Outside Linebacker · New York Jets

David Bailey

No. 31 · Rookie

Second overall pick, zero pressure — Bailey's words, anyway

Walk into any NFL locker room as the second player chosen in the entire draft and everyone already has a story written for you. The question is whether you get to write your own.

David Bailey is a linebacker — and not just any linebacker. The New York Jets believed in him enough to make him the second overall pick, which is about as loud a statement of faith as a franchise can make. That kind of selection comes with a weight most players spend years trying to describe.

Bailey has spent this summer making a different kind of impression. The Jets have come away pleased with what they've seen from him, and Bailey himself seems clear-eyed about where he stands. He knows the number next to his name. He's said out loud that the expectations are real — and then said, just as plainly, that he doesn't feel the pressure.

Maybe he means it. Maybe that's exactly the kind of thing a second overall pick has to learn to believe before anyone else does.

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