The New York Jets have faced their share of bad takes over the years, but these take the cake
Look, we’re football writers. We get it. There’s not much to write about right now. For some, riling up emotions is king at this time of the year.
But at least stir the pot in a way that makes sense.
The New York Jets have recently been the subject of some outrageous opinions. Within the past week, we’ve seen two of the most asinine takes about the Jets that have ever graced the football landscape.
First, NJ.com posted a take saying that Daniel Jones is a better quarterback than Aaron Rodgers, citing head-to-head box score stats from 2022 to “prove” the case. I’m not even going to get into the details, since they were completely ludicrous. But here is one stat that will negate this argument before it gets off the ground.
- Rodgers big-time throw rate, 2022: 5.7% (3rd-best among 38 qualifiers, min. 175 dropbacks)
- Jones big-time throw rate, 2022: 1.4% (37th)
- Rodgers career big-time throw rate: 6.2%
- Jones career big-time throw rate: 3.1%
*PFF defines big-time throws as “on the highest end of both difficulty and value.”
Which quarterback is making more of an impact on his team’s game, loss aversion notwithstanding?
Then, ESPN sought to outdo this take by saying that the Jets could have gotten Teddy Bridgewater over Rodgers. About Bridgewater, it says, “[he] has been perfectly acceptable for teams with great defenses in the past… Bridgewater is nine years younger than Rodgers, has been beloved everywhere he has gone as a pro and is still an unrestricted free agent.”
Let’s use the same comparison.
- Bridgewater big-time throw rate, 2022 (unqualified): 0.0% on 79 attempts
- Bridgewater career big-time throw rate: 3.1%
The Jets were seeking a quarterback to move the needle. The stats tell you exactly who does and who doesn’t, notwithstanding Rodgers’ off year in 2022.
Arguing that Derek Carr would have been the better selection is one thing. It was a raging debate among Jets fans, and even several of us at Jet X were (at least initially) on the Carr train. Carr had a 4.0% big-time throw rate in 2022 and is at 4.5% for his career.
But these takes? This is what we call summertime sludge. We know that Jets fans are too savvy to even get riled up by these articles, but if you need statistical backing against another delusional arguer, you’ve got it in this article.
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How many times do we need to point out that Rodgers lost both his OC best friend, AND his #1 WR, and then played with a hurt thumb most of the season. And still, his 26 TD/12 INT season would have been one the best in Jets history. Top 3.