Jets general manager Darren Mougey will be judged by how he addresses QB situation

Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers, left, and the team's new general manager Darren Mougey.
If there is one lesson Darren Mougey learned from his 13 years with the Broncos — during which he rose from a scouting intern to the assistant general manager — it has to be about the importance of the quarterback to an organization’s health.
He arrived in Denver the same year Peyton Manning did, and the Broncos were perennial playoff contenders and two-time Super Bowl competitors who won a championship during those first three seasons. He leaves Denver in the hands of Bo Nix, who led the Broncos back to the postseason as a rookie in 2024.
In between? Well, let’s just say there was a lot of Paxton Lynch and Drew Lock and Brock Osweiler and Russell Wilson that got in the way of the winning.
The Broncos had fine players on all of those teams, no better or worse, really, than the ones that made it into January. The difference was that one critical position.
Mougey now brings this knowledge with him to the Jets, the team that just hired him to be their general manager. The question that will define his tenure here becomes what he will do about it.
Whether we look at this hire as a good one or a bad one will depend almost entirely on whether Mougey’s decisions about the quarterback are good ones or bad ones. That was the case for almost all of his predecessors, it’s true for most of his competition and it is the black-and-white world into which Mougey now enters.

Denver Broncos director of player personnel Darren Mougey looks on as players take part in drills at NFL football training camp Friday, Aug. 6, 2021, in Englewood, Colo. Credit: AP/David Zalubowski
Of course, this Jets situation has a different wrinkle to it, does it not? They have a quarterback. A future Hall of Fame quarterback, in fact. One who just completed one of the most productive statistical seasons by a quarterback in the franchise’s history. And yet the Jets won only five games.
So does Mougey keep Aaron Rodgers and give it one more try with him at the helm?
Rodgers certainly showed at the end of the season that he still can play at a high level when he is healthy, but that caveat may be hard to meet for a 41-year-old who struggled through some nagging physical issues to the vast detriment of the team earlier in the schedule.
Or does Mougey start over, use the capital of his honeymoon phase with new head coach Aaron Glenn to rebuild, and find a young player around whom to mold the future of the franchise?
Making matters all the more complex is that even if he decides to keep Rodgers, there is no guarantee that Rodgers will be here. The Mercurial One may at this very moment be ingesting some concoction of natural truth serum in an effort to determine whether he will continue his career or hang 'em up.
Two years ago, he was 90% ready to retire when he emerged from a darkness retreat. Last season, he proved to the world that he could return from a torn Achilles and start 17 games. What conclusion will he reach this time?
Whatever happens, it will be on Mougey’s watch. On Mougey’s report card.
That’s not necessarily fair, but it’s the way it is. Quarterbacks always say they get too much credit for the winning and too much blame for the losing, but for the people who pick the quarterbacks, that ratio is amplified even further. Their legacies and jobs are framed around a batting average for that one position.
It’s what happened to Joe Douglas, Mougey’s predecessor with the Jets, who was good enough at his job to draft the likes of Sauce Gardner, Garrett Wilson, Breece Hall and Jermaine Johnson . . . yet will always be remembered as the guy who also picked Zach Wilson and ushered Rodgers into the building.
Whether either of their stories would have turned out differently were it not for that opening night injury in 2023 is speculation. The quarterbacks mostly failed, so the general manager took the hit.
The same dynamic has been playing out for the Giants. Dave Gettleman gave them Andrew Thomas and Dexter Lawrence and, lest we forget, Saquon Barkley, who finally is fulfilling the prophecy Gettleman had for him. But he also picked Daniel Jones, and the slow development of his career essentially ended Gettleman’s.
Then along came Joe Schoen, who, after first being rightfully hesitant, doubled down on Jones with a new contract. It was a four-year deal that lasted a year and a half.
Schoen survived that, but he certainly was wounded by it. Now he is in the position of having to save his job by finding someone who can come into the building and play the quarterback position at a high level right away. The rest of his draft picks and signings are ancillary to what he does in the next few months regarding that one position.
Mougey, who is 39 years old, has a background in scouting and was a former college quarterback himself, understands these stakes. He knows he can be shrewd and successful and find all kinds of star players at 21 of the 22 starting positions on the field, but if he is lacking a quarterback, he’ll likely be a failure as general manager of the Jets.
Mougey has a Super Bowl ring from Manning, the first quarterback he worked with in Denver. His first, second and third priority here needs to be finding the quarterback who can deliver one to him with the Jets.