The Jets have 2 options. Draft a QB, or trade back. To select a non-QB in this draft at #2 would be a huge waste of value. Most people on the board want the Jets to draft one, some want them to trade back. I do want the Jets to draft a QB, but there is a valid argument to be made to wait 1 more year. -Reason 1: There is a rebuilding strategy that says you should wait and build the team before taking your QB. It worked for Buffalo, and it has some merit. -Reason 2: Maybe Darnold doesn’t actually suck that bad without Adam Gase. The valid argument to take a QB this year? -Reason 1: If the Jets win 6-7 games this year, but still need a new QB, it’s going to cost draft picks to trade up and get one next year. -Reason 2: Not every QB class is created equally. You won’t know this far out, but 2022 is not looking particularly good for QB’s as it stands. That could change. So who to watch for, and why? -San Francisco 49ers —Why: SF has a fairly expensive QB with limited upside. They have a good team with a lot of players who just got or will soon need new contracts. For them, a younger cheaper option with more upside would be better suited to their situation —The Connection: Robert Saleh and Mike LaFleur came from the 49ers coaching staff just this off-season. -Chicago Bears —Why: The Bears have swung and missed on Mitch Trubisky. They backed into the playoffs at 8-8 and were promptly embarrassed. No GM/HC tandem has a higher chance to be fired by week 4 next year if things don’t go well. They tried to sell the farm for Russell Wilson. They had to settle for Andy Dalton. They really have no option left but to take a big swing. It won’t matter if they have no assets if they have no jobs. —The Connection: When Ryan Pace was hired as GM in 2015, Joe Douglas was brought over from Baltimore as Director of College Scouting. Douglas used that as a springboard to become Vice President of Player Personnel the very next year in Philadelphia. So what would you rather do? A. Trade Darnold to the 49ers or Bears for a mid-round pick. B. Trade #2 to the 49ers for #12 and a solid package. (Say 2 Firsts, 2 Seconds and change.) C. Trade #2 to the Bears for #20 and probably the wildest draft trade package ever offered. (Say 3 Firsts, 2 Seconds, 2 Thirds and change.)
Great take. I think the main two questions we need answered are obvious. 1. Does the new regime HC think they have a potential franchise QB in Darnold? 2. How highly do they value the QBs after Trevor? I think the kid from BYU has a lot of Mahomes in him. If it was me, I would grab Zach Wilson and thank my lucky stars. I agree with Chris Simms. Shit man, I'm not so sure the Jets don't end up with this draft's best QB. Wilson has that, fun to watch, frustrating to play against, twitchy fast cat-like reflex and he is a throw-first QB. He has fire. As a Bills fan, I am not at all thrilled Zach Wilson will likely land in our division. Jets horizon is getting brighter fast. AFE is gonna be a battle. But your timeline of how this Bills went about their rebuild needs a little tweaking. Here is the chronology, if anyone is interested. 2017 - McDermott Hired, runs draft and FA with Whaley (make playoffs first year in a gazillion years, with Tyrod Taylor). Andy Dalton saves the Bills season. I'm not gonna lie, my eyes almost got moist. Drafts Tre' White brings in Hyde and Poyer. 2018 - Brandon Beane hired, runs draft, Josh Allen picked. Bills dump team and rebuild with most young guys. Big names included Darius and Watkins. Josh Allen is forced in early in the year with injuries to other QBs and he plays behind a poor set of offensive players. His starting WRs: Kelvin Benjamin (out of football a year later), Zay Jones (3rd string Raiders), Robert Forester. The offensive line was horrid. But Josh Allen, while not nearly as accurate as now, is clearly a gamer and fearless. Somehow won 6 games. 2019 - Offensive line comes together and Beane is proving to be an active GM with a penchant for finding solid, team-first guys on 1-3 year deals. Announces at the end of the season, he will get Allen a true #1 after Bills lose a heartbreaker to Houston. 2020 - Beane gets Step Diggs to pair with Cole Beasley. Make it to the AFC title game. 2021 - tbd but Emmanual Sanders on a one-year rental is the kind of move that can really help a team that is close. Recap. Jets draft Zach Wilson to fight with Josh Allen.
Whaley ran the 2017 draft and was released immediately after. His reasoning for trading back and not taking Mahomes or Watson was that the team wasn’t ready and needed to be built up. Beane was hired in 2017 but after the draft. Despite it not being his building plan, it still worked for them.
The Bills like every other team drafting in the top 10 (except Chicago) passed on a QB because they misevaluated Patrick Mahomes and Deshaun Watson. Think about why Mahomes and Watson fell. Teams questioned if they could run a traditional NFL offense. Two years later Mahomes college coach gets hired as HC in the NFL and spread QBs under 6’1 went first overall in consecutive drafts. If I am Joe Douglas I am taking a QB and not thinking twice.
Zach Wilson is a no brainer at this point. My mind was set early on, we need to build a team and stop investing all our good draft capital in QBs trying to find the next one. My thought was when you have a good team with good supporting cast (mostly offensive line) to have success and then you can plug in any QB and he will succeed. I wanted Penei Sewell to be our guy to anchor our oline for the next decade. Back then all the talks was about Justin Fields and all I saw was red flags and other than his running ability so much busting potential. Slow to process, cannot read a defense (blitz, adjust coverage and routes) , not good at improvising when his first options were not there and more importantly his poor anticipation. He would always throw the ball to wide open players or throw bombs but the reality is that his offensive line made his life so much easier as he had all days to throw most of the time. This will never happen in the NFL.... I simply did not want him at all. I still think he will be a good NFL player but he will have to adapt his game massively (might take a while or the right system) Then Zach Wilson came along, it was love at first sight, great arm strength, amazing fast release, smart decisions with his throws, good at improvising and adjusting on the go, good mobility, good reading defense and more importantly amazing anticipation he would always throw the ball before his receivers are open with the perfect timing and at the perfect ball placement. This is special to see. I think he is the guy, there are no perfect QB but it is very rare to find somebody like him with all the checkmarks. I thought we could have him lower with a trade down scenario but yes so dumb of me it is obvious it would have never worked now and now he is considered the obvious guy for 2nd overall. So we need to get him no doubt. If we don't , I am scared it could be another Mahomes part 2 but this time it would hurt even more considering he is already more advanced than Mahomes was in his draft year and we have all the necessary draft capital to build around the QB this time. That being said I still believe that the Jets are far off than just a QB away from competing and it would be suicide for his confidence and development to throw a young QB to the wolves with the current state of the offense. I still think Wilson would have to sit a year to get used to the pace and work on his conditioning (get stronger). I know crazy to draft a QB 2nd overall and sit him... Right? But I truly believe that in the longrun it would be the smartest decision. Also we can fix our offensive line with all our other picks. So we would need to invest massively with our other picks (23rd, 2nd, 3rd, etc) and inject more talent to our offense and also with next year top picks in getting the right supporting cast for Wilson. We need to build a true contender and stop trying to patch all the time.
I'm pretty positive the pick is going to be Wilson. There's a lot of smoke behind the Jets taking him at #2 and while I am not entirely sold on his body of work against weak competition, he has the tangibles to be a very good QB in this league and I think JD and his team see that as well. I am also very confident in this new coaching staff and I think we have the coaches in place to help him thrive as a young maturing QB. I am so sick and tired of not having a QB. It's exhausting. If this new management and staff feels Wilson is the guy, then I am all for it. I wish we had pick #1 but it's going to be tough to get this high of a pick again, especially if Saleh is half what he is expected to be. Draft Wilson and cross your fingers
There is no decision here - You take whatever QB is ranked higher out of them on the board at 2. Sam needs a new start somewhere else. At first I was more against the 5th year option cap hit for Sam, but that isn't even my biggest concern anymore. If they decide to keep Sam, he would need to be a top 15 QB the moment the 2021 season starts. If we have one 3 and out or he makes 1 bone headed throw into triple coverage its over for him.
I'm going with A), with the caveat of taking the QB at 2 and sitting him for a year (at least) while the Oline becomes not-tragic. I've been a fan of the rebuilding strategy that states you build the team, then get the QB, but I have also been a fan of the Jets and know that timing is everything and they probably end up drafting in the middle of the field at least for the next few years, missing any opportunity to draft one of the upper echelon QBs. I'm tired of that bad timing. There's nothing wrong with letting the new guy sit for a year or two, some of the best in the league sat on the bench at the beginning of their career, the trend of starting QBs immediately I think has done more harm than good to a lot of young prospects. Although I have to admit if the Jets do trade down from 2, I'm immediately making popcorn for the bonanza of badass players we select in the absence of a QB.
I think what people are failing to take into account with our next QB(Wilson) is the offensive scheme. Unlike other schemes Jets have had, it’s not a scheme that puts everything on the QB. It’s actually a QB friendly scheme that emphasizes the run to help the QB be more effective. I don’t believe you will see a game with a RB getting 10-15 rushes for the whole game. 20 - 30 rushes will be the norm for one of the RB. So even if Wilson is the selection at #2 he’s not coming into a situation where he has to perform like Dan Marino and carry the team. That being said, the 23 and 34 pick needs to be offensive linemen to make sure this scheme is effective.
I agree which is why I am all for taking a flyer on a guy like Wilson. Hopefully this new coaching staff and offensive system will pay big dividends on a rookie QB
Even if you think Wilson could be great you have to work the phones. If you find the right sucker who will load your team with talent to move down a couple lousy spots you take the deal, especially if you have other decent options at QB.
While I agree with getting a boat load of picks, other teams know what it’s going to take to move up and I find it hard to believe they will be willing to give up that type of capital for second overall pick.
I think you're missing Carolina and Denver. Carolina has been reportedly looking to make a splashy kind of move and ultimately find the answer after maybe one more year of Bridgewater. Denver has done nothing to improve the position and I can't imagine they're extremely happy with Drew Lock for a full season. With the raw skill but also raw flaws that Lance seemingly showed at his pro day, I think this has become a three quarterback first round. I also wouldn't be shocked if Wilson tumbled down the draft. He receives a lot of hype from the "experts" and what not but they're not always necessarily in the know, and at the end of the day he's still a one year wonder against lesser competition with shoulder issues and a tiny frame. As the Bears and WFT have previously demonstrated though - only one team needs to make a player a first rounder. Should be interesting. I'm psyched for the draft.
I was looking at tankathon.com there are only a handful of teams in top 10 that have the type of capital to move up, one of them is the Eagles, they however have a possible future QB in Hurts. The rest of the teams have QBs, and it also depends on how far back JD wants to drop back to, if he wants to stay in top ten there are not many who can give him what he will want. From 11-15 they all have QBs, the only two teams in top 15 are Carolina or Denver.
Also hearing rumors of Philly trading for a Foles reunion again so it sounds like Hurts is their guy and they will attack offensive weapon at 6 (WR or Pitts). I doubt they would trade up to 2.
