How the New York Jets’ win could hurt the LA Chargers

The New York Jets won their first game in 2020, which could hurt the LA Chargers.

The New York Jets were winless heading into Week 15 and heading into Week 16 they will have a 1 in the win column. The Jets defeated the Los Angeles Rams in the same stadium that they lost to the LA Chargers in, SoFi Stadium.

This game really has nothing to do with the LA Chargers. It does slightly increase their strength of schedule and strength of victory since they defeated the Jets, but that is about it. The only connection seems to be that it was played at SoFi, right?

Well, inadvertently, the Jets winning this game could hurt the LA Chargers in the 2021 NFL Draft. Now, it only hurts the team if they were going to adopt a very specific strategy, but it does keep them from doing something that otherwise seemed like a great route for the team to take.

How the New York Jets’ win hurts the LA Chargers:

There are a lot of variables here, but the Jets winning this game could make it harder for the Chargers to trade down in the draft and get more draft capital.

Our own Alex Insdorf explained why it makes sense for the Chargers to trade, with the main premise being that there will be a team interested in a quarterback that may want to trade up to jump other teams.

When Alex wrote that article we were all under the assumption that Trevor Lawrence would go first overall to the Jets and Justin Fields would go second overall to the Jacksonville Jaguars. Now, I am not so sure.

Lawrence is a generational talent and the Jets would be foolish to not draft him. It is, however, easier to pass on Fields, draft Penei Sewell (the best tackle prospect we have seen in ages) and build that offensive line for their already young quarterback Sam Darnold with a new coach.

So Fields won’t go second. What about third? Well, that belongs to the Cincinnati Bengals, who have Joe Burrow. They aren’t going to take a QB. The fourth pick belongs to Carolina, who has Teddy Bridgewater, so I doubt they take Fields. The Falcons could pick Fields at five, but I doubt it.

Miami currently has the sixth pick (from Houston) and Philadelphia has the seventh pick. Neither team needs a QB. The first team that might need a QB is the Dallas Cowboys, and that is only if they don’t want to bring back Dak Prescott.

Either way, there are now five picks (picks 3-7) that are premier trade-up spots for a team to get Justin Fields. Part of Alex’s argument is that it is easier to trade up to nine for a team like the Washington Football Team, which is absolutely true.

However, if Fields is available at four or five, maybe they spend that extra third-round pick to get him, as he is the bonafide second-best quarterback in the draft.

This only applies if the LA Chargers are actually interested in trading down, but if so, the Jets’ win makes it that much harder.