Jordan Love made his playoff debut in 2024 for the Green Bay Packers after sitting the first three years of his career. It led to some spectacular results including an upset win over the No. 2 seeded Dallas Cowboys and bringing the No. 1 seeded San Francisco 49ers down to the wire.
Connor Hughes of SNY said on X previously Twitter, “If this is what sitting behind Aaron Rodgers for a few years looks like … the #Jets need to draft a QB this year.”
The Jets Don’t Have a Long-Term QB Plan Post-Rodgers
The original plan for the Jets was for Zach Wilson to watch for a season or two behind Rodgers in New York. Then eventually when A-Rod was ready to hang up his cleats he would pass the torch to the youngster.
If this is what sitting behind Aaron Rodgers for a few years looks like … the #Jets need to draft a QB this year
— Connor Hughes (@Connor_J_Hughes) January 21, 2024
Mike Tyson once said, “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” The punch in the mouth for the Jets came in the form of an exploding Achilles for Rodgers in Week 1 of 2023.
Suddenly the Jets’ plan was thrown to the wayside and Wilson was inserted into the starting lineup and the rest is history.
After some wayward results through the year the Jets and Wilson are expected to part ways this offseason. That would leave Rodgers as the only quarterback under contract ahead of the 2024 season on the Jets roster.
What got the Jets into this problem in the first place was the original plan before the plan. When the Jets invested the No. 2 overall pick in Wilson he was immediately named the starter. The Jets have since admitted that they wish they let him marinate on the bench instead.
That is what the Packers did with Love. He was selected with the No. 26 overall pick in the first round of 2020. Despite the large draft capital invested by the Packers, they were patient.
This season their patience was rewarded with a quarterback that was ready for the spotlight. Love finished with 4,159 passing yards, a 32 touchdown to 11 interception ratio, and he completed 64.2% of his passes.
For context, some of those numbers would place No. 1 in Jets franchise history for passing yards and passing touchdowns in a single season.
Jets Have Limited Assets to Follow Through on That Potential Plan
In the upcoming 2024 NFL draft, the Jets only have six draft selections.
New York has the No. 10 overall pick in the first round but I’ve been told it is “extremely unlikely” the team considers a quarterback there. The next available pick after that for Gang Green is pick No. 72 in the third round.
The green and white traded its second-round pick in 2024 as part of the Rodgers-Packers trade.
On top of limited assets, the Jets have also championed that this is a win-now team and the pressure is on to acquire win-now pieces.
If Gang Green did take a young quarterback in this class the best-case scenario features that player not seeing the field until 2025 maybe 2026.
During last year’s draft, the Jets took pass rusher Will McDonald with the No. 15 overall pick. He played the fewest snaps of any first-round pick in the NFL and the fewest snaps of any Jets first-rounder since Vernon Gholston in 2008.
General manager Joe Douglas fielded questions at his end-of-season presser about taking another defensive lineman instead of taking a position that could have provided immediate help.
The Jets said if they could have a do-over they’d handle things differently with Wilson. Perhaps that will lead to the team attempting to hop on the Love train by selecting a mid-round QB and allowing him time to sit and develop behind Rodgers.
