The Jets head into the 2026 offseason with a massive question mark at quarterback. While most teams are simply searching for a starter, the Jets realistically need to fill two (and possibly three depending
on what they decide to do with Brady Cook ) quarterback spots, with Tyrod Taylor’s contract set to expire.
That said, early indications suggest the Jets may have interest in keeping Taylor in the fold. Tony Pauline of Essentially Sports had this to say:
“I’m told the Jets have let it be known they’d like to bring Taylor back in 2026 in a similar role to the one he manned last season. Taylor started four games in the middle of the season, playing reasonably well before being sidelined with injury in December. He orchestrated one of the Jets’ three victories, beating the Atlanta Falcons, and he kept his team in the game earlier in the year against Tampa Bay, a game the Jets lost on the final drive.”
Pauline also noted that while the Jets may want Taylor back, retaining him won’t be cheap:
“Despite their hopes to keep Taylor, those close to the situation believe it will be tough to re-sign him, as there will be a market for the quarterback and the Jets will have to overpay to keep him.”
Taylor is coming off a two-year, $12 million deal that paid him high-end backup quarterback money, ranking 36th among quarterbacks according to OverTheCap.
To Taylor’s credit, he’s shown he can still function somewhat when pressed into action. From a QBR and EPA standpoint, he was the Jets’ most efficient quarterback in limited snaps this season, which isn’t saying much. He finished just 34th out of 49 qualified quarterbacks from an EPA+CPOE composite basis. Expanding the sample further, over the past five years Taylor ranks 35th out of 58 quarterbacks with at least 600 drop backs in EPA+CPOE composite metrics. That profile firmly places him in the “high-end backup” tier when he’s forced to play.
The bigger concern, as always, is durability. Taylor has missed 16 games over the past five seasons due to injury and has been injured each of the last three times he’s been asked to handle extended action.
Given his age (Taylor turns 37 in August) it’s hard to project improvement either in terms of availability or on-field performance. Expecting him to suddenly become more durable or elevate his play at this stage of his career feels overly optimistic and misguided.
I’m struggling to see why the Jets would make it a priority to bring him back as their backup quarterback, honestly. While there’s certainly a price point where retaining Taylor makes sense, paying him high-end backup money feels misguided given the durability concerns that come with him.
That said, there is at least a scenario (albeit a fairly unlikely one) where Taylor ends up being part of the Jets plan as a starter, particularly if they opt to draft a rookie to sit at the bench at first. Even in that case, there is substantial risk going into next season with an aging, injury-prone QB as the Week 1 starter.
Either way, it’ll be interesting to see how the Jets choose to attack the quarterback position this offseason. It truly is anyone’s guess which way they go.
