When Will the Jets make a Super Bowl Appearance?

(US Presswire)

The New York Jets have not won a Super Bowl since Joe Namath and company defeated the Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III. The Jets have not even been back to the Super Bowl since. But now with a new head coach, a new general manager, a new secondary, and a new reason to believe, will this be the Jets team to finally make it to Super Bowl Sunday? My guess is probably not.

Take a look at the Super Bowl winners of the past 12 years. All 12 winners have something in common, and that is a franchise quarterback. Here is the list of Super Bowl winning quarterbacks of the past 12 years: Tom Brady (3), Ben Roethlisberger (2), Eli Manning (2), Russell Wilson, Joe Flacco, Aaron Rodgers, Drew Brees, and Peyton Manning. And yes, Russull Wilson is a really good quarterback. Eli Manning might be the only exception. He was not all that great in 2007 season, but he was really good when he was needed most. And he was really good in the 2011 season. But the point is that the teams that win Super Bowls have franshise quarterbacks. And the Jets are clearly lacking exactly that.

The last team to really make a deep run into the postseason with an average quarterback was actually the Jets with Mark Sanchez. And to be realistic, Sanchez is better than Geno Smith. So if Mark Sanchez leading an average offense and a great defense to back-to-back AFC title games wasn’t realistic enough, then imagine how difficult it will be for Geno Smith to get to the later stages of the post season. Could they be a playoff team with Geno? Yes, but not a Super Bowl contender. I don’t care how much the Jets run the ball; the NFL is a passing league and not having a really good quarterback puts a team at a huge disadvantage.

In today’s NFL, it is incredibly difficult to come across a franchise quarterback. And it is next to impossible to trade for another team’s franchise quarterback. The only way to come across one is through the draft. And even then it can be difficult to pinpoint who the next big quarterback is. Even a quarterback drafted in the top five might not live to expectations when a quarterback drafted 75^th overall might end up being a franchise quarterback, like Russell Wilson.

Don’t expect the Jets to stumble upon a franchise quarterback any time soon, unless Geno Smith can somehow improve to at least be an average quarterback. But right now, the Jets are one big piece away from being a Super Bowl contender, and that big piece of course is a quarterback.