The Jets have signed third round draft pick Jachai Polite, whose selection last month was overshadowed by his disastrous performance on and off the field at the NFL Combine.

During the Combine, Polite performed poorly across the board and took issue with questions teams were asking him -- publicly complaining to reporters that teams were "bashing" him for bad plays on film.

After the Draft, the 21-year-old Polite said the Combine performance was all on him.

"It was all my fault," Polite told reporters. "And I learned from it."

"It was a great learning experience going into this league," Polite added. "I learned how to take care of business. I was kind of blinded before. being young and immature. But I've accepted all my flaws and have been working on it this offseason."

SNY's Ralph Vacchiano wrote earlier this week about how the Jets are betting on Polite to make the most of his fresh start.

"Right now we've got pretty much a guy with a fresh start," head coach Adam Gase said at the start of his team's Rookie Orientation program on Friday. "Whatever happened in the past is irrelevant to me. Moving forward, it's going to be on him to do the right things, show up every day, being on time, practice hard, do what he needs to do. If he does that, it'll be smooth sailing."

Polite -- a 6-foot-3, 258-pound pass rusher, is joining a revamped Jets defense that now includes C.J. Mosley and fellow rookie Quinnen Williams.

Some nuggets on Polite:

Polite was a second-team All-American and second-team All-SEC last year after recording a team-leading 17.5 tackles for a loss and 11 sacks and led the nation with six forced fumbles. All that and he started in just five of the Gators' 13 games.
He was viewed as a potential first-rounder but slipped after his poor performance at the Combine, where he pulled himself from the remainder of drill after a 4.84 40-yard-dash due to a hamstring injury.
His Twitter handle is @RetireMoms because his goal is to give his mother, Katrina Simmons, an early retirement. Simmons, 38, is a supervisor of housekeepers at a hotel in Daytona Beach, Fla.

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