The four most important people in an NFL organization are the owner, the GM, the head coach and the quarterback. For the New York Jets, they have not been able to get most of those right for decades.

The 2025 New York Jets are supposed to look very different than the 2024 version. The owner is coming back, much to the dismay of anyone who follows this team. But the Jets will have a new GM, a new head coach, and in all likelihood, a new quarterback. The Jets continue their extensive search for a new GM and head coach and once those are in place they will begin to address the QB situation.

This is not a good year to be in need of a quarterback. By most accounts, it is a very weak QB class with only two players being worthy of a first-round selection, and both of those should be gone long before the Jets pick at seven. The free agent class, like it usually is with quarterbacks, is full of backups and failed retreads. And the Jets have a 41-year-old incumbent who isn’t sure if he wants to play and most of the fan base wants to see out of town as soon as possible.

All that leads to one avenue for the new Jets brass when they walk in the building: trade.

The jewel of the trade market at quarterback was supposed to be Vikings rookie J.J. McCarthy out of Michigan. McCarthy was taken 10^th overall by the Vikings and was supposed to be one of the better quarterbacks in a stacked QB class. A knee injury during training camp put McCarthy on the shelf for 2024 and he was forced to watch from the sidelines as every other quarterback taken in the first round (there were six taken) saw some success in their first season.

The Vikings turned to old friend Sam Darnold who saw a resurgent season under head coach Kevin O’Connell. Darnold was selected to the Pro-Bowl after throwing for over 4,000 yards, 25 touchdowns and only 12 interceptions. But two weeks can change a lot of things in the NFL and Sam Darnold had two of his worst performances in his career in the two biggest games of his career, losing to Detroit Lions in week 18 with a chance to secure the number one seed in the NFC and then being ousted in the playoffs by the Los Angeles Rams in the Wild Card round.

Darnold was 43 for 81 for 411 yards in those two games combined with only one touchdown, one interception and a fumble lost. All those putrid numbers came on the national spotlight.

While reports up to that point had the Vikings leaning towards signing Darnold to a long-term deal and potentially trading J.J. McCarthy, the team will now likely look to save some money and build around J.J. instead of giving a big contract to Darnold.

The Jets meanwhile were sure to be one of the teams looking to trade for McCarthy if he were to become available, but likely won’t be in the Sam Darnold sweepstakes given his history with the organization. New York would have likely given up the seventh overall pick for McCarthy considering their limited options, but I can’t see them shoveling out a big money contract for a player who was run out of town in favor of Zach Wilson.

A lot can happen between now and next fall, but as it stands the Jets are going to have to creative when it comes to finding their quarterback of 2025 and beyond.

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