The New York Jets boast a very full quarterback room, but according to one analyst that is going to last for much longer.
Rivka Boord of Jets X-Factor provided a 53-man roster prediction ahead of the 2024 preseason. In her column, she projected that the green and white would eventually dump reigning UFL MVP passer Adrian Martinez.
The green and white signed Martinez on July, 27 to provide a camp arm for training camp and the preseason. However, with the uncertain status of rookie quarterback Jordan Travis remaining on the NFI (Non-Football-Injury) list, there was a sliver of a path to the QB3 role in 2024 for Martinez.
In Boord’s projections, she only had two quarterbacks making the 53-man roster; Aaron Rodgers and Tyrod Taylor.
Jets Would Be Playing a Very Dangerous Game With Roster
“I think it’s more likely the Jets end up with someone like 2023 undrafted free agent Nathan Rourke (most recently released by the Giants), Trevor Siemian (ugh), Jake Fromm, or the like” [on the practice squad], Boord explained.
The NFL expanded its emergency quarterback rule this offseason.
“Last year, in the first year the rule returned, the emergency game-day quarterback had to be on the 53-man roster. This year, teams will be able to elevate the emergency quarterback from the practice squad,” Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk revealed.
If your top two quarterbacks on the depth chart are injured and/or ejected then and only then can your emergency third quarterback enter the game. “Once an injured quarterback is cleared to return, the emergency quarterback must leave the game,” Florio added.
There is good news and bad news.
The good news is having the emergency quarterback on your practice squad increases your roster flexibility. You only have 53 spots on the official roster, but you have 16 spots to play with on the practice squad.
The bad news is your quarterback could get stolen if you leave them on the practice squad. During COVID, the NFL allowed each team to protect up to four players weekly from being poached by another squad.
However, those rules don’t exist anymore.
Let’s say the Jets only kept Rodgers and Taylor on the 53-man roster and kept an emergency third on the practice squad. At any moment another NFL team could sign that player to their own 53-man roster leaving the Jets high and dry.
Considering the Jets’ history with injured quarterbacks, that would be an incredibly dangerous game to play.
The Jets Should Opt for the Safer Route
NFL teams can elevate two players from the practice squad to the 53-man roster every week. However, they are relegated back to the practice squad after the game.
“The Competition Committee’s version requires the emergency quarterback to be one of the two standard elevations,” Florio explained.
Quarterbacks are a precious entity. Last season 66 quarterbacks recorded a start last year due to a rash of injuries at the position. That isn’t a position teams should get cute with.
New York should keep its third quarterback, whoever that ends up being, on the 53-man roster. That would protect them from getting poached, provide insurance at the game’s most important position, and leave the practice squad elevations fully open for any other position that could need an extra boost on gameday.
