Four Decades & Counting For Jets To Find Heir Apparent To Joe Namath

The country was celebrating its bicentennial when the New York Jets first began to look for the replacement for their franchise quarterback. Joe Namath had delivered the unlikeliest of Super Bowl wins seven years earlier and had been the toast of the town since his arrival from the University of Alabama in 1965. But “Broadway Joe” had fallen on some hard times later in his tenure in Gotham due to gimpy knees.

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So when Namath was let go following the 1976 NFL season, the Jets thought that they would have a smooth transition to his successor Richard Todd. But he – and every additional signal caller who has come and gone since then – would not be the long term answer.

As the team opens training camp, there are more questions than answers roster-wide, but none that loom larger than who will be behind center when the games count. Currently, there are three vying for what may be destined to become another dubious distinction and addition to a long list of failures who have tried in vain to take the baton from Namath. Veteran Josh McCown was signed as a free agent to be either the stop gap or teacher for one of two youngsters who are not viewed as franchise quarterbacks – Bryce Petty and Christian Hackenberg.

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Petty started the last four games of the 2016 season and showed brief flashes, but he was basically thrown to the wolves when the team  – veterans and young players alike – appeared as if they had mailed it in before the half way point in the disappointing campaign. But that was at least some OTJ in comparison to what Hackenberg received. The second round draft pick only dressed for the season finale and was the scout team quarterback for the first 16 weeks of the season, not even running his own offensive playbook all that time.

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Headed into the new season, the Jets have been picked apart and picked last by practically every pundit. They cut loose practically every veteran player and have been accused of ‘tanking’ for a top-three draft pick in 2018 when at least three highly ranked quarterbacks are said to become available. So unless either Hackenberg or Petty establishes themselves, the process begins all over again a year from now.

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