Despite college QBs changing teams through the NIL revolving door and pro starters coming and going these days at a rapid rate — or probably because of those developments — quarterback is still the name of the game in the NFL.
And you didn't have to go farther than Jets general manager Darren Mougey's first public remarks of the offseason regarding the team's evolving position when he spoke with reporters Monday at the NFL Annual Meeting in Phoenix, AZ.
The QB queries began with Mougey going over the trade to acquire, or for the Jets to reacquire, 13th-year veteran Geno Smith.
"We had a lot of good discussions about Geno," Mougey said. "Obviously you all know Geno, too, and his familiarity with New York. Last year we evaluated Geno as well. We had good grades on him, we had some guys here that were familiar with him, and we felt he would be a good fit for what we're doing moving forward."
As head coach Aaron Glenn said to kick off the Jets' visibility at the owners' meetings in a Sunday interview, Smith is the starter. But AG didn't get into Smith's backups — at the moment only second-year man Brady Cook and reserve/future signing Bailey Zappe are on the roster — and Mougey wasn't giving too much away.
"We feel good about the quarterback room, but we could potentially add another guy to the room before the draft," he said. "We'll see where that goes, but we'll monitor that quarterback market and see where we're at."
One of the places Mouge and his team will be at soon is getting down to the business of analyzing this year's draft class. The GM said the Jets will begin the process with meetings next week back at 1 Jets Drive, build their value board, and "jump full-bore into the draft."
Two assumptions by analysts and fans about this draft is that Indiana QB Fernando Mendoza is going to the Raiders with the first overall pick in late April, and that there is no powerhouse No. 2 signal-caller available this year, for the Jets at No. 2 or for some of the potential QB suitors through the first half of the first night of selections.
But Ty Simpson is the second QB on many boards and Mougey, again not tipping his hand, had a good report about the bouncy, poised, accurate leader from Alabama.
"We had a good visit with Ty," he said of the Jets' journey to Alabama last week to poke around under the right-hander's hood just a bit. "We really enjoyed the time down there. We went to dinner, had a workout with him. It was good."
But good enough for No. 2? Or No. 16, the Jets' second pick of Round 1? Or to make a move up from 33 to acquire his services later in Round 1? As one reporter pointed out, there's a risk selecting a QB high in the draft who has made only 15 career starts, all last season for the 11-4 Crimson Tide.
"Obviously, we want the biggest sample size we can get. It's always projections with all these draft players, so the bigger the sample size, naturally, you'd feel better about it," Mougey said. "But we'll still evaluate him and there's a lot of good things to see in the games he did play."
Probably the item of most interest after QBs was whether the Jets would enter the draft with a trade mindset. The GM, no surprise, wasn't ruling anything in or out. After all, he's already made about a dozen draft transactions involving picks and players. This year he acquired the No. 16 from the Colts for CB Sauce Gardner and the 44th from Dallas for DL Quinnen Williams.
With his deals, last year he brought "competition and depth" players to the roster such as D-linemen Harrison Phillips, Jowon Briggs and Mazi Smith, CB Jarvis Brownlee Jr. and WR Adonai Mitchell. And that was before the free agency signing period began, when besides signing UFAs, he acquired Smith, S Minkah Fitzpatrick and massive DT T'Vondre Sweat in trades.
So will Mougey & Co. stand pat at No. 2 and let the best available edge rusher come to them?
"I feel good about where we are in the process," he said. "But there's still a lot of work to be done. We'll get back to Jersey at the end of this week and we'll really fire up our meetings next week and have a lot of good discussions over the next few weeks leading up to the draft."
Or conversely, might the Jets' second-year GM trade down from No. 2 and acquire even more picks in this draft than the nine he now holds?
"We're always open," he said. "We'll go through this draft process, really build the board. The calls typically don't happen until we get closer to the draft. But we'll always pick up the phone."
