New York Jets 2018 NFL Draft Prospects: Quarterbacks

The 2017 NFL season hasn’t started yet, but most New York Jets fans are ready for 2018 and beyond. With the team in a “rebuild” of sorts, we take a look at the 2018 NFL Draft prospects who Jets fans should be watching this college football season.

As the 2017 NFL season draws near, the New York Jets aren’t exactly going to be playoff contenders. And with the team in the interesting part of a rebuild, Jets fans have a while before they’re fighting for a playoff spot.

By interesting part, I mean that the Jets are without a franchise quarterback (unless Hackenberg proves to be it), and a good amount of the team’s best players are veterans that have already hit their peak and won’t be around when the team’s rebuild is complete.

It will also be interesting because the team will find themselves in games late, or possibly even winning games they really have no business winning. But at the same time, they will lose a lot of games that will be sloppy and ugly to watch.

The team does have some young players to build around, such as Jamal Adams, Leonard Williams, Robby Anderson, Quincy Enunwa (when he’s healthy in 2018), Darron Lee, and Christian Hackenberg (if he works out). So the rebuild has a direction, but today, we’re gonna take it a step further.

For a team in a rebuild mode, the best time of the year is the offseason. The NFL Draft brings young talent that fans can’t wait to see, and today we’ll examine the quarterbacks who the Jets should scout and considering drafting to add to their young core.

Last season, the Jets quarterbacks finished 27th in the NFL in passing yards, second to last in completion percentage, had the lowest QB rating, and threw the most interceptions. But I don’t need a bunch of stats to tell you that the Jets need a QB. Josh McCown, Bryce Petty, and Christian Hackenberg sit atop the depth chart at the position.

McCown is there to be a mentor and help develop Petty and Hackenberg. What we saw from Petty last year, wasn’t pretty at all. That leaves the former second round pick, Hackenberg, to prove he can be the man this year.

But for kicks and giggles, let’s say he doesn’t show enough to convince the Jets he can be their future starting quarterback, and let’s assume the New York Jets are going to have a top-five-to-seven pick. That puts them in play for a lot of great prospects in what looks to be an incredible 2018 draft class.

Now onto the fun stuff. Let’s examine the quarterbacks the New York Jets could/should be targeting in the 2018 NFL Draft.