The New York Jets quarterback search will be one of the most intriguing storylines of the upcoming NFL offseason.
With no bona fide quarterback option for the Jets at No. 2 overall, it’s almost a guarantee that it will be a veteran under center in Week 1 when the Jets start the 2026 season.
The question is: which veteran will it be?
There are several obvious options, such as Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray, Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, and Las Vegas Raiders quarterback Geno Smith.
But former Jets quarterback Boomer Esiason threw out another name for the Jets to consider in their veteran quarterback search, and one that could even net them a draft pick in a potential trade.
Boomer Esiason Wonders if the Jets Would Consider a Deshaun Watson Trade
On his morning radio show “Boomer & Gio,” Esiason floated the idea of the New York Jets trading for Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson as their stopgap veteran.
Watson is owed a lot of money thanks to the five-year, $230 million contract he signed in 2022, and the Jets may be able to get him for cheap just so Cleveland can get him off the books.
“But you have to get somebody in here that can be somewhat competent to be able to try to win games because you want to save your jobs. If you’re the coaches and you’re the GM, if you told me it was Deshaun Watson, and he was trying to resurrect his career? You have to consider all the trade chips, and you have to consider all the draft, the drafted, you know, potential players,” Esiason told co-host Gregg Giannotti.
” I’m trying to think like how GMs would process this. If, in fact, he does become somebody that is available, they’re going to process it as that he is past all of his crap. And that he is in the middle of now wanting to and incentivized to go out and play as good as he possibly can to try to get another contract.”
It remains questionable at best if the Jets would be getting a competent starter in Watson if they traded for him, but there could be other perks in a trade with the Browns for their former starter.
The Brock Osweiler Blueprint
A potential trade between the New York Jets and Cleveland Browns for Watson would be an interesting one, to say the least.
Put the guaranteed money on Watson’s contract aside for now; there would likely have to be a mutual agreement between both front offices about who is paying what, but the Jets could be the benefactors of “buying” a pick from Cleveland.
In 2017, the Houston Texans traded veteran quarterback Brock Osweiler, a 2018 second-round pick, and a 2017 sixth-round pick to the Browns in exchange for a 2017 fourth-round pick.
The deal wasn’t about Cleveland landing a new quarterback in Osweiler, but the Texans shedding his four-year, $72 million contract.
It was probably the most NBA-style trade we’ve seen in recent NFL memory.
The Jets could do the same thing here that the Browns did years ago, take on Watson’s contract while adding a future premier draft selection.
Then, you allow him to compete in camp and see if he can beat out a rookie or another veteran for the team’s starting job.
In my mind, that’s the only way Jets fans would be able to stomach adding Watson to their already precarious quarterback situation.
Boomer Esiason Floats $230 Million QB as Jets Veteran Bridge Option