and S Jamal Adams in 2017 (No. 6 overall).
The Jets have selected four players with pick No. 42 in their 66 drafts. The last three were Round 2 defensive players who each played 40-plus games for the Jets — LB Alex Gordon from Cincinnati (1987), legendary DE/DT Dennis Byrd out of Tulsa (1989) and LB Kurt Barber from Southern Cal (192). FB Bill Brown from Illinois was the only offensive player taken at 42, in the 1961 AFL Draft.
