If Zach Wilson doesn’t work out here should the Jets stop drafting QBs for a while?

[NYJets43]

I like Zach Wilson and wanted the Jets to draft him, but at this point I have my doubts that he’s going to be good enough to be considered a long-term solution. 

Since 2009 the Jets have invested more draft capital in the QB position than any other team In the NFL by a wide-margin. 

A big part of the reason the Jets haven’t made the playoffs going on a dozen years is because of all the time and resources wasted trying to find a star QB in the draft. 

As an older Jets fan I am really getting sick of it. We’ve had two competent QB seasons since Brett Favre in 2008.

2015: Ryan Fitzpatrick

2017: Josh McCown

Outside of those seasons every year we’ve been watching the worst QB in the NFL. 

Beyond that I’m not buying what anyone is selling anymore. All we are going to hear about this off-season/training camp is that ZW is ready to take a big jump in year 2. Has anyone heard that story before? I’ll believe it when I see it. 
 

At this point if Wilson fails I just want the Jets to grab a competent veteran and try to win that way. Organizations need to understand what they don’t do well. The Jets stink at drafting and developing QBs just like the Yankees stink at drafting and developing starting pitching. 

[Jetsfan80]

Drafting QBs is ok, but you should always pair him with a competent vet to compete for the job, which the Jets never do.  Sanchez, Darnold and Wilson were the unquestioned starters entering Week 1 of their rookie years.  There was no legitimate competition.

Grab Winston, Minshew or Trubisky this offseason, please.

[Jets Voice of Reason]

12 minutes ago, Jetsfan80 said:

Drafting QBs is ok, but you should always pair him with a competent vet to compete for the job, which the Jets never do.  Sanchez, Darnold and Wilson were the unquestioned starters entering Week 1 of their rookie years.  There was no legitimate competition.

Grab Winston, Minshew or Trubisky this offseason, please.

Nah dog. Let’s trade for Flacco midseason for a draft asset instead. 

[Warfish]

When you don’t have a franchise QB, you have to keep trying to get one. Frustrating tho it may be.

[JETSY14]

Even a blind squirrel finds a nut

[The Crusher]

1 hour ago, Jetsfan80 said:

Drafting QBs is ok, but you should always pair him with a competent vet to compete for the job, which the Jets never do.  Sanchez, Darnold and Wilson were the unquestioned starters entering Week 1 of their rookie years.  There was no legitimate competition.

Grab Winston, Minshew or Trubisky this offseason, please.

Obvious to most everyone 

1 hour ago, Jets Voice of Reason said:

Nah dog. Let’s trade for Flacco midseason for a draft asset instead. 

Except the guys running the team 

[Sperm Edwards]

7 hours ago, Warfish said:

When you don’t have a franchise QB, you have to keep trying to get one. Frustrating tho it may be.

Yeah. It may not be in round 1 (let alone top 5-ish), depending on who’s the veteran in the meantime (and who’s there at our pick or within reach), but as the rest of the starting lineup fills in, yep I expect just that.

They’ll skip it this year, but if Wilson falls flat on his face in 2022 the best job-preservation move for Douglas is to get a competent veteran starter in there - some type of sure thing, even if his ceiling’s lower - and then draft another on day 3 (day 2 if someone’s there we just can’t pass up) to duke it out with Wilson for QB2, which Wilson should run unless we got lucky with the rookie pick.

Or anyway, that’s what I’d do in his shoes. I’m not a fan of the method of getting everyone on board behind the young starter whether he’s ready or not, and/or whether he’s the goods or not, just by virtue of there being no alternative (a Flacco type won’t do more than fill in for a few games while the kid gets his head straightened out during a staged mild injury). 

[Anthony Jet]

1 hour ago, Jetsfan80 said:

Drafting QBs is ok, but you should always pair him with a competent vet to compete for the job, which the Jets never do.  Sanchez, Darnold and Wilson were the unquestioned starters entering Week 1 of their rookie years.  There was no legitimate competition.

Grab Winston, Minshew or Trubisky this offseason, please.

I agree. And if the vet beat ZW out in camp he got the job to start the yearand see where it goes from there, that being said that ship has sailed. There can’t be a competition this year. It’s Zach’s job to lose. Putting him in a competition at this point is counter productive even thought that should’ve been the plan from day 1

[ncjetman]

yes - let’s just take a hiatus from playing for a while - you know we can do “team building” activities like talking long walks on sunday then the whole team can go to chuckle cheese and eat pizza and play games - oh joy! another great post by a truly insightful fan - thanks!!!


Sent from my iPhone using JetNation.com mobile app

[Dunnie]

If Zach doesnt work out, its on the coaching staff and you need another tear down anyway.

That being said .. drafting another young QB as competition is not a bad idea if they are taken in the 3rd or 4th round. Financially makes sense and if you strike gold ....

Sent from my SM-G950U1 using Tapatalk

[slimjasi]

2 hours ago, Jetsfan80 said:

Drafting QBs is ok, but you should always pair him with a competent vet to compete for the job, which the Jets never do.  Sanchez, Darnold and Wilson were the unquestioned starters entering Week 1 of their rookie years.  There was no legitimate competition.

Grab Winston, Minshew or Trubisky this offseason, please.

Nice thought, but not happening, IMO 

[slimjasi]

Nope. You keep trying to draft and develop a QB until you have one.  
 

the jets will never be the type of franchise we want them to be until they can develop a good young QB. Hopefully, it ends up being Wilson. If not, there will always be another draft. 

[Integrity28]

2 hours ago, JETSY14 said:

Even a blind squirrel finds a nut

If so, the the Jets need to evolve from tree moss to squirrel.

[Trotter]

3 hours ago, Jetsfan80 said:

Drafting QBs is ok, but you should always pair him with a competent vet to compete for the job, which the Jets never do.  Sanchez, Darnold and Wilson were the unquestioned starters entering Week 1 of their rookie years.  There was no legitimate competition.

Grab Winston, Minshew or Trubisky this offseason, please.

I really think Wilson is going to be ok but Winston is an interesting guy. Was not a fan of him at all but the last few years he has turned me around. 
Many will disagree but his career is on a vinnie kind of path.

[tfine]

Build up the roster first. Then draft a QB…….no QB would succeed with the roster we have.


Sent from my iPhone using JetNation.com mobile app

[JustInFudge]

3 hours ago, Jetsfan80 said:

Grab Winston, 

[JustInFudge]

2 minutes ago, JiFapono said:

@T0mShane - is a jealous hater wasting his emotions because he doesn't have Jameis Winston level coordination to pull this fancy footwork off

[T0mShane]

The failure of every drafted Jets QB is an infrastructure problem. They simply don’t have the capacity to develop high end QB talent here. They need to either flush the system altogether or they pay the price to bring in pre-developed QBs. They never should have drafted Wilson in the first place. They should have waited out the Watson and Russell Wilson situations while loading up on draft capital by trading #2 to San Fran.

[T0mShane]

2 minutes ago, JiFapono said:

@T0mShane - is a jealous hater wasting his emotions because he doesn't have Jameis Winston level coordination to pull this fancy footwork off

All of this is true.

[maury77]

I agree with the original poster. If Wilson doesn't work out, make sure you have a strong team in place before drafting another QB. Its what the team did in 2009 with Sanchez and the team went to 2 AFC championships in spite of a mediocre QB. 

[slimjasi]

just to add on to my previous post:

 

By my count, 21 out of the last 30 SB winners drafted the QB they won it with.
 

The best franchises draft and develop their QBs. 

[UntouchableCrew]

35 minutes ago, slimjasi said:

just to add on to my previous post:

 

By my count, 21 out of the last 30 SB winners drafted the QB they won it with.
 

The best franchises draft and develop their QBs. 

I don't think the argument is that we shouldn't ultimately draft a QB as much as that we should focus on building a strong infrastructure to give the next guy the best possible chance to succeed.

It's also pretty funny that given all the draft capital we've invested in QB 7 of our last 8 coaches have been defensive background guys... And the other was Adam Gase who had no history of successfully developing young QBs. You'd think we'd have just rolled the dice on a young OC who had actually had some success doing this.

[32EBoozer]

4 hours ago, Jets Voice of Reason said:

Nah dog. Let’s trade for Flacco midseason for a draft asset instead. 

It’s a 6th rd. pick Dog… let it go. We were in the midst of a COVID/injury crisis at the time in the Qb room IIRC. Let it go. 

[Bleedin Green]

49 minutes ago, maury77 said:

I agree with the original poster. If Wilson doesn't work out, make sure you have a strong team in place before drafting another QB. Its what the team did in 2009 with Sanchez and the team went to 2 AFC championships in spite of a mediocre QB. 

Agree to an extent, but Sanchez and that situation is also the perfect example of why they never should have stopped looking for a QB even when they brought him in.

There's a middle-ground somewhere between the opposite extremes of taking a QB at the very top of the draft and pretty much refusing to do anything meaningful at the position.  They can continue to try to build up the overall team while not stopping the endless search for their QB until finally finding one, even if they're not spending quite as much to do so.

However, the reality of the situation is the team has been actively trying to build up the rest of the team for many years now, it's simply that they've failed at their attempts to address many other positions in the same way they have QB.

[JetPotato]

Yes, because not acquiring QBs is one of the best ways to find one.

 

[Jet Nut]

5 hours ago, Jetsfan80 said:

Drafting QBs is ok, but you should always pair him with a competent vet to compete for the job, which the Jets never do.  Sanchez, Darnold and Wilson were the unquestioned starters entering Week 1 of their rookie years.  There was no legitimate competition.

Grab Winston, Minshew or Trubisky this offseason, please.

There isnt a chance in hell the Jets bring in Winston. Minshew or Trubisky.  What for? 

Minshew would make a good backup but theyre keeping White for backup.  Jets arent bringing in a QB to compete for the starting job in year two   

[heymangold]

If the jets are drafting top 10 again, they should draft a qb.  It’ll most likely mean zach didn’t grow much.  I think you should be drafting QBs til ya find one.

[Asymmetrical]

1 hour ago, T0mShane said:

The failure of every drafted Jets QB is an infrastructure problem. They simply don’t have the capacity to develop high end QB talent here. They need to either flush the system altogether or they pay the price to bring in pre-developed QBs. They never should have drafted Wilson in the first place. They should have waited out the Watson and Russell Wilson situations while loading up on draft capital by trading #2 to San Fran.

 

I'm not gonna argue that this is historically a functional organization but idk if there's a clear line between Sanchez--Smith--Darnold besides them all sucking at quarterback. I thought Wilson was entirely too risky given the circumstances - but if he fails it'd be independent of most of the past failures. 

[NYJets43]

17 minutes ago, UntouchableCrew said:

I don't think the argument is that we shouldn't ultimately draft a QB as much as that we should focus on building a strong infrastructure to give the next guy the best possible chance to succeed.

It's also pretty funny that given all the draft capital we've invested in QB 7 of our last 8 coaches have been defensive background guys... And the other was Adam Gase who had no history of successfully developing young QBs. You'd think we'd have just rolled the dice on a young OC who had actually had some success doing this.

This is precisely my point. To those in the “keep trying until you find one camp”

1) It’s tough to build the infrastructure when the organization continues to invest their best draft picks on QB. Want to build the infrastructure?

Draft Quentin Nelson instead of trading up for Sam Darnold 

Draft Kyle Pitts or Jamaar Chase instead of drafting Zach Wilson 

2) Nobody in the organization has any track record drafting/developing young QBs. The Jets aren’t good at it. Why continue to expose your weakness?

Sanchez, Geno, Darnold, and Zach all look like the same player. All thrown into the fire well before they were ready. 

[Bleedin Green]

1 minute ago, 32EBoozer said:

It’s a 6th rd. pick Dog… let it go. We were in the midst of a COVID/injury crisis at the time in the Qb room IIRC. Let it go. 

Except it's another example of continued front office incompetence.  It would have cost nothing if not for JD completely lacking any degree of foresight that everyone else paying the slightest bit of attention to this team had known for 6+ months before that was a need.

There was also no "crisis" at the position, as all it took was a short-term injury to their rookie QB for him to go in a complete panic mode about his apparent complete lack of faith in his own hand-picked #2 and #3 QBs.

[Embrace the Suck]

Over the next two years you build up the offense, and evaluate ZW. That way if he doesn't work out the next QB isn't walking into a sh*t show with no talent on O.

[SomebodytoAnybody47]

5 hours ago, Jetsfan80 said:

Drafting QBs is ok, but you should always pair him with a competent vet to compete for the job, which the Jets never do.  Sanchez, Darnold and Wilson were the unquestioned starters entering Week 1 of their rookie years.  There was no legitimate competition.

Grab Winston, Minshew or Trubisky this offseason, please.

Yawn. Most overrated thing in football. 

[Darnold's Forehead]

Yes, but only with drafting them high.  Having a high pick means your team is bad (besides trade ups) and drafting rookies to play for a bad team has never been a successful plan.

The Niners went to the SB with Jimmy Garoppolo as their QB, a year removed from going  4-12.  Build your team first, then trade up in the draft, draft one lower (QBs don’t need to be drafted in the first round only), or grab a Minshew-like player in a trade.

Brady is the only franchise QB that has had success winning SBs in this day and age.  Rodgers, Brees, Wilson, Ryan, etc. the best in the game but have only won one each (0 for Ryan).

You can win with the Flaccos, Foles, Staffords, Garoppolos, Testaverdes, Alex Smiths of the world.  You don’t need a superstar Mahomes/Herbert to do this and cap strap your team for a decade.

Team > QB

[slats]

6 hours ago, NYJets43 said:

I like Zach Wilson and wanted the Jets to draft him, but at this point I have my doubts that he’s going to be good enough to be considered a long-term solution. 

Since 2009 the Jets have invested more draft capital in the QB position than any other team In the NFL by a wide-margin. 

A big part of the reason the Jets haven’t made the playoffs going on a dozen years is because of all the time and resources wasted trying to find a star QB in the draft. 

As an older Jets fan I am really getting sick of it. We’ve had two competent QB seasons since Brett Favre in 2008.

2015: Ryan Fitzpatrick

2017: Josh McCown

Outside of those seasons every year we’ve been watching the worst QB in the NFL. 

Beyond that I’m not buying what anyone is selling anymore. All we are going to hear about this off-season/training camp is that ZW is ready to take a big jump in year 2. Has anyone heard that story before? I’ll believe it when I see it. 
 

At this point if Wilson fails I just want the Jets to grab a competent veteran and try to win that way. Organizations need to understand what they don’t do well. The Jets stink at drafting and developing QBs just like the Yankees stink at drafting and developing starting pitching. 

If you’re not working out, should you maybe not come up with yet another screen name  for a while? 

[slimjasi]

50 minutes ago, UntouchableCrew said:

I don't think the argument is that we shouldn't ultimately draft a QB as much as that we should focus on building a strong infrastructure to give the next guy the best possible chance to succeed.

It's also pretty funny that given all the draft capital we've invested in QB 7 of our last 8 coaches have been defensive background guys... And the other was Adam Gase who had no history of successfully developing young QBs. You'd think we'd have just rolled the dice on a young OC who had actually had some success doing this.

All good points