Brett Favre played for the Green Bay Packers from 1992 through 2007 which amounts to 16 seasons. (I'm not going to count the one year in Atlanta where he threw four passes all season and didn't complete a single one of them). He then went to the Jets for another season to start all 16 games with them. That's 269 consecutive career starts (and 291 if you include play-offs.)
Over Favre's entire career. The Jets have started 16 different quarterbacks - Brett Favre, Kellen Clemens, Chad Pennington, Brooks Bollinger, Vinny Testaverde, Quincy Carter, Ray Lucas, Rick Mirer, Glenn Foley, Neil O'Donnell, Frank Reich, Boomer Eaiason, Bubby Brister, Jack Trudeau, Browning Nagle, and Ken O'Brien. And that's just quarterbacks that we started. It doesn't include QBs that we drafted OR ones that went into the game after that first snap. I'm sure there are some random names that can be thought of like Jeff Blake, Mark Malone, Chuck Clements, Troy Taylor, Ken Hobart, Tory Woodbury, Todd Husak, Tom Tupa, Brett Ratliff, and Erik Ainge. But, these men weren't the answer either.
Since Joe Namath, the Jets have only drafted three quarterbacks with their first round pick while many years passing over that stud quarterback. Two things come to mind - passing over Dan Marino in 1983 and recently passed over Jay Cutler. Obviously there is a huge different between Marino and Cutler. And, I'm sure there have been other situations where the QB was there and we passed over it. We've drafted Richard Todd in 1976, Ken O'Brien in 1983, and Chad Pennington in 2000. That's been it.
Lately, most teams that win Super Bowls have done it with a Franchise quarterback. Look at Tom Brady, Ben Roethlisberger, Peyton Manning, and Eli manning. While teams are winning the Super Bowl, the Jets go through an ever changing cycle of quarterbacks that frustrate the fan more and more each season.
The Jets were drafting at #17 with only Clemens, Ratfill, and Ainge on the roster and it was obvious that Rex Ryan and Mike Tannenbaum didn't think they could win with what they had so they took a shot and moved up - a complete steal. We gave up our 1st, a 2nd, Abram Elam, Kenyon Coleman, and Brett Rafliff. The three players I could care less about. So, basically, we gave up a 2nd round pick to move up 12 slots to draft the QB of the Future - Mark Sanchez - who many scouts rate even higher than Matt Stafford. And, according to the value chart, we should have had to give up another #2 to make such a move. So we got our man that the Jets seems to be enamored with.
This is the splash we needed to get a face for this franchise. We had a temporary face last year in Favre but we knew that wasn't going to last long. Now, this guy should be that face for the next 10 years (knock on wood) and the answer to this Super Bowl drought that has brought a black cloud of this franchise for my entire life.
I'm truly excited for the season to begin and even though they say there will be competition between Clemens and Sanchez for the starting job, they are going to do everything possible to make Sanchez that person. Troy Aikman and Peyton Manning won only one game when thrown to the wolves. I'll take that one win if it means a Super Bowl around the corner.
The Mets have their Santana and now the Jets have their Sanchez.
I'm ready for kickoff.
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