The last thing the Jets need a year or two from now is to hear “Well, you asked for it,” when the quarterback they drafted at No. 3 goes down injured.
And yet, they will risk exactly that come the evening of April 26 in Dallas. Especially if that quarterback is Oklahoma’s Baker Mayfield.
If a recent report in the Daily News is right, a division of opinion exists among the hierarchy over the merits of the top four quarterback prospects. That, of course, would become a potentially serious problem if that condition doesn’t rectify itself over the next 20 days.
Jets general manager Mike Maccagnan and his band of evaluators will have ample opportunity to come together on either USC’s Sam Darnold, UCLA’s Josh Rosen, Wyoming’s Josh Allen or Mayfield as they observe their various Pro Day performances and get up close and personal with them in some upcoming Florham Park visits.
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If that doesn’t do it and the great divide remains, perhaps it’s better to punt this one and go with an area of need. That’s asking a lot, especially in a class in which all four quarterbacks merit legitimate consideration as top-10 picks. But with a premier pass rusher such as North Carolina State’s Bradley Chubb in the mix, the Jets would be remiss to rule out a possible successor to the deposed and departed Muhammad Wilkerson.
Keep in mind, none of the quarterbacks are perfect. Mayfield, rumored as the Big Apple of Maccagnan’s eye, has the most imperfections of them all.
He’s little at a shade under 6-foot-1, which means a ton of batted passes.
Even worse, he comes out of the Sooners’ spread offense in which running ability was just as important as his throwing. Too many NFL teams have already seen how a propensity to take off with the ball carries more negatives than positives. Robert Griffin III became the poster boy for that in 2014 when he destroyed his knee with Washington. He just signed with Baltimore, his third team, as he tries to resurrect his career.
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RGIII is slightly bigger than Mayfield. As exciting as Mayfield may appear, wait until some angry linebacker gets after him near the sideline. He’s an injury waiting to happen.
NFL quarterbacking is about throwing from the pocket. It’s a big question as to whether Mayfield can adjust to that kind of scheme. And, despite all the intangibles all the scouting reports rave about, there’s no arguing physics.
Pure and simple, Mayfield represents a big long-term risk.
Rosen, Darnold and Allen aren’t sure things, either. Not Rosen with his concussion history and the recent comments by his college coach, Jim Mora, that indicated a wandering attention span. Allen may need a couple of years to iron out his accuracy problems, and Darnold regressed in his overall play last season.
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Chubb, on the other hand, is likely to be there at No. 3. The Browns, bless their hearts, might well take Allen off everybody’s hands. And if the Giants are smart, they’ll pass on the remaining quarterbacks and draft Penn State running back Saquon Barkley, the league’s next Ezekiel Elliott sans the legal problems.
The 6-foot-4, 269-pound Chubb would look just fine on the Jets’ defensive front after finishing his senior season with 10 sacks, 26 tackles behind the line, three forced fumbles, and two pass breakups. For good measure, he took home a little hardware in the form of the Hendricks Award as the nation’s best defensive end and the Bronco Nagurski Award as the best defender overall.
Chubb also ran a 4.64 40-yard dash at the Combine, two ticks faster than Mayfield.
He could be a future Pro Bowler.
But that’s a story for another day.
The current one is about conviction. And if Maccagnan and his crew can’t come to one, unified conviction on one quarterback, they had best go in a different direction entirely.
Especially if a premier pass rusher is sitting there for the taking.