Sadly, this is the most likely scenario because, you know... Jets. Although to be fair you get a very short leash on any team if you aren't a first-round draft pick. It's like they know he must be bad because he wasn't a first-round pick, so a couple of bad quarters is all they need to see.
It's possible White plays just well enough to keep the job until ZW comes back and then they have a decision. All White has to do is move the offense more consistently than ZW did and score some 1st quarter points and he will likely keep the job until ZW is declared fit to play. The Jets learn nothing from Flacco at this point. If he is good in the new offense then he gives some other key players a better chance of understanding their roles in it and picking it up as well. His value however is as the alternative to a misfiring rookie or another incompetent backup if that is the case. People saying the Jets wouldn't have traded a 6th round pick to sit him on the bench are misunderstanding the situation. The Jets should have used the 6th (or 5th) round pick this spring to pick up a veteran backup for ZW. This move for Flacco is just an acknowledgment that they screwed up earlier and now they are fixing the problem. Ideally they don't have to play him much at all and it's just a 6th rounder instead of a 5th.
He may not, but probably has a better shot at it than White, and being a vet could help get the offense in sync.
I just don't think JD spends a pick - even a 6th rounder - for a guy who will be back-up to White for 3 games before Zach is back, then becomes 3d stringer. I mean it is possible if White plays well, but if JD thought there was a high probability of that, he does not spend a pick. Simply put, he has no confidence in White and spends a pick for a vet who knows the system concepts, has real credentials and costs next to nothing in terms of CAP. He didn't get a vet in free agency because he thought Morgan or White would develop into a long term back-up with potential. The mistake that he is now acknowledging was that he was wrong and they didn't develop. He took a bit of a gamble, lost, and ended up rectifying the loss with the 6th round pick. Not great, but not terrible either, especially that he just gained 4th for useless Herndon.
The thing is, it might not have been a mistake. Perhaps with a different, better, more experienced OC (or if Knapp had lived), White WOULD have developed. I may be off on the timing, but I think Knapp was still alive when FA hit, and he didn't die until a couple of weeks before TC began, and at that point what few decent veteran FA QBs there were had already signed elsewhere. He didn't want to undercut and undermine
I definitely feel JD is getting too much heat for this. Ultimately the loss of a 6th round pick is not a big deal in relation to what he has done before to get picks. We just got 4th rounder few weeks before that for Herndon. I could see the logic behind not getting a vet. You have two promising youngsters (Morgan and White) who could become good back-ups for years to come, and maybe more, why not give them a shot instead, especially with Knapp on the coaching roster. At the end of the day though he is responsible for a result. And the result was that we waived 4th round pick Morgan since he wasn't good, and White didn't develop either. I still wasn't sure if White was a bust and wanted to see him start, but looking at the Flacco transaction it's a pretty safe bet to say that JD thinks chances of bust are high, requiring investment of a 6th round pick. That's not a great result. But ... we now do have a solid back-up, and the cost wasn't prohibitive compared to the gains JD made on Herndon and other transactions. Like I said, not great, but not bad either.
I suppose these of us who wanted to see Mike White practice with the 1st team and get a first start in Zach's absence to see if he is any good may not be crazy after all.
And JD doesn't look nearly so stupid for wanting to develop a long-term backup in White or Morgan, rather than signing a veteran backup earlier.
We were all a bit shocked when JoeD cut Morgan and kept Mike White. I guess he made the right call.....
I can use a new JETS hoodie.... mine's pretty old and ratty. Granted the dude's probably 5" taller than me, my brother could prob wear it though
