The 1983 NFL Draft shaped the Jets; 40 years later, will they finally get their QB?

It’s considered the greatest draft in NFL history.

Eight future Hall of Famers were selected, including the first two picks of the first round and the last two picks of the first round. There was at least one future Pro Bowler selected in every one of the 12 rounds. There was talent (six quarterbacks were taken in the first round) matched by drama (two of those quarterbacks had enough leverage to not immediately sign with the teams that picked them).

It not only was a huge step in turning the sleepy annual selection process into the marquee weekend-long event it has become, but it also helped the tiny all-sports cable network that covered it lurch toward its current behemoth status.

All of that happened at the New York Sheraton in Manhattan 40 years ago this week.

In these parts, however, that sportsquake of a day isn’t remembered as a successful one.

The events of April 26, 1983, have echoed throughout the four following decades of Jets lore to shape the franchise. And not for the better.

The 1983 draft was the first in a long series of missteps the Jets have made regarding the most important position on the field. It was the day they had a chance to select Dan Marino as their quarterback and instead chose Ken O’Brien.

The boos and groans from the Jets fans who were there that day still echo in the hotel ballroom, and they have trickled down through time with every Bubby Brister, Glenn Foley, Tim Tebow, Geno Smith and Zach Wilson who followed.

Not that O’Brien was a flop. He was a good player who withstood the onslaught of negativity that surrounded him upon his arrival and never quite dissipated. He just wasn’t Marino. (It’s a point of fair debate if Marino would have been Marino with the Jets’ coaches and rosters in those days, either.)

The Jets have had other promising and otherwise accomplished quarterbacks, including two from Long Island in Vinny Testaverde and Boomer Esiason, but their tenures were ill-timed or ill-fated or, in some cases, just plain ill. There have been Pro Bowlers and playoff appearances, but no one since the day O’Brien’s name was called has truly clicked.

The Jets now have a chance to close their much-too-long era of QB blues with the acquisition of Aaron Rodgers.

What better way to seal it and break that cycle than on the milestone anniversary of the move that started their spiral?

They have been in latent or direct pursuit of Rodgers from the Packers for months, and negotiations between the teams have been active in the nearly six weeks since Rodgers came out publicly to say he intends to play for the Jets in 2023. The biggest reason no deal has been completed is the lack of a hard deadline. This week provides the closest thing to one until the games begin in September.

If the Packers want a pick in the 2023 draft as part of their compensation — assuming, as we ought to, that the Jets’ 13th overall selection in the first round is off the table — they’ll almost certainly have to agree to a swap before the Jets are on the clock in the second round of the draft this Friday evening.

The likeliest resolution will include conditional picks in future drafts based on what Rodgers accomplishes (or how long he sticks around) with the Jets, but receiving nothing to directly help the 2023 team for their quarterback would be hard for the Packers to sell their fans or their locker room.

This 2023 draft isn’t considered by many executives and scouts to be very dynamic or memorable. There are a bunch of quarterbacks who might go in the first round, but only because they play a position of need, not because they will play it exceptionally well.

The star power of the entire class seems to be lacking to the point of dullness. There aren’t even many big personalities among the prospects the way local draft picks such as Sauce Gardner and Kayvon Thibodeaux attracted cameras and microphones a year ago.

It’s hard to imagine the 2023 draft having anything close to the impact the 1983 draft had on the league.

For the Jets, though, it might wind up being remembered as the one in which they finally landed the right quarterback to bring them back to a championship .  .  . and it could happen almost 40 years to the day after they most decidedly did not.

By Tom Rock

tom.rock@newsday.com@TomRock_Newsday

Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.