The New York Jets are at a crossroads.

Losers of three straight, the 1-3 Jets are on the brink of leaving a large chunk of their fans more excited to watch college quarterbacks than their favorite NFL team.

As the Jets prepare to attempt to save their season against the Cleveland Browns, way-too-early 2027 mock drafts are beginning to surface. The latest, courtesy of Yahoo Sports’ Nate Tice, features the Jets swinging for the fences to land their franchise quarterback.

Tice has the Jets swapping places with the Houston Texans to land the first overall pick, although the exact terms of the trade are not listed. Somehow, though, the Jets get there without giving up all three of their first-round picks, which allows them to select a quarterback first overall and still make a second first-round choice.

In any event, here are the top 12 picks of Tice’s mock:

  1. New York Jets (from Houston): Arch Manning, QB, Texas
  2. Tennessee Titans: Jeremiah Smith, WR, Ohio State
  3. Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Leonard Moore, CB, Notre Dame
  4. Los Angeles Chargers: Charlie Becker, WR, Indiana
  5. Miami Dolphins: Drew Mestemaker, QB, Oklahoma State
  6. Houston Texans (from NY Jets): Jordan Seaton, OT, LSU
  7. New Orleans Saints: Colin Simmons, EDGE, Texas
  8. Washington Commanders: Ashton Hampton, CB, Clemson
  9. Arizona Cardinals: Austin Simmons, QB, Missouri
  10. Cincinnati Bengals: Dylan Stewart, EDGE, South Carolina
  11. Houston Texans (from Indianapolis via NY Jets): Jadan Baugh, RB, Florida
  12. New York Jets (from Dallas): Will Echoles, DT, Ole Miss
JET XFront Office
2027 OFFSEASON

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Opening roster · Choose one move

Effective cap$79.54MStarting snapshot
Roster39Starting snapshot
2027 picks9Starting snapshot
Choose one to see the results.

The thinking behind the decision

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Own the decision.

Although over $100M in dead cap is coming off the books, the New York Jets have plenty of tough decisions to make during the 2027 offseason. Deciding which of these decisions is the most important may shape the direction the organization takes.

Your choice changes this single-scenario snapshot. A release or trade opens a roster spot; a restructure creates current-year room at a future cost; a fifth-year option decision looks one year further ahead.

These are alternatives, not a sequence of moves. The opening effective cap is the current simulator package’s $99.23M total room minus $19.70M net draft reserve. The figures are projections, not a live team ledger.

At first overall, the Jets land Texas quarterback Arch Manning, whose uncle, Eli, recently expressed his intrigue regarding the idea of Arch playing for the Jets.

With the 12th pick, the Jets reinvigorate their interior defensive line with Will Echoles, who ranks as Pro Football Focus’ eighth-highest graded Power Four defensive tackle at the position in 2026 thus far (min. 100 snaps).

If New York could jump from sixth to first in the draft order to select their quarterback of choice without giving up both of their incoming first-round picks, it would be a dream come true for the organization. Most likely, that wouldn’t be plausible, but it’s sure fun to dream.

The Jets will attempt to quiet down the early-October draft chatter by defeating the 3-1 Cleveland Browns at home on Sunday afternoon (1 p.m. EST).