Jets Expected to Pass on Brendan Sorsby in Supplemental Draft, Source Says: ‘Don’t Want to Deal With It’
The New York Jets need a quarterback. Brendan Sorsby is an available quarterback. They are still not going to do it.
One league source told ESPN’s Rich Cimini that the Jets will do their due diligence on Sorsby before the NFL supplemental draft but probably will not pursue him because of his gambling history. The team has steered away from off-field risk under general manager Darren Mougey, and Sorsby’s situation is the exact profile they avoid.
“They don’t want to deal with it,” the source said.
That is a heavy line for a team without a long-term answer at the most important position. The Jets are running it back at quarterback this fall and have made it clear they want stability, not headlines.
How Sorsby Got Here
Sorsby took an indefinite leave from Texas Tech to enter treatment for a gambling addiction earlier this offseason. The NCAA opened an investigation that is still pending. He is in the supplemental draft because his college eligibility is uncertain and the timing of any reinstatement could push him past the regular draft window.
On talent, he is a fringe second-round pick. He has the arm. He has the size. He had real production before the situation blew up. If teams could draft him purely on the tape, he goes earlier. The off-field cloud has dragged his stock to the late rounds.
The Cleveland Browns have also been linked to Sorsby, though their interest is reportedly soft. The Pittsburgh Steelers and Las Vegas Raiders both have quarterback rooms that could justify a cheap dart throw. Whichever team takes him will need to be comfortable answering for it.
The Jets are not that team. New York has too much recent history of off-field disasters to wade back in voluntarily. Mougey’s job is to clean up the culture problem the Jets had under the last regime. Drafting a quarterback who could be suspended under the league gambling policy at any moment is the opposite of cleaning up.
The football logic is harder to defend. The Jets do not have a starting quarterback they actually believe in long term. Justin Fields is on the back end of his deal. The 2027 draft class is not loaded at the position. Passing on a potential franchise arm because of risk is a defensible front-office decision and a frustrating fan one at the same time.
If Sorsby clears treatment, stays out of the headlines, and lands somewhere with patience, this story changes in a year. The Jets will not be the team telling it. They have decided the cost of being wrong on him is higher than the cost of waiting another year for a quarterback.
That is a defensible call from a franchise that has been wrong about quarterbacks more often than any team in football. It also keeps the most interesting quarterback story of the summer in everyone else’s hands. Jets fans get to watch from a distance again.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
