One former NFL quarterback is bearish on the Jets’ 2022 prospects.
Brady Quinn, who was a first-round pick by the Browns in 2007 but hasn’t played a regular-season snap since 2013, doesn’t think the Jets will win more than five games this year. He cited their tough easy-season slate before moving on to Gang Green’s quarterback.
“Their season is going to be over before the bye,” Quinn, who lasted just over a month on the Jets roster in 2013, recently said on CBS. “I mean that is just the reality of it. They play the entire AFC North and they might go 0-4 [to start the season].”
The schedule doesn’t get much easier for New York after the AFC North gauntlet. The Jets then face the Dolphins at home in Week 5 – a winnable game, according to Quinn – before facing Aaron Rodgers and Russell Wilson on the road. Gang Green closes out the first half with home games against the Patriots and Bills before the team’s Week 10 bye.
“I mean, there is a realistic scenario where they’re 1-8, maybe 0-9,” Quinn continued. “As good as the roster has improved, I just haven’t been a fan of Zach Wilson. I think this is an unbelievably difficult schedule that lines up in the second half, but they could be decimated by that point.”
This is a worst-case scenario for the Jets. But the team can recover even if New York doesn’t win more than one game in its first nine. The Jets have one of the softest second-half schedules in the NFL with games against the Bears, Lions, Jaguars and rebuilding Seahawks. The Jets will still face their AFC East rivals, though, which include three ascendant teams.
Quinn believes another bad season for the Jets could spell trouble for Wilson’s long-term prospects with the team.
“I’ve got them winning five games,” Quinn said, “and probably going back to the drawing board at the quarterback position in the 2023 NFL draft.”
That’s extreme, as the Jets aren’t likely to move on from Wilson after only two years.
Still, Joe Douglas handed Wilson as many new tools as he could this offseason. It’s on Wilson to prove he can be a franchise quarterback with a solid arsenal around him. An improved defense should help things, too, after the Jets finished with the worst overall unit in the league in 2021.
