NY Jets: What’s the plan for rookie quarterback James Morgan?

What are the NY Jets planning to do with fourth-round rookie quarterback James Morgan?

As the NY Jets approach the second half of their season, the presence of general manager Joe Douglas’ 2020 rookie draft class is finally beginning to surface. However, fourth-round rookie quarterback James Morgan continues to be locked in a box.

The winless Jets come into Week 9 under the lights on Monday Night Football versus the New England Patriots with Joe Flacco once again filling in for an injured Sam Darnold.

In Flacco’s two previous starts, the Jets’ offense has scored just 10 points — all 10 of those points came against Arizona as the Jets were shut out entirely in Miami.

Meanwhile, the Jets have yet to even activate Morgan, the quarterback out of Florida International that they so desperately reached for back in April. With Flacco struggling and any ounce of playoff hope long dead, the question for Douglas is, what is the plan for the 23-year old rookie?

If Morgan isn’t good enough to start in a meaningless game in a season where losing is actually more beneficial than winning, then why go out of your way to draft him in the fourth round?

Last Sunday, we saw a couple of impressive performances from replacement quarterbacks.

Jacksonville’s Jake Luton completed 68.4 percent of his passes for 304 yards, tossed a 73-yard touchdown, and threw one interception. His offense scored 25 points as his team fell short by only two points after mounting a nice comeback.

Luton was drafted in the sixth round — 64 picks after the Jets selected Morgan.

Another quarterback who impressed was Dallas’ Garrett Gilbert. Last Sunday, the journeyman quarterback made his first NFL start for the Dallas Cowboys and nearly did enough to beat the unbeaten Pittsburgh Steelers.

The moral of the story is drafting a backup quarterback in the fourth round is a complete and total waste.

The Jets learned the hard way that you can never have too many wide receivers. Instead of Morgan, Douglas could have looked to draft UCF wide receiver Gabriel Davis who was selected by none other than the division rival Buffalo Bills just three picks later.

Davis snagged his third receiving touchdown of the season last week while the Jets have just four receiving touchdowns in total.

The NY Jets’ 2020 draft class looks promising aside from the James Morgan pick.

If you look at Douglas’ 2020 rookie class as a whole, overall you have to be pleased with what you have seen so far.

Mekhi Becton was a risky pick that has worked out extremely well so far, and Denzel Mims has shown brief flashes in his first two starts. The jury is still out on many of the mid-round/late-round picks, but thus far, it looks like solid work from Douglas.

However, the Morgan pick is a head-scratcher, to say the least. If everything goes to how Douglas and the Jets plan, Morgan may never play a snap for the Jets.

The plan for Morgan is to be the backup quarterback of the future. If you are going to draft a guy to be your backup quarterback, at least let him actually be the backup quarterback.

Currently, he isn’t even the backup’s backup.

For every game that the Jets trot out the empty shell of the quarterback that used to be Joe Flacco, they waste precious time for Morgan to learn what it takes to be an NFL quarterback.