This offseason, the Jets have the golden opportunity to finally find their franchise QB, as they’ve had a gaping hole at the position for nearly fifty years now, and come into this spring with nearly $80M in cap, and a top 6 draft pick. And to top it off, they’re picking from an extremely strong, and deep QB free agent and draft class to fill that void in NY.
Reports surfaced today that the Jets will go “all-in” for Kirk Cousins – the undisputed top QB choice for this offseason – and offer all they have for his services.

Kirk puts out a ton on the table as he’s a legitimate top-12 QB in the league, is only 30, and is a proven leader.
So everything seems in place, right? The Jets can go out and offer a ton for Kirk, solve their QB problem for the next 5-6 years at least, and call it a day.

But realistically, this could be the WORST thing the Jets could do for three reasons.

First of all, despite having the huge amount of cap space that will allow Kirk to be affordable, signing him to the richest contract in history will completely swallow up that cap, and leave the Jets with almost nothing. Remember, the Jets were only a 5 win team, and have a TON of holes to patch up this offseason all around the ball.

Second of all, the options the Jets have to choose from outside of Cousins is huge, and they could certainly afford to take a younger, cheaper option in FA, or develop a promising kid from scratch from the draft, and have a bridge QB to help develop.

Lastly, the Jets need to realize how young of a team they really are. Kirk Cousins is anything but old, as he is 30 and in his prime, but for a rebuilding, extremely young team like NY, maybe a guy in his prime isn’t the best option as in 4-5 years, when those young guys are at their peaks, Kirk may start his downfall. A rookie choice would allow the team to develop at the same pace altogether.

As a Jets fan, I’ll be happy as long as they commit to a franchise QB choice this offseason, but I’d definitely prefer them to avoid Kirk, get a veteran (like bringing back McCown) to mentor a young rookie, and patch up the other holes on their team this offseason with that money.

What do you think the Jets should do?

 

(P/C: Pro Football Talk)