Eli is Blue’s only QB during Gang’s Dirty Dozen run
They are the Jets’ Dirty Dozen and it’s an interesting crew, to say the least. Consistency and continuity are crucial in the NFL. That’s the Giants and Eli Manning. For the Jets? Variety is the spice of life. Manning has started 199 consecutive regular season games, going back to the first start of his career on Nov. 21, 2004 against the Falcons in the 10th game his rookie season. In the same 199 games, the Jets have sent 12 different quarterbacks into the huddle to start a game. And when Manning becomes just the third QB in NFL history to reach 200 consecutive starts on Opening Night against the Cowboys in Dallas on Sept. 10, it’s expected Josh McCown makes it a Lucky 13 for the Jets when they open in Buffalo. The Giants are the home team in Saturday night’s annual Snoopy Bowl extravaganza against the Jets and the biggest difference between these two teams over the last 13 years is Big Blue has been able to count on its quarterback to win big games, including two Super Bowls, while the Jets hope their QB doesn’t lose games.
The Jets quarterbacks during the Manning era have come in just about every variety — old, young, future Hall of Famer, white, African-American, right-handed, left-handed, high draft picks, low draft picks, trades, street free agents, just no college free agents.
They have one thing in common: None have been able to break Gang Green’s interminable and painful Super Bowl drought, which will reach 50 seasons after the transitioning Jets bring back memories the next four months of the ’62 Mets.
While the Jets try to figure out if Christian Hackenberg can play or whether they have to invest another high draft pick in a QB in 2018, the Giants have Super Bowl expectations coming off an 11-5 season.
So, while it appears McCown’s questionable credentials — 38 years old, eight teams, 18-42 career record as a starter, including 2-20 over the last three seasons — will be good enough to hold off Hackenberg (the field looks 200 yards long when he’s playing), he will just add to the legacy of lousy Jets quarterbacks. Consider the Dirty Dozen: l Starts over the last 199 games: Mark Sanchez (62), Chad Pennington (32), Geno Smith (30), Ryan Fitzpatrick (27), Brett Favre (16), Brooks Bollinger (9), Kellen Clemens (9), Vinny Testaverde (4), Bryce Petty (4), Michael Vick (3), Quincy Carter (2) and Greg McElroy (1).
l High Draft Choices: Pennington (1st round, 2000); Sanchez (1st round, 2009), Clemens (2nd round, 2006), Smith (2nd round, 2013).
l Mid-To-Late Draft picks: Petty (4th round, 2015), Bollinger (6th round, 2003), McElroy (7th Darnold, considered college football’s best quarterback, followed by Wyoming’s Josh Allen and UCLA’s Josh Rosen. That order could change by draft time.
The Jets QB roster the last 13 years is not impressive. They picked up Carter after Bill Parcells ran him out of Dallas because of drug problems. Clemens is still hanging around as a backup in San Diego, but he didn’t have starter’s ability. Vick was unprepared when he had the chance to play. Hard to believe, but Bollinger started nine games. Smith was a knucklehead in his days with the Jets.
Of course, the Jets have had no luck, which is part of their tortured history. Pennington was picked 181 spots higher than Tom Brady in the 2000 draft but he kept blowing out his throwing shoulder. If he had been healthy, he would have at least made the Jets more competitive with New England. The only division title Brady has lost when healthy was to Pennington in 2002.
If the Jets knew Brady was going to be the all-time best QB they would have taken him when scout Jesse Kaye begged Parcells to draft him in the fifth or sixth round even though they had already taken Pennington. Then again, if Bill Belichick knew Brady was going to be great, he wouldn’t have waited until the sixth round to make him the seventh player he picked in that draft.
The Jets dumped Pennington in 2008 when Woody Johnson got the hots for Favre. He was playing well and had the Jets at 8-3 coming down the stretch after back-to-back road victories in New England and Tennessee. But Favre suffered a shoulder injury that was kept quiet by the Jets and Favre kept playing until his arm just about fell off.
The Jets lost four of their last five to finish 9-7 and miss the playoffs, but Favre kept playing. Well, at least he kept his consecutive games streak alive, which eventually reached a record 297 games. He retired from the Jets after the 2008 season but wound up playing two more years in Minnesota. hey thought they hit it big when they traded up for Sanchez in 2009 and he took them one step from the Super Bowl in his first two seasons. But he became a turnover machine — 32 each in his last two years as their starter — and his Jets career ended with a shoulder injury in the Snoopy Bowl in 2013.
There have been so many times when Giants fans have been frustrated with Manning. Just think of this: They could have been stuck with the Dirty Dozen.
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