Joe Namath took his final snap as a Jet on the afternoon of Dec. 11, 1976. It preceded a 26-yard field goal at the halftime gun that cut the Jets’ deficit against Cincinnati to 27-3. Players caught eight of the 14 passes Namath threw that day; alas, half of them were Bengals.
There were 31,067 fans at Shea Stadium. Some brought banners thanking Joe for 12 years of service. Most of them booed. Richard Todd played the second half, added two more picks, the Jets lost 42-3, and the post-Namath era was officially on. And later, Namath offered Todd advice that, with little imagination and even less editing, you could imagine Zach Wilson tipping Tim Boyle this week:
“Keep your confidence up,” No. 12 told No. 14. It’s frustrating when you go in there and try your best and the offensive linemen aren’t keeping them out and the receivers are not getting open. You have to live with it.”
Boyle starts against the Dolphins at MetLife Stadium on Black Friday. When he replaced Wilson Sunday in Buffalo, he became the 52nd quarterback to succeed Namath as the Jets speed toward a 47th anniversary in seeking a New Namath. We won’t include him on this list, but here’s a ranking of the 51 who have bridged Broadway Joe and Middletown Tim:
1. Ken O’Brien: No Jets’ quarterback except for Namath has been better than O’Brien was in 1985 through the first 11 games of ’86 (almost 6,800 yards, 48 TDs, 16 picks). He was also the first Jets quarterback to ever led three different teams into the playoffs.
2. Vinny Testaverde: You can flip-flop Nos. 2 and 3 and get no quarrel here, but Vinny gets my nod for having the best single non-Namath season in team history (12-1 as a starter, a 101.6 rating, 29 touchdowns and only seven picks) plus a berth in the AFC Championship.
3. Chad Pennington: 32-29 as a Jets starter, and that 41-0 playoff win over the Peyton Manning Colts; he is the other QB to helm three different playoff teams. One of the team’s great what-ifs, he may have actually supplanted Namath if he could have stayed healthy.
4. Mark Sanchez: We spent a lot of time emphasizing his flaws but he won more playoff games (4) than any Jet QB ever, guided two teams to the AFC Championship game and he threw 55 TDs (against 51 picks) his first three years.
5. Richard Todd: Had two terrific years (1981-82) when he went 16-8-1, won two playoff games and had 39 TDs against 21 picks, and always seemed on the precipice of stardom. But he never got there, and was 32-51 the rest of the time, with 85 TDs and 140 INTs.
6. Ryan Fitzpatrick: If it’s hard to believe he’s this high on this list, it’s just as easy to forget just how good he was in 2015 — 3,905 yards, 31 TDs, 15 picks, a 10-6 record.
7. Brett Favre: Yes, the ’08 Jets collapsed. But they were 8-3 and the hottest team in the league before Favre hurt his biceps, and he was quite good (20 TDs/13 INTs, 70.6 percent completions, 94.1 rating) in those 11 games.
8. Pat Ryan: A backup most of his 12 years in green, his one year as a starter (1984) he was 6-5 and when summoned to replace O’Brien in the ’86 playoffs he led the Jets’ to their first home playoff win in 18 years over the Chiefs by throwing 3 TDs.
9. Boomer Esiason: A very promising beginning to his homecoming (2-1, five TDs, 909 yards and a 111.5 through three games in ’93) sabotaged by what came after, which was only 13 wins in his last 39 starts.
10. Ray Lucas: Jets fans will always wonder what might have been if Bill Parcells had tapped him before the Jets started 1999 at 2-5; he nevertheless had a Cinderella run winning six of his nine starts with 14 TDs against six INTs.
11. Geno Smith: Showed some genuine early promise (8-8 as a rookie in ’13 with a stirring Monday night comeback in Atlanta) before it all came crashing down as a Jet.
12. Josh McCown: The Jets were pretty awful in 2017-18, but McCown tried to keep them competitive, 19 TDs/13 INTs in 17 games and 16 starts.
13. Sam Darnold: If only he could’ve hit the pause button after that glorious 48-17 win in Detroit in his opener. Alas, the rest of his time here bottomed out fast (though he was 7-6 in 13 starts in 2019, a season the Jets started 1-7).
14. Matt Robinson: A fan favorite when he replaced an injured Todd in 1978 and led the team to six wins in his 11 starts and an 8-8 finish; still wound up with 11 more picks (26) than TDs (15) as a Jet.
15. Quincy Carter: Held the 2004 Jets together and kept them in the playoff hunt by going 2-1 while Pennington was hurt and led a critical fourth-quarter comeback at Cleveland.
16. Neil O’Donnell: After losing his first six games as a Jet actually rebounded under Parcells in ’97 and went 8-6 with 17 TDs before falling out of Tuna’s favor.
17. Browning Nagle: In the picture, along with Darnold and Wilson, for biggest busts in team history. Ah but that opener in ’92 — 366 yards, two TDs, no INTs, in a 20-17 loss in Atlanta. And that was that.
18. Brooks Bollinger: Another Pennington injury sub, performed capably in nine starts in 2005 for a depleted team.
19. Frank Reich: After starting only eight games his first nine years in Buffalo, he started seven for the Jets in ’96 — and did lead them to their only win of the season, in Arizona.
20. Glenn Foley: Like Nagle, one start that seemed to predict wonder — 415 yards and three TDs in a heartbreaking OT loss in the ’98 opener at Candlestick Park — followed by a lot of meh. Vinny took over and never looked back.
21. Zach Wilson: We’re trying to be fair here. Wilson wasn’t good often. He was bad most of the time. But he did have his moments, fleeting as they were, and a year ago he was 5-4 as a starter. That’s not enough for a No. 2 overall pick, but it’s not nothing, either.
22. Bubby Brister: Four TDs and eight picks as a Jet, the most infamous a shovel pass against Carolina that Sam Mills took back for a TD.
23. Tom Tupa: The outlier here, since he was really a punter, but he actually led the Jets to the brink of a miracle win after Vinny’s Achilles splattered in the ’99 opener, throwing two TDs and hitting six of his 11 passes before Parcells replaced him with …
24. Rick Mirer: Parcells goofed by not picking Lucas over Mirer (and not sticking with Tupa in the opener), who was the Zach of 1999 when he replaced Testaverde, went 2-4 in looking overmatched … and allowing a punter to be rated higher than him on this list.
25. Joe Flacco: Only won one of his nine starts (the miracle comeback in Cleveland last year) but had 14 TDs and only six INTs.
26. Mike White: Gold-standard proof that the backup QB is the most popular player in a town. Had some nice moments but was only 2-5 as a starter and couldn’t stay on the field.
27. Kellen Clemens: Perennial backup had his one big moment in 2009 starting in place of Sanchez in a critical 26-3 win at Tampa.
28. Josh Johnson: Actually threw for 316 yards and three TDs in relief of White against Indy in ’21.
29. Bryce Petty: People clamored for him when Fitzpatrick scuffled in ’16; they stopped clamoring after he went 1-6 in two years with four TDs and 10 picks.
30. Mark Brunell: Threw the final 16 passes (with two TDs) of a terrific 17-year career as Sanchez’s backup in 2010 and ’11.
31. Jay Fiedler: Threw the last 13 passes and the final TD of a fine nine-year career as a 2005 Jet.
32. Jack Trudeau: Started two games in ’94, won one, had a TD and four interceptions.
33. Tony Eason: A one-time Super Bowl QB in New England, he threw the last 64 passes of his career as a Jet and lost both starts.
34. Kyle Mackey: Started one game in ’89 (a 29-14 loss to New Orleans) and threw 25 passes in pieces of four games that year, with a pick.
35. Marty Domres: Johnny Unitas’ anointed successor in Baltimore ended a middling career by going 0-2 as a Jet starter in 1977.
36. Mark Malone: Terry Bradshaw’s anointed successor in Pittsburgh threw the last two passes of his nine-year career as a Jet in 1989 and completed them both for 13 yards.
37. Michael Vick: Three unmemorable starts as he wound down his career with the ’14 Jets.
38. Troy Taylor: Threw 20 passes in bits of two seasons and seven games for the 1990 and ’91 Jets, and threw a couple of touchdown passes.
39. Chris Streveler: Had one moment in the sun in 2022 against Jacksonville, throwing for 90 yards and running for 54.
40. Tim Tebow: Threw eight passes during the Great Experiment of 2012, and completed six of them.
41. Jeff Blake: Had some fine years later in Cincinnati but only threw nine passes (with one pick) in parts of three games as a Jet.
42. Greg McElroy: Played two games in 2012, completed 19 of his 31 tosses.
43. Matt Simms: Bet you forgot about his 16 completions (and one TD) in three 2013 games.
44. Kliff Kingsbury: Bet you forgot about him, too: two passes (one completed) in mop-up duty during a blowout loss in ’05 to Denver.
45. Luke Falk: Started two games in 2019. No, I didn’t remember that either.
46. Trevor Siemian: Started against the Browns in Week 2, ’19. Six attempts, three complete, 3 yards, one mangled ankle thanks to Myles Garrett.
47. Patrick Ramsey: Threw exactly one pass for the 2006 Jets.
48. David Fales: The only stat line that appears in his two-game stint in ’19: one sack, 7-yard loss.
49. Aaron Rodgers: He did only take four snaps and attempt one pass, which is why he’s this low. He did not cross a picket line, which is why he’s this high.
50. David Norrie: Went 0-2 starting as a replacement player during the ’87 strike and was never heard from again.
51. Walter Briggs: The pride of Hackensack and Montclair State threw one interception among his two passes in relief of Norrie in a 38-24 loss to Dallas during the ’87 strike.
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