Rome wasn't built in a day, but the New York Jets were rebuilt in one.

In 2000, the Jets got younger and better with a historic draft that included an unprecedented four first-round picks -- defensive end Shaun Ellis, pass-rusher John Abraham, quarterback Chad Pennington and tight end Anthony Becht. They picked wide receiver Laveranues Coles in the third round, completing a remarkable haul that fueled the franchise for the better part of a decade.

That watershed draft wrapped up 15 years ago today. Take a bow, Bill Parcells.

The New York Jets' 2000 draft, led by Bill Parcells, left, included four first-round picks. AP Photo/Kathy Willens

Parcells, retired from coaching at the time (lol), called the shots from his general-manager chair. He knew he wasn't going to stick around for the long term, so his goal was to leave plenty of parting gifts for his successor, Al Groh, who wound up departing after a year. But that's another story.

How did they get four picks? A quick refresher:

They received the 16th pick from the New England Patriots as compensation for Bill Belichick. On the eve of the draft, Parcells sent that pick to the San Francisco 49ers, moving up to the 12th spot. I didn't know it at the time, but he was trying to get into position to draft wide receiver Plaxico Burress. A neat sidebar: He spoke directly with 49ers' executive Bill Walsh, a Hall of Famer negotiating with a future Hall of Famer -- a heavyweight phone conversation.

The really big move occurred a few days earlier, when the Jets traded disgruntled wide receiver Keyshawn Johnson to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for the 13th and 27th picks -- a highly controversial deal. Parcells took a lot of heat for that one. This was the Darrelle Revis trade of that era.

I remember talking to Groh before the draft, trying to pump him for information on how they would use the picks. Groh, a former New York Giants assistant, tried to be funny, saying he'd like to draft the next Lawrence Taylor, Leonard Marshall and Mark Bavaro. In a total coincidence (or was it?), they ended up picking players at the corresponding positions -- Abraham, Ellis and Becht, respectively. To this day, I wonder if Groh's remark was random or a tip cloaked in what seemed like an absurd analogy at the time.

You know how the day turned out: They picked Ellis and Abraham with the 12th and 13th picks, respectively; they selected Pennington with their own pick, 18th; and they grabbed Becht at 27. Believe it not, the morning-after storyline focused on how the Jets failed to adequately replace Johnson. Sure, they took Coles in the third, but no one outside the organization expected him to amount to anything. After all, he was thrown off his college team and deemed a high-risk pick.

We were wrong. Aside from Burress, Coles turned out to be the best receiver in the draft.

A week or two after the draft, Parcells was talking about the draft to a few reporters at a celebrity golf tournament. I can't remember the exact words (he didn't want to be quoted in the next day's papers), but this was pretty close to what he said: He said it would go down as one of the greatest drafts in history.

No, it won't be remembered as one of the greatest, but it was remarkable in that those five players enjoyed long, productive careers. They played a combined total of 59 years, making eight Pro Bowls along the way. Each one played at least 10 seasons, an Iron-Man accomplishment in this blood sport we call football.

From a team perspective, they helped the Jets to playoff seasons in 2001, 2002, 2004 and 2006. Ellis stuck around the longest (he was replaced by Muhammad Wilkerson in 2011) and, incredibly, Abraham played until last year, finishing with the Arizona Cardinals and 133.5 sacks.

Yes, the Jets will forever be mocked for their long list of draft busts, but on one particular day 15 years ago, they crushed it.