The Jets announced Thursday that they are moving on from Aaron Rodgers, leaving veteran Tyrod Taylor, 35, and two young players in Adrian Martinez, 25, and Jordan Travis, 24, as the only signal-callers on the roster. Neither Martinez nor Travis have attempted a pass in a regular season game.
New general manager Darren Mougey holds the No. 7 overall pick in April's NFL Draft, but few mock drafts have the Jets taking a signal-caller with that selection since Miami's Cam Ward and Colorado's Shedeur Sanders could be off the board when the Green & White go on the clock.
"This is a type of quarterback class where some teams are going to look at it and say let's get our tackle early and let's actually wait until Day 2 and get a guy that if he works out great, if he doesn't, we can draft a quarterback next year," said The Athletic's Dane Brugler, who has the Jets selecting Michigan DT Mason Graham in his latest mock draft. "Whether it's Kyle McCord, Tyler Shough, Jaxson Dart or Jalen Milroe, there are a lot of different quarterback options on Day 2."
Brugler believes Ward, a consensus All-American in 2024 who led the FBS with 39 passing touchdowns, will be a top-three pick in April's draft.
"Then it's Shedeur watch," he said. "Where does he go? The Raiders at six? The Jets at seven? Could we see him fall into the teens? I mean, certainly possible."
Sanders, the son of Hall of Fame CB Deion Sanders, led the Big 12 with 4,134 passing yards and 37 passing touchdowns in the 2024 season while completing 74% of his passes, which led the FBS. His 71.8% career completion percentage is the all-time FBS record.
"In terms of toughness, there was no one tougher in college football," said CBS Sports' Ryan Wilson, who projects Sanders to the Giants at No. 3 overall and Ward No. 1 in his mock draft. "Last year, he played behind a pretty bad offensive line at Colorado. That's one of the things that translates. You get a sense for what that looks like in the NFL where things are sped up and sometimes the offensive line isn't as good as it was in college. That wasn't the case with Shedeur, but the question is going to be are there concerns about him playing out of structure too much?
"I think the issue is that an NFL team is going to talk themselves in the fall in love with all these guys. Are they top 10 picks? I think they are. Then after that, it sort of opens up who QB3 is even going to be."
Despite the wide range of opinions surrounding the quarterbacks, most draft pundits believe Ward and Sanders reside in the first tier and are followed by a cluster of prospects including Dart, Milroe and Texas QB Quinn Ewers. Ewers thew for 3,472 yards this season and led the SEC with 31 touchdowns and 12 interceptions.
"Quinn Ewers coming out of Texas needs to get healthy," ESPN's Matt Miller said. "He needs a year to kind of rebuild his frame after he lost some weight. He's battled injuries, but he has tools. He's one of the highest-rated quarterbacks ever to come out of high school in Texas. Those tools are still there.
"This isn't a great quarterback class, but I think the cool thing is, there are those guys in Rounds 2 or 3 that you could bring in and say maybe with a year [as a backup], we could get them ready."
