Getty New York Jets head coach Robert Saleh staring off into the distance during an NFL contest.
The New York Jets have three capable quarterbacks on their roster.
After Wednesday’s practice on August 3, head coach Robert Saleh decided to flex his muscles and take that to another level with a strong statement to the media.
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Bold Move Cotton
Saleh was asked about veteran quarterback Joe Flacco in a series of back-to-back-to-back questions and went off about how he feels about him:
“In my opinion, he could start in this league, I believe that. Sometimes this league has a tendency to pigeonhole people or put labels on people and then their opportunities kind of get limited but Joe Flacco is a starting quarterback in this league, he is really really talented.”
#Jets HC Robert Saleh just sounded off on QB Joe Flacco (@JoeFlacco), ‘he could start in this league I believe that’ + ‘sometimes people get labeled & their opportunities get limited but Joe Flacco is a starting quarterback in this league’ 😤: 🎥 @nyjets #TakeFlight #JetsCamp
To clear things up before anything gets misconstrued, there is absolutely no quarterback controversy. Zach Wilson is the franchise quarterback and will be the starting QB in Week 1.
However, Saleh hasn’t been afraid to share his pleasure with the luxury of his current quarterback situation.
The Jets originally acquired Flacco via trade on October 25 last year for his second stint with the team. In exchange for the veteran, Gang Green flipped a conditional sixth-rounder to the Philadelphia Eagles.
In 2021 he ended up playing in two games for the Jets and ended up starting in one of those contests:
- Three touchdowns to zero interceptions
- 64.3 percent completion percentage
- 338 passing yards
After Saleh made these comments about Flacco, social media was set ablaze with reactions including a ton of people creating trade chatter:
@ZackBlatt **Dolphins GM picks up burner phone **
Several people jokingly, or not so jokingly, said that Flacco would immediately become the best quarterback on the Miami Dolphins roster.
It wouldn’t surprise anyone at this point if somehow general manager Joe Douglas was able to get anything of substantial value for Flacco or Mike White for that matter.
@ZackBlatt Flacco to Seattle confirmed
Is only one ex-Jets quarterback in Seattle enough?
A lot of people started to ask themselves, why would Saleh give such effusive praise for Flacco? An ulterior motive like creating trade hype?
Makes the Most Sense
Let’s address the elephant in the room.
Flacco is 37 years old and he is much closer to the end of the road than the beginning. White is only 27 years of age but he will be an unrestricted free agent next spring.
Could the old man decide to retire? Is it possible that White seeks a change in his NFL employment that would provide him a better chance at a starting opportunity?
Both of those things could very well be true and the Jets would be left with only Wilson in the quarterback room.
There is a chance the green and white could lose one if not both of their backup quarterbacks next year for nothing. So if there is an opportunity to flip either one, the team would be naive to not strongly consider it this offseason.
As we have discussed previously, having only two quarterbacks on the roster and a third on the practice squad maximizes roster flexibility. You can keep an extra player at a different positional group that is stacked with talent.
If you keep all three on the 53, then you’re going to inevitably lose a valuable piece of the pie somewhere else.
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