Backup quarterback isn’t a sexy position in football, but it can be an incredibly important one if a team wants to make a run and their starter goes down.
The Jets, however, haven’t had much success with their backups the past two seasons. The trio of Trevor Siemian, Luke Falk and Josh McCown went 0-6 when Sam Darnold went down with injury or illness.
Luckily, the Jets won’t need to worry about Darnold getting mono twice, but Joe Douglas and Adam Gase should take a hard look at the backup quarterback market and pay a higher premium for a better No. 2.
A good backup can equate directly to wins if they’re needed. Just look at the numbers: The Jets invested less than $3 million in 2019 in their backups between Siemian, Falk and David Fales, and that netted them a grand total of zero wins. The seven other backups who weren’t on rookie deals made less than $2 million annually and started at least one game combined to finish 6-15. Five of those wins came from Panthers backup Kyle Allen.
Meanwhile, the highest-paid backups for teams have either won or were competitive in games they were forced to play in.
Ex-Jet Teddy Bridgewater went 5-0 for the Saints when Drew Brees injured his hand. That was after New Orleans made Bridgewater the highest-paid backup with a one-year, $7.25 million deal last offseason. Chase Daniel makes $5 million annually for the Bears and went 1-1 as a starter in 2018, beat the Vikings in 2019 after taking over for Mitchell Trubisky early in the first quarter and came within two minutes of beating the Raiders in his first start the next week.
Ryan Tannehill is a weird exception to the rule. He tied Siemian for the 13th highest-paid backup in 2019 with a $2 million annual salary, but he has 73 more career starts than Siemian and led the Titans to a Wild Card and an 8-3 record.
Paying for a backup means insuring your season. It will cost you, but it’s worth it if your team has aspirations for contention. The best backups in the NFL aren’t no-name players, either. They’re guys who have legit starting experience. Tyrod Taylor has 46 career starts and makes $5.5 million annually for the Chargers. Chad Henne, Colt McCoy and Drew Stanton make $3.25 million each and have combined for 98 career starts.
Are these players full-time starters in the NFL? Absolutely not. But that’s why they’re backups on short-term, low-risk deals. Teams don’t want them to play, but they’ll be happy to have them if called upon.
The best example is the team Douglas previously worked for, the Philadelphia Eagles. Starting quarterback Carson Wentz missed the end of both the 2017 and 2018 seasons with injuries, leaving Nick Foles to lead the team. Foles ended up making $16.025 million in two seasons, but the Eagles barely missed a beat with him. He finished with a 6-2 regular-season record, a 4-1 playoff record and a Super Bowl ring. Foles was the ultimate backup, and he is the perfect reason why teams should sign veteran players to slightly larger contracts if they want to insulate themselves from injury to their starter.
The Jets don’t need to and shouldn’t spend too much on a backup, though. They have far too many holes on the roster to allocate more funds to their No. 2 quarterback. But, they need to find a more experienced player than Siemian, Falk or Fales to sit behind Darnold, and that will likely be a little bit more expensive.
The backup quarterback market is weird, uninspiring and rarely bountiful, but if the Jets could secure the services of someone like a Matt Moore (who went 2-3 with Gase in Miami), Case Keenum or even Marcus Mariota, they’d be better served if Darnold were to go down with an injury again, even it costs them between $4-$5 million annually. There could be other veterans who hit free agency this offseason as well, and Douglas should keep on eye on the market to give Darnold a legit backup who can step in and compete immediately.
It’s a move that won’t be praised, but it’s a necessary one to ensure the season can remain on track if anything were to happen to Darnold.