As Jets fans watch another year of playoff football from their couches, “what if” scenarios will always come up.
For much of the past two decades, the Jets had to watch a coach who despised them take the team to the playoffs every year and win six Super Bowls. Bill Belichick is finally gone from New England, but other “what ifs” still surface.
On Saturday, Lamar Jackson put on a clinic in the second half of a 34-10 win over the Texans in an AFC divisional playoff game. Just 10 months ago, the Jets were in the market for a new starting QB, and Jackson technically became available after the Ravens used the non-exclusive franchise tag on him.
The Jets never pursued Jackson or even seriously considered him as a possible option. He had no conversation or visit with Mr. Jackson.
“First of all, Lamar Jackson is a great player, but our position is that it would be dishonest and it would be a dishonest negotiation to go down that path,” Jets general manager Joe Douglas said in March. Told. “We have a plan, we have a process, and we are adhering to it. … We never intend to act in bad faith.”
We all know what that plan was – Aaron Rodgers. The Jets acquired Rodgers in a trade in April that was widely praised.
Rodgers ended up tearing his Achilles tendon in Week 1, but Jackson is likely to win his second MVP award and the Ravens are one game away from the Super Bowl. So it's natural to wonder if the Jets would have been better off pursuing Jackson, who is 13 years younger than Rodgers.
My answer is no.
That's because Jackson wasn't really available, and it would have been very awkward for the Jets to pursue him. The Ravens tagged Jackson on March 7th. That was the day the Jets were wooing Rodgers at his home in Malibu. Once the Jets team arrived in Rodgers' living room, there was no plan B. You don't propose to a girl and then prepare a backup bride.
Jackson did request a trade from the Ravens, but no one in the NFL actually believed the Ravens would move the 26-year-old MVP quarterback out of the team's building. Given the way the tag works, the Jets would likely negotiate a contract with Jackson, and then the Ravens would decide whether to sign him. If they decide not to, the Jets would have to give up two first-round picks and Jackson would be theirs. If the Ravens decide to match the deal, the Jets would have gone through all the difficult negotiations on a long-term contract just to see Jackson play in the purple and black this season. In the process, Rodgers' options may have ended, as have all other viable starting options.
If you want to talk about where the Jets went wrong with Jackson, it goes back to 2018, not 2023, when the Jets drafted Sam Darnold with the No. 3 overall pick and the Ravens drafted Jackson with the No. 32 pick. was.
During the 2017 season, it was clear that the Jets would draft a quarterback in 2018. The highest-rated quarterbacks that year were Darnold, Josh Rosen, and Josh Allen, who were joined by Baker Mayfield during the 2017 season. None of the draft gurus put Jackson in that group.
One day, I asked a member of the Jets' front office at the time if they thought Jackson, then a star at the University of Louisville, could be one of the best quarterbacks in the draft. He laughed at the suggestion.
The Jets weren't the only team to misjudge Jackson. Allen is the only quarterback drafted ahead of him that year and claims to be just as good as Jackson.
So if you want to lament that Jackson isn't a jet, you are, but that wasn't last year. It's draft night in 2018.
