New York Jets Free Agency 2013: Best Signings of All Time: #3

Vinny Testaverde had a career year in helping the Jets to the AFC title game in 1998.

Happy Thursday morning gang. It has been a fun week so far, even though the Jets have been pretty close to the vest. It’s definitely a new day in New York, with John Idzik at the helm, and it is exciting to watch.

Now, as the free agency period progresses, we progress with our countdown of the Jets’ 10 best free agent moves in the twenty years since the system went into effect. So far we have talked about:

Now we bring you our 3rd best free agent signing in Jets’ history:

VINNY TESTAVERDE

If you really think about it, Vinny should never have played enough to be able to be a candidate on this list? Remember when the move to bring Vinny in happened? It was the off-season of 1998, and BIll Parcells brought Vinny to New York to backup Glenn Foley. So if Foley had been even close to decent, Vinny never sees the field.

Too bad for the rest of the league that the Glenn Foley couldn’t get the job done, but Testaverde could and did it well.

Vinny took over the starting QB job from Glenn Foley after the team opened 1-3 in 1998. What happened after that was a year for the ages for the New York Jets. Under Vinny’s right arm, the Jets went on a season long roll, running their regular season to a 12-4 record. The season unfortunately came to an end at the AFC title game in Denver, where the Jets fell to the Broncos 23-10, ending their chance to finally break the Super Bowl drought.

And Vinny? Vinny had the season of his life in 1998, throwing for 29 TD’s against only 7 INT’s. Leading up to 1998, and in the years later, Vinny Testaverde was a very pediestrian quarterback, with very pedestrian numbers. 1998 was the year of Vinny.