Jets Reportedly Canceled David Bailey's Top 30 Visit - What Does It Mean?

The New York Jets‘ defense went the entire 2025 NFL season without recording an interception.

This week, the Jets keep intercepting mock drafts.

Rumors are ramping up around what New York will do with the No. 2 overall pick in the 2026 NFL Draft on April 23, and the latest report only intensified speculation that the Jets might be open for business to trade out of the No. 2 overall spot altogether.

“Texas Tech pass rusher David Bailey was supposed to have a [top] 30 visit with the Jets,” SNY’s Connor Hughes reported on Wednesday, citing unnamed sources. “The team decided to cancel that visit.”

It’s possible the Jets plan to trade down, but it’s also entirely possible they know they’re drafting Bailey and that a top-30 visit at this point would be unnecessary.

On Tuesday, ESPN’s Peter Schrager visited “The Pat McAfee Show” and updated his mock draft published on April 7. In that mock, Schrager projected the Jets to draft Bailey at No. 2 overall.

“You could tear it up,” Schrager said. “I mean, honestly, you can tear it up. The amount of feedback that I’ve gotten saying this guy is too high, this guy is too low, they’re not doing that. There are some teams directly saying, ‘Appreciate the thought process, but that’s probably not the direction we’re going.'”

Schrager added, “I believe Bailey is still the target at No. 2 for the Jets. It’s the production score - a 98 production score out of 100. He had arguably the greatest college football pass-rushing season we have seen, with maybe the exception of Myles Garrett in 2017 at Texas A&M and Aiden Hutchinson a few years back from Michigan.”

On Monday, Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer urged the Jets to take Bailey based on his reporting around Jets ownership’s “impatience” and the need for New York to come out strong in 2026 to ensure second-year head coach Aaron Glenn keeps his job.

If the Jets are planning to trade out of No. 2 overall, the growing consensus is that the Dallas Cowboys are the most likely trade-up candidate. NFL insider Jordan Schultz and NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport both reported around the league-wide belief that the Cowboys want to move up on Tuesday.

With the information available at the time of this writing, it seems most likely that the Jets feel comfortable with what they’ve already evaluated of Bailey and know they have no competition to land him. The only team drafting ahead of the Jets is the Las Vegas Raiders, and they are universally expected to take Heisman-winning Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza at No. 1 overall.

Bailey played his first three collegiate seasons at Stanford before transferring to Texas Tech and taking off as a senior last year. Bailey led the Big 12 with 19.5 tackles for loss and led all FBS Division I pass rushers with 14.5 sacks. He played all four years at linebacker. Renowned NFL draft analyst Daniel Jeremiah ranked Bailey as the fourth-best overall prospect in this class.

The 2026 NFL Draft will take place from April 23 to April 25 in Pittsburgh. Bailey is among the 16 draftees planning to attend. See the full draft order here.

2026 NEWSWEEK DIGITAL LLC.

This story was originally published April 15, 2026 at 6:00 PM.