NFL Trade Rumors: New York Jets Have A Quarterback Conundrum And It Could Lead To A Teddy Bridgewater Trade
The New York Jets have a surprising competition at quarterback, one that may have Teddy Bridgewater on the trade block before the regular season starts.
Going into the offseason, the Jets took an all-hands-on-deck approach to finding a new starting quarterback. After struggling through a series of busts and journeymen not equipped to evolve into franchise quarterbacks, the Jets left nothing to chance, snagging Teddy Bridgewater to go along with veteran Josh McCown and rookie Sam Darnold. Now, the New York Post points out that the competition has brought some surprising results.
Despite uncertainty over how Bridgewater would perform after a series of devastating injuries, the former Minnesota Vikings starter has looked incredibly sharp through the teams OTAs, and could be on track to be the Week 1 starter. But the New York Post thinks the Jets may stick to their original plan to have McCown serve as the placeholder until Darnold is ready.
“Despite the optimism surrounding Bridgewater and Darnold, I would still put Josh McCown as the favorite to start against the Lions in Week 1,” wrote beat writer Brian Costello. “McCown looks ready to pick up where he left off before last year’s injury. He has more of a command of the offense than the other two quarterbacks, which should help him early on in training camp. The thing to watch with McCown will be how many reps he gets in camp.”
That could lead to an interesting predicament for the New York Jets. If McCown appears to be headed to the starting spot, but Teddy Bridgewater still continues to impress, it could leave Bridgewater expendable and make him potential trade bait for the Jets.
Columnist Darryl Slater of NJ.com believes the Jets could get a modest return for Bridgewater, given that he only has a one-year contract and could still be susceptible to injury. That would mean a third- or fourth-round pick, though it wouldn’t be clear yet which team may want him. Slater said the Jets would likely have to wait until the preseason to see which team loses a starter or backup quarterback to injury.
When will Jets start Sam Darnold? Who could trade for Teddy Bridgewater? | Mailbag https://t.co/hlmsHqHYMW
— Darryl Slater (@DarrylSlater) June 9, 2018
If that scenario doesn’t play out, the NFL trade rumors surrounding the Jets could end up petering out and the team may decide that keeping Bridgewater as an insurance policy is the best bet. Because, as the Jets have learned from the last decade of struggling from one quarterback to the next, you can never have too many competent signal callers.
