One reason why is the Jets always screw themselves. They'll be horrible and in a position to get an excellent QB in the draft going into the last game or two of the season, and they'll win on a KOR or something like that, and it will be just enough to drop them too low to get the QB. Similarly, in the years they suck there are no good QBs, or the QBs decide to stay in school one more year. Then when there's a good crop of QBs coming out to choose from, the Jets will pick that year to have a great year and finish too well to be even close to sniffing one of those QBs. Further, they've created their bad "luck" or Karma by continuously being owned by putzes who hire incompetent GMs and HCs. This franchise is screwed up. I wish they'd just do us all a big favor and fold the franchise for good.
I don't know if it's true or not, but either on this site or another, some fans posted articles from the time and supposedly Peyton was gonna come out if Tuna would guarantee that they would draft him and not trade him for a bucketload of picks, but that asshat Tuna wouldn't promise to keep him. If true they should have fired Tuna on the spot, given Peyton's old man Archie a 51% ownership share in the team and whatever else he wanted to get him to come out and the Jets should have taken him. But no. Just another reason I despise Tuna and this franchise is cursed.
Not exactly off the top of my head but I put this piece together after reading this thread. To sum up (I know many people don't like long posts) we could have drafted the top five quarterbacks in NFL history in terms of passing yardage. But we didn't. Notable Quarterbacks the Jets passed on in the draft... Having a little time on my hands, I decided to look into this and see how many times the Jets have indeed passed up a good QB in the draft. I broadened the search to include any QB the Jets could have drafted since the Namath era who went on to pass for at least 20,000 yards over their career. For more recent years that obviously wouldn’t have been a fair measuring stick, so a bit more conjecture comes into play and some/many/most of the names mentioned in recent years will no doubt flame out. Many of these guys would hardly be considered sure-fire franchise quarterbacks, which suggests that the Jets haven’t been spurning Hall-of-Famers every other year for 30+ years, although they could certainly have done better than they have. Still, this isn’t exactly comforting reading, so those of a nervous disposition might want to look away… In each case, the Jets pick quoted is the one immediately preceding the quarterback in question. 1977 – The draft after Namath’s final season with the Jets. Tommy Kramer was available in the first round and had a decent career, with 24,777 passing yards. Jets pick: Marvin Powell, OT, USC. 1979 – Arguably the biggest miss of them all. Joe Montana was still available when the Jets got to their third-round pick and he’s in the conversation for best QB ever. Jets pick: Donald Dykes, DB, Southeastern Louisiana. 1981 – The Jets could have snagged Portland State’s Neil Lomax, who had a decent enough career with the Cardinals before an arthritic hip forced him into early retirement. Lomax passed for 4,614 yards in 1984. Jets pick: Marion Barber Jr., RB, Minnesota. 1983 – The Jets could have taken Dan Marino, but looked elsewhere. Although obviously a mistake, this wasn’t as bad as it might have been. Kansas City selected Todd Blackledge and the Patriots went for Tony Eason, both before the Jets went on the clock. Jets pick: Ken O’Brien, QB, Cal Davis. 1984 – One year after missing Marino, the Jets could have taken Boomer Esiason, who didn’t go until the second round (the first QB taken that year after the glut of first-rounders in ’83). Having taken O’Brien the previous year it is not surprising the Jets weren’t interested in another QB. Jets pick: Jim Sweeney, C, Pittsburgh. 1985 – O’Brien was entering his prime, so perhaps the Jets weren’t even thinking about a QB. If they had been, Randall Cunningham wouldn’t have been a bad option, with almost 30,000 career passing yards. Jets pick: Al Toon, WR, Wisconsin. 1987 – O’Brien had slumped badly at the end of the ’86 season, but the Jets obviously thought he would rebound and weren’t interested in Jim Harbaugh, who enjoyed a mediocre career despite 26,288 passing yards (he only topped 3,000 yards in a season once). Even so, that surely would have been better than… Jets pick: Roger Vick, FB, Texas A&M. The same year, late-bloomer Rich Gannon was still on the board when the Jets got to their third-round pick (Gannon went in the fourth, but the Jets had no pick in that round). Jets pick: Onzy Elam, LB, Tennessee State. 1988 – Chris Chandler may have had durability issues (‘Crystal Chandelier’ remains one of the best NFL nicknames), but he held things together long enough to top 28,000 career passing yards. It took him 18 seasons, though. Jets pick: James Hasty, CB, Washington State. 1990 – Neil O’Donnell was the best of an uninspiring bunch of QBs, and he only just dragged himself over the 20,000-yard career benchmark (not helped by an injury-riddled 1996 season on the Jets and a 1997 season when new head coach Bill Parcells clearly wanted to get him out of town). Jets pick: Tony Stargell, CB, Tennessee State. 1991 – This one is a bit complicated, but there’s a good chance that if the Jets had kept their first-round pick they would have used it on Brett Favre. They were certainly looking for a new QB and settled for Browning Nagle in the second round. Jets pick: (Supplemental draft) Rob Moore, WR, Syracuse. 1992 – This one is funny, in a ‘sick Jets humour’ kind of way. The Jets actually managed to draft one of these 20,000-yard passers, snagging Jeff Blake in the sixth round. What a bargain! However, only 40 of his 21,711 career passing yards came in a Jets uniform. The same year, the Jets could have had journeyman Brad Johnson, who almost reached 30,000 yards passing and snagged a Super Bowl ring with the Bucs. He went in the ninth round. Jets pick: Vincent Brownlee, WR, Mississippi. 1993 – Mark Brunell enjoyed a nice career (32,072 yards), especially during his nine-year stint with the Jaguars, but he was just a mentor for Mark Sanchez by the time the Jets finally rectified the mistake of passing on him in the fifth round of the ’93 draft. Jets pick: Fred Baxter, TE, Auburn. 1993 – Trent Green would have been a solid pick for the Jets in the eighth round, but they opted for a two-time All-Pro who finished with an eye-popping 49,281 career yards. Sadly, those yards were amassed by punting, not passing. Oh, and he never played a game for the Jets. Jets pick: Craig Hentrich, P/K, Notre Dame. 1994 – Gus Frerotte went to Washington in the seventh round and managed to piece together a 21,000-yard career. A handful of picks after Frerotte, the Jets picked Glenn Foley. Jets pick: Fred Lester, RB, Alabama A&M. 1997 – I’m going to pass over the Peyton Manning issue because I don’t know that it has been definitively stated that he would have come out if the Jets had guaranteed to pick him No. 1. There is no doubt, however, that the Jets could have had Jake ‘The Snake’ Plummer in the second round. He was consistently productive over 10 seasons and finished with almost 30,000 passing yards. Jets pick: Rick Terry, DT, North Carolina. 1998 – Matt Hasselbeck would have made a great addition to the Jets roster, and he would only have cost a sixth-round pick. Still playing, he is nudging 35,000 career passing yards. Jets pick: Dustin Johnson, FB, BYU. 1999 – Aaron Brooks only just squeaks in with 20,261 yards, but he enjoyed a four-year span with the Saints when he topped 3,500 yards each season. Jets pick: Jason Wiltz, OT, Nebraska. 2000 – It stands to reason that the one year the Jets got it right (drafting Chad Pennington in the first round), they also got it wrong (missing Tom Brady in the sixth), but even before whiffing on Brady they passed up Marc Bulger. He did okay, with 22,814 passing yards. Jets pick: Windrell Hayes, WR, USC. There’s no argument, however, that Brady (taken in the same round as Bulger) was the big miss. Jets pick: Tony Scott, DE, North Carolina State. 2001 – Things continue to get painful for Jets fans. Drew Brees didn’t go until the second round and he currently has more than 53,000 career passing yards. Want to feel even worse about this? Of the first four quarterbacks taken in 2001, Brees is the only one the Jets have failed to bring to the team at some point (Michael Vick, Quincy Carter, Marques Tuiasosopo). Jets pick: Santana Moss, WR, Miami (FL). 2004 – The Pennington era had already started to unravel with his first serious injury coming in the 2003 pre-season, but there was still hope he was fully recovered when the 2004 draft came along, so QB wasn’t on the radar in the third round. Matt Schaub could have been taken, and he’s almost reached 25,000 passing yards. Jets pick: Derrick ‘Game Day’ Strait, CB, Oklahoma. 2006 – The Jets were supposedly interested in USC’s Matt Leinart, but passing on him proved to be the right thing to do. Passing on Jay Cutler? Not so much. Jets pick: D’Brickashaw Ferguson, OT, Virginia. 2008 – The Jets needed a QB, but eventually opted to bring in Brett Favre rather than snag Joe Flacco in the first-round. Flacco is far from perfect, but he has over 23,000 passing yards already and a Super Bowl ring. Jets pick: Vernon ‘The Ghost’ Gholston, DE, Ohio State. 2011 – The Mark Sanchez era hadn’t started to unravel yet, so Andy Dalton and Colin Kaepernick didn’t rate so much as a second glance in the draft. Jets pick: Muhammad Wilkerson, DE, Temple. 2012 – The Mark Sanchez era hadn’t unravelled completely, so the Jets probably didn’t consider Russell Wilson too seriously (although Terry Bradway was apparently enamoured). Jets pick: Stephen Hill, WR, Georgia Tech. Later in the same draft, the Jets could have snapped up Nick Foles or Kirk Cousins. Jets pick: Demario Davis, LB, Arkansas State. 2013 – The Mark Sanchez era had unravelled completely, so the Jets went QB in the second round. Would Mike Glennon have been a better option than Geno Smith? He would no doubt have been a better option than… Jets pick: Brian Winters, G, Kent State. continued...
Continued... That gives us the following list of ‘Quarterbacks the Jets could have drafted’, and it is galling to realise that the Jets could have taken Montana, Marino, Esiason, Favre, Brady and Brees and probably could have had Peyton Manning as well. That’s the top five QBs in terms of passing yardage in NFL history (if you include Manning), plus No. 13 and No. 16. Overall, 15 of the top 50 passing yardage leaders could have been drafted by the Jets… but weren’t. The highest entry in Jets history (for a player the Jets drafted)? Broadway Joe, at No. 54. Quarterbacks the Jets could have drafted, 1977- Tommy Kramer Joe Montana Neil Lomax Dan Marino Boomer Esiason Randall Cunningham Jim Harbaugh Rich Gannon Chris Chandler Neil O’Donnell Brett Favre Brad Johnson Mark Brunell Trent Green Gus Frerotte (Peyton Manning?) Jake Plummer Matt Hasselbeck Aaron Brooks Marc Bulger Tom Brady Drew Brees Matt Schaub Jay Cutler Joe Flacco Any Dalton Colin Kaepernick Russell Wilson Nick Foles Kirk Cousins Mike Glennon
Agreed, but you can't make a list like this. Not only that, how many franchises missed on players? The list is endless. Guys like Russell Wilson were a freak thing. Teams passed on him numerous times and he was taken late in the draft. I agree, we have missed on the QB position, but a list like this doesn't prove anything. There are way too many factors in deciding this and a lot of teams that did the same. This also a lot of times falls to best player available. Many of these guys were not the best player available at our pick.
Of course every team has missed on good quarterbacks. But like I said, I had time on my hands and wanted to see what the real picture was, just as far as the Jets are concerned. I wasn't trying to prove anything, but I think I did prove that you can make a list like this!
No, I understand. And yes, it paints a very clear picture that our scouting department needs a change but like I said, there are many factors that can lead to these misses. Either way, you are correct, we need a change.
Not correct on Peyton. We drafted Keyshawn in '96. Manning would have only been a Sophomore then. He was rumored to be coming out in '97 as a Junior but chose to stay for his Senior year. Many believe it was because his Dad wanted assurances that Parcells would select him w/ the first pick and Parcells would not guarantee that. In '97 we traded down to #8 and took James Farrior. I still remember Manning's press conference where he announced he was staying for an extra year. I actually came home from work at lunch to watch it! I almost cried when I heard he was staying!
I'm still unconvinced that our surefire franchise QB is in next year's draft. I see a lot of guys who will come with big question marks at the next level, If you're looking for the next Andrew Luck, this is not the draft.
I disagree. One CAN make a list like this and it does prove how terrible the Jets' Scouting Dept., GMs and decision making regarding personnel have been. It clearly shows QBs that the Jets could have drafted. It doesn't matter about other franchises and their misses. We're only talking about the Jets. It doesn't matter if they weren't the best player available. When your team has and has had terrible QBs, and with QB being the most important position, you have to make every effort to find a quality QB. Even a solid, game-manager type QB has a much more positive effect on a team franchise, than a quality starter at any other position, when your team has bad QB play. The poster clearly specified why some QBs weren't considered when the Jets had a QB they already liked, but most of the time even that shows poor judgment on the Jets part. Namath, O'Brien and Pennington were the only QBs that should have kept the Jets from drafting another QB high, and towards the end of O'Brien's career, the Jets should have been looking for and grooming his replacement, and with Chad's injury problems, the Jets should have been looking for solid insurance.
You won't be seeing another Andrew Luck like player for a while. It's best to get the best talented players available and rebuild this team from the inside out.
