I wouldn’t touch Josh Freeman with a ten foot pole.

PS – I agreed with pretty much all of seanmac’s post, although for non-football and non-financial reasons (mainly the media circus), I am less inclined to give the idea of Favre returning as much of an endorsement (although it would not surprise me at all if he outperforms Clemens, Ratliff, Ainge, Cassel, Sanchez, Freeman and anyone else named in this post next year for another team).

The draft is very, very weak. Mark Sanchez is a nice looking player, but his number of college starts is a huge red flag. The second tier group of last year’s prospects- Brian Brohm, Chad Henne, Joe Flacco- are all arguably more attractive than Matthew Stafford, who could go #1 overall. It’s just not a good group. Throw in the fact that drafting a quarterback this year means that you can’t draft one next year in what looks to be a superior QB crop and it just doesn’t seem like a great idea.

The big name on the market is Matt Cassel. There are two things that make him an unattractive and/or an unlikely option. The first thing is that he’s a Patriot, and New England would undoubtedly extract a bigger package from us than from a non-divisional team (in fact, should the Pats be willing to trade Cassel to us, it should give us serious pause as to whether or not we actually want him). The second thing is that he wasn’t very good this year. He was 17th in DYAR and 20th in DVOA while playing with the best offensive unit in football. Now, Cassel was better than Ben Roethlisberger, who is currently sporting two rings, and he was better than Brett Favre, but it’s not like he had the kind of performance that convinces you he’s not a product of the system and the surrounding talent. Moreover, giving up first and third round picks to an opponent who is able to take sixth and seventh round picks and turn them into franchise level quarterbacks just puts you further and further in the hole. What would be nice is if the Jets could develop their own quarterback prospects instead of paying top dollar for someone else’s.

That leads to the third option- seeing what Ratliff and Clemens and Ainge have. It’s certainly the cheapest thing to do, which is no small consideration on a team as cap-strapped as we are. It also gives us flexibility come free agency and the draft in 2010. You would still bring in a veteran to compete (by far the most attractive option is Byron Leftwich), but you rely on your own scouting decisions instead of chasing other people’s players around.

The fourth option, which folds into the third one, is to try to make a lower-profile trade to bring in someone to compete with Ratliff and Clemens. Obvious targets would be recently drafted players who are sitting behind established veterans, or guys who were put onto the bench by recent draft picks. If the Cardinals and Eagles give new deals to Kurt Warner and Donovan McNabb, for instance, you might want to see what it would take to pry away Matt Leinart or Kevin Kolb. Derek Anderson figures to be available in Cleveland, but then again, Mangini may feel differently about Brady Quinn than Crennel and Savage did, so that’s unclear. You would also be looking at players like Alex Smith and Sage Rosenfelds.

New York fans are spoiled. They are used to the Mets and the Yanks buying up all the leagues great players. You don’t need superstars at every postion to win. Between Clemens, Ratliff, and Ainge — we will be fine. Clemens will be much better, having had some regular season experience, and I am excited to see if Ratliff can put up a repeat performance of last year’s pre-season. If Ratliff shows that last year wasn’t a fluke — he can not only do the job but, he might be exciting, as well.