There is no more important position in sports than the quarterback in football. The quarterback is often viewed as the driving force behind a team’s success or failure, and serves as not only the team’s primary decision maker on offense, but also a vital leader on and off the field.
Unfortunately, the New York Jets don’t have a rich history of great quarterbacks. From forgotten veterans to infamous draft busts, the Jets have spent the majority of their team’s history searching for stability at the quarterback position.
That’s not to say there weren’t exceptions to this rule, but as you can see from the list below, the bar for being a top 10 quarterback in Jets history is extremely low compared to other NFL teams.
Using a combination of statistics, team success, individual achievement, longevity and overall impact, let’s take a look at the 10 best quarterbacks in franchise history.
Putting together a list like this is never easy; there is no single criterion that can be used to determine the “best” quarterback in a team’s history; subjectivity is always a factor.
That said, for this list, we’ll be ranking Jets quarterbacks based on a variety of factors. Years with the team is a big factor, but so are, of course, the individual honors and awards a player won during his time with the Jets.
We only take into account what a player did with the Jets, so a player like Brett Favre will be judged solely on his Jets history.
Additionally, this isn’t simply a list of the Jets’ top quarterbacks by a specific statistic — a variety of subjective factors are taken into account, including memorable moments, historical impact, and overall fan perception, making it more than a simple statistical ranking.
Guaranteed to be a trip down memory lane for longtime fans of the team, here are the 10 best quarterbacks in New York Jets history.
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10. Pat Ryan
Pat Ryan may have only started 19 games for the Jets, but the former 11th round draft pick spent more than a decade with the organization from 1978-1989 and was the team’s primary backup for much of that time.
Ryan’s only start came in 1984, when he led the Jets to a 6-5 record in 11 starts while throwing 14 touchdowns and 14 interceptions. His other memorable moment with the team came during the 1986-87 season, when he replaced the benched Ken O’Brien during the playoffs.
Ryan led the Jets to their first postseason win in four years, but was injured the following week in the divisional round.
Ryan is a deserving player on this list due to his longevity and overall fan appreciation, with other contenders including Sam Darnold, Ray Lucas, Geno Smith and Josh McCown.
9. Brett Favre
Yes, Brett Favre is a top 10 quarterback in Jets history. Favre came into the Jets with a serious Super Bowl contender. It’s easy to forget now, but the future Hall of Famer led Gang Green to an 8-3 record before it all went off the rails.
Favre tore his biceps and threw eight interceptions and just two touchdowns in the final five games of the season, four of which the Jets lost. The Jets finished the season with a 9-7 record and missed the playoffs.
It’s worth considering how far Favre might have led the Jets had he not been injured — after all, he was one of the best quarterbacks in football through the first 12 weeks of the season and finished second in MVP voting last year.
Favre’s tenure with the Jets has always been a case of “what might have been,” but these 11 games alone make him worthy of being on this list.
8. Boomer Esiason
Everyone loves a hometown hero story, which is why fans were understandably excited when the Jets acquired Long Island native Boomer Esiason in a trade prior to the 1993 season.
Esiason was reunited with former Bengals offensive coordinator Bruce Coslett, and the Jets went 7-4 in their first 11 games in 1993. But in typical Jets fashion, the team lost four of their final five games, missed the playoffs, and Coslett was fired at the end of the year.
The remainder of Esiason’s tenure with the Jets was marred by inconsistency and coaching changes, with Pete Carroll taking over in 1994 and Rich Kotite in 1995.
Although Esiason’s return did not go as well as Jets fans had hoped, he did provide the team with respectable quarterback play and was selected to the Pro Bowl in 1993.
7. Ryan Fitzpatrick
Ryan Fitzpatrick hasn’t enjoyed the same longevity, at least with the Jets, as some of the others on this list, but few quarterbacks in franchise history have matched what the NFL veteran accomplished during his prime in Florham Park.
Fitzpatrick’s 2015 season was arguably the best by a quarterback in Jets history, as his 31 touchdowns broke Joe Namath’s single-season record and fell just short of Namath’s passing yards record, despite having significantly fewer interceptions.
Of course, no discussion of Fitzpatrick’s time with the Jets would be complete without mentioning his dramatic free agent acquisitions the following offseason and his disastrous 2016 campaign.
But Ryan Fitzpatrick made Jets history with a great season in 2015 and probably should have been rewarded with a playoff appearance. Let’s not even talk about Kenbrell Thompkins or, honestly, the Week 17 game against the Bills.
6. Richard Todd
Once hailed as the successor to the legendary Joe Namath, Richard Todd fell far short of expectations with the Jets but still enjoyed a respectable eight seasons with the team.
Todd was often the target of criticism during his time with the Jets and will forever be remembered by some fans as the Alabama product who failed to replace Namath, but there were some bright spots during his tenure.
Todd led the Jets to their first win in 12 years in 1981 and then to the postseason the following year, taking New York to the brink of a Super Bowl before a blowout loss to the Miami Dolphins in the infamous “Mad Bowl.”
Todd underperformed, but only two quarterbacks in franchise history have thrown more passing yards and touchdowns than him, and his longevity alone puts him just outside the top five.
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5. Mark Sanchez
Say what you want about Mark Sanchez, but he was a contributor to one of the most successful periods in franchise history and was a big factor in the team’s postseason success.
Sanchez’s four playoff wins are the most of any quarterback in Jets history. He led the Jets to back-to-back AFC Championship Games in 2009 and 2010 and finished his playoff career completing over 60 percent of his passes with nine touchdowns and just three interceptions.
Sanchez never had that level of success during the regular season and arguably relied a little too much on offensive and defensive support roles, but his resume speaks for itself.
Few quarterbacks in Jets history have had more accomplishments than the former No. 5 overall pick, and he certainly deserves to be in the top five.
4. Chad Pennington
One of the biggest “what if” stories in Jets history involves former quarterback Chad Pennington. Selected 18th overall in the 2000 NFL Draft, Pennington became the Jets’ starter in his third year and seemed on his way to stardom.
Pennington led the Jets to their most recent AFC East title in 2002, completing an NFL-leading 68.9 percent of his passes, the most by a Jets quarterback in a single season.
Unfortunately, chronic shoulder injuries have marred the career of a player who could have been the team’s best quarterback since Joe Namath, but Pennington remains one of just two Jets quarterbacks to lead a team to the playoffs three times.
Pennington holds a special place in the hearts of many Jets fans, and it’s easy to make the argument that he deserves a higher ranking. Numbers two through four on this list are pretty even.
3. Vinny Testaverde
The No. 1 overall pick in the 1987 NFL Draft, Vinny Testaverde’s 21-year NFL career is one of the most fascinating and unusual in league history, with the Jets being a storied chapter in his legendary career.
The 1998 season is remembered as one of the best in Jets history. Testaverde led the Jets to a 12-1 record in 13 starts and an appearance in the AFC Championship Game. The Jets entered the 1999 season with Super Bowl hopes, but those hopes were dashed when Testaverde ruptured his Achilles tendon in the first game of the year.
Testaverde played five more seasons with the Jets, making the playoffs again in 2001, but was never able to recapture the magic of that 1998 season.
But from that magical 1998 season to his performance in the “Monday Night Miracle,” Testaverde cemented himself as one of the best quarterbacks in Jets history. He just missed out on the No. 2 spot on this list.
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2. Ken O’Brien
Ken O’Brien’s name will forever be linked and compared to that of legendary Miami Dolphins quarterback Dan Marino, who was selected three spots ahead of him in the 1983 NFL Draft, but it’s often forgotten that O’Brien had some memorable moments with the Jets.
The 24th overall pick in the 1983 draft, he became the first quarterback in franchise history to lead the Jets to the playoffs three times. He is second all-time in passing yards and touchdowns (behind Joe Namath) and is first all-time in completions by a Jets quarterback.
O’Brien played in 106 games over nine years with the Jets and was selected to the Pro Bowl twice during his illustrious, and admittedly shaky, tenure with the team. He wasn’t as good as Marino, but he was still good for an NFL quarterback at the time.
O’Brien’s longevity is a big part of what puts him above Testaverde and Pennington on this list, and when you add in a couple of truly great seasons, O’Brien comes in just short as the second-best quarterback in Jets history.
1. Joe Namath
There’s no doubt about it: the greatest quarterback in Jets history is also arguably the most important and iconic player in franchise history — we’re talking, of course, about “Broadway” Joe Namath.
In 1969, Namath led the Jets to their only Super Bowl victory and New York became the first AFL team to win what would later be named the Lombardi Trophy. His “guarantee” became an iconic moment not only in Jets history, but in NFL history as well.
Namath holds the Jets’ all-time record for most passing yards, touchdown passes, yards per pass attempt and fourth-quarter comeback wins and is the only quarterback to represent the team in the Hall of Fame in Canton.
Simple statistics don’t tell the whole story. Namath is a sports icon and someone who directly changed the future of the entire NFL. It’s no exaggeration to say he is one of the most influential quarterbacks in NFL history.
The first player in the league to pass for 4,000 yards (and the only Jets player to do so), no one will surpass him as the greatest quarterback in Jets history, and that will be his title for the time being.
Rank
player
Years with the team
Passing Yards
1
Joe Namath
1965-1976
27,057
2
Ken O’Brien
1984-1992
24,386
3
Richard Todd
1976-1983
18,241
Four
Chad Pennington
2000-2007
13,738
Five
Vinny Testaverde
1998-2003, 2005
12,497
6
Mark Sanchez
2009-2012
12,092
7
Boomer Esiason
1993-1995
8,478
8
Sam Darnold
2018-2020
8,097
9
Ryan Fitzpatrick
2015-2016
6,615
Ten
Zach Wilson
2021-2023
6,293
