Missing Lamar in ’18 draft, not ’23, was Jets’ mistake
ANOTHER YEAR of watching playoff football from the couch for Jets fans is always going to bring up some “what if ” scenarios.
For much of the last two decades, the Jets had to watch the coach who snubbed them take his team to the playoffs every year and win six Super Bowls. Bill Belichick is finally gone from New England but there are other “what ifs” that still come up.
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 quarterback and Jackson technically was available after the Ravens used the non-exclusive franchise tag on him.
The Jets never pursued Jackson or even really explored it as a possible option. There were no conversations with Jackson or visits.
“First of all, Lamar Jackson is a fantastic player, but where we stand is, it would be disingenuous and negotiating in bad faith if we went down that path,” Jets general manager Joe Douglas said in March. “We have our plan, we have our process and we’re sticking to that. ... We’re never going to operate in bad faith.”
We all know what that plan was — Aaron Rodgers. The Jets landed Rodgers in a trade in April and were widely praised for that trade.
Rodgers ended up tearing his Achilles in Week 1 and Jackson is likely going to win his second MVP award and has the Ravens one game away from the Super Bowl. So, it is natural to wonder whether the Jets would have been better off going after Jackson, who is 13 years younger than Rodgers. My answer is no.
The reason why is Jackson was never truly available and it would have been extremely messy for the Jets to pursue him. The Ravens placed the tag on Jackson on March 7. That was the same day the Jets were in Malibu wooing Rodgers at his home. Once the Jets brass landed in Rodgers’ living room, there was no Plan B. You don’t propose to a girl and then have a backup bride.
Yes, Jackson asked the Ravens to trade him, but no one in the NFL actually believed the Ravens were going to let a 26year-old MVP quarterback leave their building. The way the tag works, the Jets would have had to negotiate a contract with Jackson and then the Ravens could decide whether to match it. If they decided not to, the Jets would have to give up two firstround picks and Jackson would be theirs. If the Ravens decided to match the contract, the Jets now did all the difficult negotiating of a long-term deal for Jackson only to watch him play in purple and black this season. In the process, the Rodgers option likely would have been over as well as every other viable starting option.
If you want to talk about where the Jets went wrong with Jackson, it was not in 2023 but back in 2018 when the Jets drafted Sam Darnold with the third-overall pick and the Ravens drafted Jackson at No. 32.
During the 2017 season, it was clear the Jets would be drafting a quarterback in 2018. The top-rated quarterbacks that year were Darnold, Josh Rosen and Josh Allen with Baker Mayfield joining the party during the 2017 season. None of the draft gurus put Jackson among that group.
One day I asked a member of the Jets’ front office at the time whether they thought Jackson, who was a star at Louisville, might be one of the best quarterbacks in the draft. He laughed at the suggestion.
The Jets were not alone in their mistaken evaluation of Jackson. Allen is the only quarterback drafted ahead of him that year who has a case for being as good as Jackson.
So, if you want to lament Jackson not being a Jet, you have a case, but it is not about last year. It is about draft night in 2018.