I was a sign Cousins supporter but mostly because I didn’t think Mac had the balls to make a move like he did to get his QB. Things are looking up for the Jets, starting with Cousins choosing Vikes and ending with what I think was the Browns and Giants making huge mistakes.
I agree, but it's not about the money. At least, not sentimentally. From a practical perspective, obviously it helps to spend less. But as a Jets soul, I just want -- if and when we ever win -- for as many of our main contributors to be true green Jets and not retreads or, as you said, mercenaries. It just feels more special to me that way. "That's our guy." If we somehow build a real winner with the foundation we have now, it will feel great because we have so few guys affiliated with the team who are big-time winners elsewhere. I can't really explain why this appeals to me. The purist in me just feels like it should be this way.
Totally agree Darnold>Cousins, -Darnold is way younger (we get more years out of him) -has a higher ceiling and potential overall -is better out of the pocket and athletically gifted -just as good of a leader and mild demeanor -WAY cheaper for 5 years and allows us to acquire more talent
We missed out on Cousins and then the #1 QB slipped to us. Funny how things go. Did things break for the Jets in their favor, for once finally? Could be.
Again I’m stumped. First it was “are you concerned the Giants and Broncos passed on the QBs?” Now this. Are these serious questions? Or just trolling. New here. Asking for a friend.
I'll tell you my thinking: Going into the 2017 season I assumed the Jets would be terrible, thus I was excited at the chance to draft Sam Darnold #1 overall. McCown ruined this though by going 5-11 so the Jets ended up with the #6 pick instead of #1. At that moment, I shifted my thoughts to getting Kirk Cousins as I felt he was the best option. Plug him in, use the #6 pick for BPA and the Jets would improve quickly. Cousins chose the Vikings. Then I was looking at Allen and Mayfield who could possibly fall to #6 with Darnold and Rosen going #1-2. Then the Jets traded up to #3 and I focused on Rosen, Mayfield, and Allen because I felt Darnold would go #1. Then Darnold dropped to #3 and the rest is history. The picks are tempting, but I would still go with Darnold. So happy he is a Jet. It was a roller coaster of an off-season to get to him though!
No trolling at all. It's a simple debate for those who still may have wanted Kirk despite the team drafting Sam. If both scenarios were a guarantee, which would you side with?
Darnold. Like the Jets apparently thought, I never thought we'd see Sam available to us and therefore my offseason QB wish list was Cousins, then Rosen. Give me Darnold, who we have for cheap in comparison to other QB prices, for the next 3-4 years.
Darnold is IMHO the best QB of the last 3 drafts and probably top 5 of the last 10. He’s going to be a top echelon QB for many many years. I’ve never liked Cousins all that much and I had no interest going all in on him for the amount of money he was seeking. Seems obvious.
I never wanted Cousins so I'm really happy we have Darnold - I never thought it was a real possibility.
Not to mention we would have been a much more attractive landing spot for this year's free agents and could have signed a top WR and others.
Drafting is always the right answer - provided the team has sufficient support structure to nurture and help the kid.
It comes down to team building assets to me. Short term spending the cap space and keeping the draft picks would have gave us a much stronger overall roster and I was all for this before the draft because I was going with the assumption we had no shot at Darnold who I believe was the best all around QB prospect in this draft. With Sam in the fold we will be weaker this season than signing Cousins, but in the longer term this should make us a much stronger more stable franchise. I'm all for how things transpired. Had we Drafted Baker (whom I liked very much) or Rosen this would be a closer debate to me, if we have royally screwed up and taken Allen this would have been a worse case scenario.
