The Jets are the only winless team in the NFL, lying at the bottom of the standings at 0-6.
And when you look ahead at the rest of their schedule, there's a good chance the Jets won't win a game the rest of the year. At the very least, the Jets won't win very many, and this puts them in the running for the No. 1 pick in the 2021 NFL Draft. And the consensus top player in this year's draft is Trevor Lawrence.
So, naturally, many are tying Lawrence to the Jets. Current quarterback Sam Darnold has an 11-19 record as a starter since taking over in 2018 and has a career 39-32 TD-INT ratio with a poor 79.6 career quarterback rating.
MORE: Will the Jets fire head coach Adam Gase?
Replacing a quarterback who has played poorly with a top quarterback prospect makes sense, but it's a little more complicated than that. And ESPN's Keyshawn Johnson explained that in a fiery rant on his ESPN Radio show.
“You’ve got bigger holes on your team than the quarterback!”@keyshawn is FED UP with people trying to run Sam Darnold out of New York in favor of Trevor Lawrence. #KJZ pic.twitter.com/BrNA6h7UpX
— Keyshawn, JWill & Zubin (@KeyJayandZ) October 19, 2020
"Your team sucks," Johnson said. "You drafted a guy three years ago with the third pick in the draft because he was your Trevor Lawrence. He has nothing around him. Nothing. Zero, zilch, right? Nothing. He looks good at times and bad at times with nothing around him."
Johnson made a comparison to Peyton Manning in Indianapolis. He said when the Colts drafted him, they eventually put players around to support him, such as Marvin Harrison, Edgerrin James and Reggie Wayne. He said the Jets already have their potential Manning in Darnold, and just need to support him with talent. Getting a second Manning won't matter, in Johnson's view.
"I don't understand why they think that the quarterback is the answer when they have one that they need to put pieces around," Johnson said. "You take that number one pick and you trade it. And you do what the Boston Celtics in basketball have done — you stockpile a bunch of picks, and then you start to find guys that can help you build your damn team!"
Johnson makes a good point, and he's not alone in making this case. Ultimately what the Jets have to consider is whether they believe Darnold is good enough to remain their quarterback. If they feel he still has potential, then the Jets should absolutely go the route Johnson recommends.
But if the Jets don't feel like Darnold has what it takes, then there's no shame in going with Lawrence. The perfect case study would be what the Cardinals did in the past couple of seasons. Arizona drafted Josh Rosen with the 10th overall pick in 2018. But the Cardinals spent the first overall pick on Kyler Murray the next season because they didn't like what they had in Rosen, and felt Murray could change this franchise.
Rosen is now a practice squad player, and Murray has the Cardinals at 4-2 in his second year.
