QB Options: Lawrence & Jones

Edition #751

Good morning!

How nice would it be to be talking about Thanksgiving as a time to celebrate both family and football, but the Jets have rarely allowed us such extravagances.

For Jets fans the annual tradition of Thanksgiving football is to be debating topics like QBs, GMs and HC’s. Oh what it would be to be a Lions fan this week, munching on some stuffing sitting at 10-1, looking ahead to those playoff games at Ford Field.

Between now and late January when the Jets will likely hire their next head coach, we’re going to hear a lot of rubbish. The rubbish we hear may rival the rubbish we see on the football field, but we’re going to work our way through it anyway.

We’ve also got some news on that GM search as well.

🟢Joe Tippmann has been speaking to the official site about year two in the NFL - "I'd say my confidence," Tippmann said about the biggest area of growth from his rookie season. "That's something that I've always focused on and it's something I hold really high in my game. Just being able to see that confidence on the film while I have more on my plate than I did last year. It's been something that has really helped me to play faster, play more confident, and kind of take on a more leadership role on the O-line.

⚫ Tippmann did also take some time to single out Aaron Rodgers - "He's always trying to help me and trying to elevate my game," Tippmann said of Rodgers. "Little things from X's and O's to even coaching me on 'you should step with this foot first.' Being able to have someone who's as seasoned as him, it takes a lot of stress off my plate on the field. I feel like I can go out there and just execute at a higher level just having him back there."

🟢 Tippmann spoke about the lack of finish on offence being a big talking point in the building as the team looks to salvage some kind of respectability - "One of the big messages has been finishing,. On the offensive side of the ball, we took the took the ball down to the red zone three times [against Arizona] and we didn't score any touchdowns. So that's a big thing on offense, to finish. Collectively as a team, we just have to be able to finish games and especially go get this one done. Then we can take a couple days off and get our bodies back right. We can't be overlooking this game we have in front of us. We have to attack this game just as we would any other game and plan on finishing."

⚫ Some notes from Jeff Ulbrich yesterday. Said that there will be no change in defensive play-caller, the Jets have not discussed the idea of shutting Aaron Rodgers down and wouldn’t confirm or deny if Woody Johnson had demanded the benching of Tony Adams. He also said that if Rodgers had turned down medical scans, it was news to him and revealed the results of their deep-dive self-scouting mission. Get the run game going, more explosive plays on offence and improve run defense…I mean we could have told them that 10 weeks ago.

The Jets are taking a step into the past to find their future.

According to an ESPN report, the Jets are hiring the 33rd Team duo of former GM Mike Tannenbaum and former Vikings GM Rick Spielman to head up their search for a new captain.

The 33rd team are “provide data analysis and experience in their searches for the two positions, sources told ESPN's Adam Schefter on Monday. The 33rd Team is a media and technology company, better known as a football "think tank."

Rick Spielman helped the Commanders in their search last year which resulted in the hire of Adam Peters, who was the assistant GM in San Francisco before heading east.

You’ll remember that back in 2015, the Jets retained former GMs Charley Casserly and Ron Wolf as consultants, which eventually led to the hiring of Mike Maccagnan. 2015 was the last time the Jets were looking to fill both HC and GM roles.

Tannenbaum has a ton of experience with the Jets having started with the team all the way back in 1997 before becoming GM in 2006. He took the Jets to three playoff appearances and 2 AFC Championship games, but was fired by Johnson in 2012. He hired Mangini and Rex for the Jets, but the stinker on his resume is Adam Gase while he was GM of the Dolphins.

“Spielman, 61, was the Vikings' GM from 2012 to 2021, reaching the playoffs four times. He conducted only one coaching search in the span, hiring Mike Zimmer in 2014. Zimmer lasted eight seasons, making three playoff appearances.”

Hiring former executives and GMs is common practice in the NFL now, but this is the first time that the 33rd Team have been retained for an NFL search, despite them having experience helping with college football searches.

Last week they posted an article about external candidates and here’s who they suggested: Ray Agnew (Lions), Mike Borgonzi (Chiefs), Ed Dodds (Colts) and Jeff Ireland (Saints). Obviously seeing Agnew’s name is a huge positive for me, and I’ll be jumping into those other candidates over the coming week.

Will the Jets ever have a settled situation at QB? I’m not asking for us to have the best QB in the league year after year, but can we just have a top-10 guy for 5-6 years. Just to be settled and know that the plan is to build around him.

After two years of Aaron Rodgers, one injured, one underwhelming, the Jets are likely going to be moving on come January. We’ve already spoken about how the Jets can move on (attached below) and now it seems likely that they’ll attempt to

The Aaron Rodgers Question

I was never crazy about the Rodgers move at the start but I never expected it to backfire quite as spectacularly as it has. It was a gamble, and unfortunately it didn’t pay off. So now the Jets go back to the drawing board.

Over the last 72 hours we’ve had two names thrown out there as potential QB options in 2025. So let’s just take a look at both those names and see what’s what.

Let’s start with Trevor Lawrence.