The Jets’ sixth-round draft pick certainly is feeling blessed to be selected by his hometown team.
They took a chance on Rutgers cornerback Blessuan Austin, a Queens product who appeared in just five games over the past two seasons for the Scarlet Knights after twice undergoing surgery to repair a torn ACL in his left knee.
“I can’t explain the feeling right now just having the opportunity to be in this position right now after going through what I went through,” said Austin, who attended Campus Magnet High School in Cambria Heights. “I’m just thankful and I’m actually humble, too. But at the same time I have a burning fire in my chest right now that I don’t think can be put out as long as I’m playing this game.”
Austin, the 196th overall selection, admitted he grew up a Giants fan, but he joked “the switch over” won’t be a difficult one.
“It won’t be hard. At all,” Austin said. “I’m very excited that the Jets picked me and decided to pick me. I can’t ask for anything better than this situation right here.
“It feels great to be on a New York team, a hometown team, being able to represent, being able to be close to home. It don’t get no better than this. It don’t get no better than this at all. Things happen for a reason, I truly believe they do.”
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The 6-foot-1 Austin initially tore up his knee against Nebraska in the fourth game of Rutgers’ season on Sept. 25, 2017. He reinjured it in the team’s opener last season against Texas State.
Jets general manager Mike Maccagnan said Austin still isn’t cleared to play and the rookie likely will open the season on the physically unable to perform (PUP) list. But team doctors “felt good about his ability to potentially recover and be the player he was before,” the GM added.
“We’ll bring him along a little slowly to make sure,” Maccagnan said. “We thought had he been healthy, he has a much higher ceiling than maybe where we got him in the draft. There’s some risk to him, obviously. … But we felt good about the risk.”
Austin could have stayed another year at Rutgers on a medical redshirt, but said he declared for the draft because he “was ready to make this bet” and he doesn’t “regret anything at all” about his decision.
“Going through this knee injury after having some success and being so close to the pinnacle of my career and just being knocked down, it was hard to deal with,” Austin said. “But I’ve been blessed with perseverance and having an ability to go through adversity. That’s what got me here today.
“The fact that they were willing to take a chance on me and take me in the sixth round after going through what I went through, it only shows you my ceiling and my talent and the type of person I am as far as my IQ for the game. I’m very excited the New York Jets picked me.”
Austin added he is uncertain whether other teams were scared off by his ominous injury history, but he was elated to be picked by one of his hometown teams.
“I wasn’t sure what teams were thinking about it, because if you ask me, I felt perfectly fine going into it,” Austin said. “I’m a freakish athlete, man, so when I get injuries like that, I’m not worrying about how I heal and things like that. I know I’m gonna come back 100 percent.
“But the fact that the Jets truly believed that and 100 percent believe in me. They’re definitely gonna get what they invested in, I’m telling you that right now.”