Every year, players drop on NFL Draft boards, and some end up being steals, meaning teams got a lot of value for being a lower pick.

Former Florida defensive pass rusher Jabari Zuniga was selected in the 3rd round (No. 79 overall), of the 2020 NFL Draft and he considers himself to be the biggest steal. In an interview with Jets team writer Ethan Greenberg, Zuniga expressed frustration for dealing with a high ankle sprain for most of the season.

“I definitely consider myself the steal of the draft,” said Zuniga. “I feel like I can do a lot on the football field and I’ll show that next year. It was extremely frustrating because one of my main reasons of coming back was to improve my on-the-field performance, so I feel like when I got injured, it was just adversity that I had to overcome, so I just feel like I had to make the most out of my senior season and deal with it. It was definitely frustrating.”

Zuniga didn’t play at full strength during his senior season due to the injury. Obviously, the reason he returned (or anyone returns) in 2019 was to improve his on-field performance in order to warrant being a higher draft pick. However, things didn’t turn out like he hoped. There’s plenty of time for Zuniga to prove value and warrant more money on his second contract.

After redshirting his freshman year at Florida, Zuniga recorded 5 sacks his redshirt freshman season in 2016 and 4 sacks his sophomore season. His junior season in 2018 was his best. He racked up 11 tackles for loss, including 6.5 sacks. Due to his ankle injury, Zuniga’s production fell to just 3 sacks in 2019.