NFL Draft: Inside the New York Jets' draft war room with GM Mike Tannenbaum & his inner circle NFL Draft: Inside the New York Jets' draft war room with GM Mike Tannenbaum & his inner circle

Inside a second-floor, windowless room, Mike Tannenbaum turned to the men at the white conference table for help.

On a Sunday afternoon two years ago, the Jets general manager was stumped. When Gang Green was on the clock in the sixth round of the 2009 NFL draft, a place typically filled with spirited debate fell silent.

Five minutes. That's all the Jets had. Five minutes to punctuate a draft that had already included monster trades for quarterback Mark Sanchez and running back Shonn Greene. The small group inside the war room decided to take a hurried look at video clips of three players.

"The first guy we looked at was awful," Tannenbaum remembers. "The second guy we looked at was worse."

The final player's video package never made it into the DVD player.

"The reason we took the third guy is that we didn't have enough time to watch the tape," Tannenbaum admits.

Two years later, Matt Slauson, the 193rd pick of the draft, is a starter for one of the best offensive lines in the league.

Through a little bit of luck and plenty of preparation, the Jets have become one of the elite drafting teams in the NFL. For all of Gang Green's bravado on the field, the difference makers on draft day have been unflashy for the better part of a decade, stars in the shadows for a franchise that has thrust itself into the spotlight.

They are Tannenbaum's inner circle, five former college and NFL players with defined roles, who have anonymously helped stockpile talent for a team that has reached two consecutive AFC Championship Games.

From the methodical point man who runs 12-hour meetings from sunrise to sunset to the experienced voice of reason with a closet filled with five-subject spiral notebooks, they are the heartbeat of the Jets' war room: vice president of college scouting Joey Clinkscales, senior personnel executive (and former GM) Terry Bradway, assistant GM Scott Cohen, assistant director of player personnel JoJo Wooden and assistant director of college scouting Michael Davis.

They struck gold with Darrelle Revis, D'Brickashaw Ferguson, Nick Mangold, David Harris and Sanchez.

They struck out with Vernon Gholston.

"We've all been right and we've all been wrong," Tannenbaum says. "Everybody's DNA is on all the player reports. There's no I-told-you-so's or second guessing."