Welcome to Source Wars Episode I: The Phantom Rumors.
Source A believes the New York Jets are interested in trading up to the No. 1 pick for a quarterback. Source B believes the New York Jets are not interested in drafting a first-round quarterback and prefer to use a bridge starter. Now, Source C has entered the chat, and his proposal may be the most bizarre of them all.
Mike Sando of The Athletic polled five NFL executives on their predictions for the top 10 picks of the 2025 NFL draft. While Sando did not reveal the results from all five executives, he shared the entirety of one mock, which was headlined by a stunning prediction for the Jets at No. 7: Mississippi quarterback Jaxson Dart.
“They gotta get a quarterback, and this might be where Jaxson Dart goes,” said the exec who projected Dart to New York. “They are sitting there with Tyrod Taylor as their starter right now.”
Another exec told Sando of the Jets’ seventh overall pick, “I think it’s going to be a quarterback, but we don’t know which one.”
As things currently stand in the draft landscape, Dart would be an utterly shocking selection at No. 7. According to NFL Mock Draft Database, he is the consensus No. 39 overall prospect in the 2025 draft class.
However, in a weak quarterback class, that still makes Dart the No. 3 prospect at his position. Considering the immense pressure to land a franchise quarterback in today’s league, that could be enough to get a desperate team like the Jets to reach on him in the top 10.
The idea of reaching on a quarterback has become more accepted after the events of the 2024 draft. The Atlanta Falcons and Denver Broncos both “reached” on a quarterback, selecting Michael Penix Jr. and Bo Nix at Nos. 8 and 12, respectively. Penix entered the draft as the No. 25 overall prospect on the consensus big board while Nix was at No. 32.
While both teams feel good about their scrutinized selections one year later, neither reach was quite as vast as the one New York would make by drafting Dart at seven. Based on the consensus big board, Penix was a 17-spot reach while Nix was a 20-spot reach. Dart (No. 39 overall prospect) would currently be a 32-spot reach with the seventh overall pick – an entire round’s worth. Unless Dart’s stock dramatically rises between now and the draft, the Jets would redefine the term “reach” by taking him top-seven.
In his segment about the Jets’ selection, Sando offered up another name to watch alongside Dart: Louisville quarterback Tyler Shough. While Shough is currently the No. 95 overall prospect on the consensus big board (and the No. 7 QB), Sando opines that Shough’s “stock could appear to rise late as teams work through his 2024 tape,” considering he only had one strong season in college.
At this point, essentially every possible route for the Jets has been thrown out there. Or, so we think. I expect it will not be long until we hear from “a source close to the situation” that New York is extremely interested in running it back with Zach Wilson after giving him a year to sit and learn; after all, Darren Mougey watched Wilson closely in Denver last year. (I’m joking, but the Source Wars participants are quickly running out of ideas to throw at the wall, so be prepared for things to only get weirder from here.)
NFL free agency will unofficially begin in five days when the legal tampering window opens at 12 p.m. ET on March 10. After the Jets almost assuredly go through free agency without adding a surefire starting quarterback, the chatter about their desperation to draft a quarterback will likely grow even louder. Expect rumors about the Jets’ interest in prospects like Dart to gradually amplify all the way up until the night of April 24.
