Dante Moore’s announcement on Wednesday that he’s returning to Oregon was a gut punch for Jets fans. It functionally ends their hopes of finding a franchise quarterback in the 2025 NFL Draft, means the team will need to become more creative, and perhaps even become even worse before there are any hopes of getting better. The Jets are now taking a linebacker at No. 2 overall in our updated 2026 NFL mock draft. This might seem like a horrific outcome for a 3-14 team locked in the cellar of the AFC East — but what if Moore’s decision is exactly what this franchise needs?

Make no mistake: Moore is going to be a good NFL quarterback — we think. Predicting quarterback success from college is an imperfect science at best, often closer resembling dumb luck than innate skill on behalf of an organization. Take a spin around the league right now and football is littered with starting quarterbacks thriving on their second or third teams, guys who weren’t the top QB in their class, or players succeeding when few thought they would be any good. While we can look at Moore’s tape and see his quick release, touch on intermediate and deep routes, as well as his anticipation — but it’s still all a shot in the dark.

It’s here that the Jets enter the fray, and Moore’s decision to return is the best possible thing for the organization. This is a franchise that has struggled to find a reliable No. 1 quarterback for the last 34 YEARS. 1991 was the last time the Jets had an opening day quarterback who started six seasons or more in Ken O’Brien, and that was also the last time the organization send a quarterback to the Pro Bowl. New York’s litany of QB failures isn’t quite an pronounced as the Cleveland Browns, but it’s not as far off as you think. Since 2005 the team has had 10 different leading passers, ranging from Chad Pennington to Mark Sanchez, Geno Smith to Zach Wilson — sprinkle in a couple of lackluster seasons from Aaron Rodgers and Brett Favre for good measure and you’ve got one hell of a mediocre QB stew.

This astonishing streak hasn’t been for lack of effort. Over this same 20 year span the team has selected six quarterbacks in the first or second round of the NFL Draft, subsequently watching as they all became busts — or in the case of Geno Smith and Sam Darnold, bust, then find success on other teams.

What Dante Moore did in his decision to return to Oregon was save the New York Jets from themselves, preventing them to give into their worst urges as an organization. Sure, no football team is a monolith and general managers have come and gone over the years, but it doesn’t change the fact that this franchise has taken a lot of swings at the QB position, and whiffed every single time.

The Jets have been trading on a faulty bill of goods that they’re “a QB away” for the better part of a decade, when in fact the culture has been rotten to the core. It finally seemed like they found a coach who could put it all together in Robert Saleh, but then they fired him because Zach Wilson was dog water at the QB position and the team needed a scapegoat. Taking Moore would have been tantamount to saddling Aaron Glenn with the same baggage that doomed Saleh’s tenure: The expectation the Jets were “a QB away,” and if they didn’t succeed it would be the coach’s fault.

We don’t yet know if Glenn will be a good NFL head coach or not. The early returns weren’t exactly promising, but at least we finally has a Jets coach come into that organization and identify that culture was the problem. With GM Darren Mougey the Jets made brash, stunning decisions to trade away Sauce Gardner and Quinnen Williams, which both helped the team stockpile draft capital — but also recognized that having an elite man coverage corner and run stopping defensive tackle on a horrible team is a bit like admiring the drapes while your house is on fire.

There is a culture shift happening, and there might be more pain points along the way — but it’s necessary agony. The Jets need to establish an identity that doesn’t involve a reliance on the QB position. This is what a lot of organizations around the NFL are doing, and that begins with addressing the pass rush, which generated an abhorrent 26 sacks. It’s for this reason our own Mark Schofield has the Jets selecting Ohio State linebacker Arvell Reese with the No. 2 overall pick now Moore is returning to school. Reese is a staggering athlete, but perhaps more importantly a culture guy, who can be an extension of Glenn on the field to demand accountability and excellence from those around him.

When you factor in that the Jets quietly had a phenomenal 2025 draft with Armand Membou and Malachi Moore looking like future stars, while Mason Taylor and Francisco Mauigoa appear to be solid contributors — well, you’re developing the building blocks of a football team. Selecting Dante Moore wouldn’t have knocked over those blocks, but it would have slowed the process. Everything else goes on hold when you take a quarterback inside the Top 3. The focus of the organization has to shift to developing that passer at all costs, often to the detriment of everyone else around them. Look at the Tennessee Titans this past season. That’s fine if you have the pieces in place, but when you don’t it can have a stifling effect on an organization which is difficult to bounce back from.

That has been the modus operandi of the Jets for far too long. A seemingly endless series of punted years and “development seasons” for quarterbacks without anything to show for it. In addition, the Jets would be settling for a consolation prize in Dante Moore. There is a chasm of risk between Moore’s ability at QB and Fernando Mendoza (who will be the No. 1 pick), which doesn’t feel entirely dissimilar to that of moving from Trevor Lawrence to Zach Wilson in 2021.

If the Jets can keep building that foundation, shaping their culture, building a team around discipline, hard work, and dedication — then the quarterback will become the missing piece, rather than trying to convince themselves that QB is the issue when the problems are deeper. That can seriously be achieved with the two first round picks and two seconds New York has in the upcoming draft, followed by the three firsts the Jets will have in 2027, all due to the Gardner and Williams trades. There will be enough talent to make an impact if the team drafts in 2026 like they did this past year, and then in 2027 they’ll have the flexibility to land more players as well as hope to find the QB of the future.

Dante Moore’s return now means the Jets have to go in a different direction, one that doesn’t include the pressure of having to take a QB early and try to develop him. Instead they can now continue the work of building a complete football team, one that can get off the treadmill or trying to develop a QB, and one that might actually be able to complete for the first time in a long time.