Did New Jets GM Hint At A QB Splash Move?
The Jets’ new brass didn’t break any news at their Tuesday press conferences in advance of the NFL Scouting Combine. The entire football world was already aware that the team has decided to move on from quarterback Aaron Rodgers; General Manager Darren Mougey and Head Coach Aaron Glenn both said they’re done discussing the past.
They then gave only general football-speak when asked what New York’s future holds for professional sports’ most important position, with Glenn going so far as to downplay such focus as disrespectful to the other team members. In attempting to read between all their canned lines, though, I took it as the Jets will be in the market for a veteran this offseason. The spin was, “We want to win and we want to win now.”
Sure, drafting a QB is on the table, particularly after Day 1, but those guys won’t be ready to start right away. I know ESPN’s Mel Kiper (and a few others) in his latest Mock Draft thinks the Jets will end up with Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders with the No. 7 overall pick, but that’s seems preposterous given the QB-needy teams in front of them. And it would be stupid for the Jets to expend more of their precious Draft capital in a trade to make Sanders happen, though Mougey gave the typical GM response on Tuesday that he’s open to moving up or down.
Remember that the NFL Draft is held in late April, over a month after the start of the new league year and the opening of the free agency market. I can’t envision Mougey and Glenn banking on the whims of the Draft to find their Opening Day starting quarterback when rookies have a very low hit rate in Year 1 to begin with. That’s not a “win now” move.
Of course, the smart play, from my perspective, would be for the Jets to look to the superior 2026 QB class for their franchise guy. Let Tyrod Taylor, who is under contract at a very reasonable $6.8 million for next season, take the reins. Maybe bring in a younger player like Pittsburgh’s Justin Fields to see if they can find lightning in his fifth pro season’s bottle. Per ProFootballFocus.com, Fields’ estimated free agent deal would cost $11 million for one season. The pay and the opportunity to compete for a starting job in New York could be enough to get it done. If not, the Jets could always throw another dart by giving Daniel Jones a call. The former Giant for whom Taylor once backed up would at least know his way around MetLife Stadium.
Mougey, though, seemed pretty lukewarm when discussing Taylor on Tuesday, happy he’s on the roster, etc. Not even a nod that Taylor is the current leader in the clubhouse to start next season. Like some new GMs, Mougey may feel tempted (and prodded by New York’s idiot owner Woody Johnson) to make a big splash out of the gate to get the fan base excited, and nothing sells like a new QB.
Except the quarterbacks expected to be available in the next month or so would barely register a ripple. Sam Darnold, the former Jets first-round bust, is the leading free agent at the position after a solid season (with a disappointing finish) in Minnesota. Of course, if he was so great, why wouldn’t the Vikings just franchise tag him? (They still may.)
PFF has Fields ranked as the No. 2 free agent QB, and his career record as a starter is 14-30. That’s fine if Mougey is looking at next season as a bridge year, but I suspect—no sources for this, just a hunch--he has something else in mind.
I mentioned this in a prior post, but pay attention to the Kirk Cousins situation in Atlanta, where GM Terry Fontenot is keeping all his options open. For now, the plan is for Cousins to stay, Fontenot said on Tuesday.
But maybe not for that long. Cousins is due a $10 million roster bonus on March 17 that would count towards the 2026 salary cap. For this season, the cap hit for Cousins to be subordinate to sophomore Michael Penix Jr.’s is slated to be $40 million, per overthecap.com. That’s not only far and away the highest for any projected QB2 in the league, it’s also the 11th-highest among everyone at the position, per spotrac.com.
Since the bulk of the hit is Cousins’ $27.5 guaranteed base salary, the Falcons could always: A) Renegotiate the contract to convert it to bonuses that would prorate into future years, or: B) Trade him, making the roster bonus and the salary someone else’s problem, though that would accelerate the dead money hit of $37.5 million from the original $50 million signing bonus per the contract he signed just a year ago. Considering the even worse financial consequences of running Cousins back another year, B) appears to be way more palatable from the Falcons’ point of view.
Cousins has a no-trade clause in his deal, but that’s where the Jets could come in with their new Senior Football Advisor Rick Spielman, who made Cousins a very wealthy man when he was the Vikings GM. This new regime has already embraced a familiarity bias with their staff hires, so seeking to make a trade for a vouched QB where they have some leverage over the compensation (some analysts predicted it would only take a fourth-round pick if the new team accepted the full dollar commitment) wouldn’t be shocking.
Look, I don’t believe a trade for Cousins would be ideal football-wise—he’ll be 37 by the preseason and is coming off two consecutive injury-plagued years. He attempted to play through right shoulder and right elbow pain from a hit in Week 10 and was god-awful, throwing 9 interceptions to 1 touchdown over his final five games before Penix took over. (Note: Fontenot and Head Coach Raheem Morris both said on Tuesday that they were unaware of Cousins’ maladies. Read into that what you will.) In an era where dual-threat QBs are becoming more of an advantage, Cousins’ immobility is legendary. According to ESPN, his rushing yards last season totaled zero.
I’m only trying to read the tea leaves from vague pronouncements among NFL executives, but it would be very on Jets brand for this to happen.