Was Ken O'Bien a bust? 0 for 3 in the playoffs a losing record as a QB, taken ahead of Dan Marino. That was by far a worse pick than Sanchez and he was less successful as a NY Jets starting QB and had arguably the best WR combination in Jets history. There's a good argument to be made for Maynard and Sauer but Toon and Walker are in the argument.
Kenny O wasn’t a great QB. Like Sanchez he had his moments and a good season or 2, but considering who went in the same draft, you could probably make an argument that Kenny was a bust too. The Jets have rarely had good QB play and I think we’re sometimes duped by players who have a good season or 2. Plenty would say Kenny wasn’t a bust, and I didn’t see enough of him to definitely have an opinion, but when you look at his stats, record, and take out the “what if” factor, he certainly doesn’t look like a great pick. At least he stuck around for a while. The league was different then, though.
I see we are stretching the definition of he's a bust to the very outer limit today. After 9 seasons with the Jets and over 24000 yards thrown he is now a bust, come on now ffs.
He wasn't a bust. Compared to Sanchez he was much less successful with arguably some great teams around him. Considering there were 3 HOF QB's and 5 HOF players in the first round of that draft, Kenny was by any standard a worse pick than Sanchez who came out of a week over all draft and a bad QB draft.
the analytics guys would tell you that's an outdated way of measuring players. A player is only a bust if they don't live up to their draft selection/acquirement value, period. Who "we coulda had" is irrelevant, and a biased/wrong manner of evaluating that player. If you look at it the "right" way you would say obviously Kenny O'Brien lived up to the 24th overall selection and then some. Clearly not a bust, actually he should be measured as a 'good' selection. Mark Sanchez was the 5th overall and the Jets used a first, a second, and 3 players to even get to that spot. He's a bust.
There were 5 first round HOF players taken in 1983 including two after Ken was drafted including one QB. Not all drafts are the same. The 2009 draft was one of the 5 worst draft classes in the last 30 years. There will be zero first round draft picks going into the NFL HOF unless Stafford gets busy winning playoff games. Ken at 24 in that draft class was awful.
u folks may have seen the show already but there is a GREAT show about the 83 draft showing multiple clips of elway/marino, the colts, and the media coverage. think its one of those 30 for 30 shows on ESPN. i've watched it a couple times and wonder what the F the jets were thinking at the time. I guess you could say that about the steelers/eagles as well but WTF. QB prospect in your backyard and you don't know if he is clean or not. The cynic in me always thought the NFL really wanted him in miami with shula and thus "planted" those drug stories. Who knows.
i remember being at an 83 season game at shea with marino at QB for the fish (fish won the game convincingly). Let me tell u folks he already looked like a stud in that game. i remember more than a few folks at the game saying shit we are doomed for years - even without knowing what we had with o'brien.
Plus if we took him, it would have sucked to have the best QB in Dolphin history in our ring of honor. Oh my!
If he performed as he did in Miami in New York, still you go on about what they achieved and at the end of the day Marino won zero rings, so all the lamenting about a draft 36 years ago really needs to stop in all honesty. Add him to your fucking bust list, the no ring failure.
The past is dead.. And like Biggs said every draft class is different OTOH A guy taken at 5 should be FQB material I've heard a lot of good points from both sides on this Are we revisiting the tale of the last USC QB we drafted because we doubt our present one? Considering how ripped off the Fanbase feels over the years...we'll I get it To me Sanchez was just the appetizer and Sam the Main Course !
My point was in that draft Ken was a big stretch. In Sanchez's draft at 5 that wasn't a big stretch. Your argument about rings can be applied to OBrien as a bust. 3 playoff losses and he was awful in them. Sanchez on the other hand 4 and 2 and played really well. My point not being about Marino only the comparisons to the draft classes. 2009 when Sanchez was taken it was arguably one of the 5 worst draft classes in modern NFL history. 83 on the other hand was one of the best. Ken at 24 was a decidedly crappy pick. FYI besides Marino, Dan Mosebar who was an all pro center on the Raiders and Darrell Green who is in the HOF went after Ken in the first round of that draft. I have no love for Marino but the fact is he was sitting there for us to take. We not only didn't draft a QB anywhere near as good we allowed him to go to a division rival. It was an absurd pick on every level.
I don't think Sanchez was a bust at all. After Joe, Chad, Testaverde he is the best QB we've had. Back to back playoff appearances. Not just wildcard playoff wins but pretty amazing wins on the road...like in New England and Indy. Yeah, I would take a bust that can do that for the Jets. The butt fumble and the nightlife of New York was Sanchez problem.
O'Brien was much better than Sanchez. He was our QB for 9 years, made 2 Pro Bowls, and consistently played solid football. He just didn't get carried by his team and get lucky as hell like Sanchez did. Playoff wins are a team statistic.
O'Brien was carried by Al Toon, Walker and Rob Moore. Sanchez had nothing remotely close. Al Toon was a freak talent who routinely made circus catches that killed him that padded OBrien stats.
Humm I will never loop Ken O'Brien the human stature in any QB discussion. How on earth could he be ranked when he held the ball so long and took more sacks than anyone ever needed to take. Contrast that to the guy taken right after Marino who would get rid of the ball in nanoseconds. Al Toon is drooling now because O'Brien hung him out to dry over the middle. Always remember Greg Lloyd hit on Toon and standing over him counting down.
And my point was you can't call a player a bust after starting for 9 seasons and throwing for over 24,000 yards. You can call him disappointing if you like but not a bust.
Last I checked statistics do not throw the ball or teams spend millions scouting, poking and prodding a statistic. Sanchez had some great games and deserves some credit that is all I'm saying. Nobody uses luck as a measuring stick. Unless its to show a history of bad luck and the Jets as an organization has that in spades. Just name any decade and they sucked for the majority of them.
