Mike White Jets production Jets fantasy football ripple effect

What can you get for 17 quarters? Maybe a gallon of gas? A coffee or a donut, but not both? Seventeen individual gumballs?

You know what you can’t get? Almost everything else, including an accurate assessment of the long-term reliability of Jets quarterback Mike White.

Gang Green benched struggling “franchise” QB Zach Wilson last week in favor of the more veteran White. Wilson, over his two-year career, played approximately 77 quarterbacks of action in the NFL. White, after Sunday, now has 17.

So we have a much better database on which to judge Wilson than we have White. And it’s not good for Wilson — averaging 187 passing yards, 0.7 touchdowns and 0.8 interceptions per game. It’s better for White – 298 passing yards, 1.9 TDs and 1.9 INTs on average.

So for fantasy purposes, White is a cut above Wilson, but that doesn’t make White a solid fantasy option. He’s still pedestrian at best — even in a non-QB season.

What White is doing is bolstering the entire Jets offense. In four career starts by White, the game average is 28 points per game. In 20 games with Wilson starting, they’re averaging 18. Even with Joe Flacco starting, they’re still averaging 17.25 per game, tied with Wilson.

Joe Flacco, who at his best approached the “elite” QB room but never walked in the door – the worst version of him is basically as good as Wilson. But it’s not like you’re playing, or even fielding, one of those QBs. Your fantasy interests are in how they affect other skill players.

We saw Garrett Wilson have a big Week 2 with Flacco and a monster Week 12 with White. In four games without Zach, Garrett has topped double digit PPR three times. In seven games with Zach, he only hit double digits twice.

Elijah Moore just agreed with Flacco – averaging 8.4 in PPR over three games. Moore went 14.0 on Sunday, despite just two targets. But that’s better than the six games he played with Zach — when he had a 2.4 average and delivered a trade request.

Tight end Tyler Conklin had three double-digit games with Flacco and an “OK” 8.0 on Sunday with White. Outside of a two TD anomaly against the Patriots in Week 8, he averaged 3.2.

The bump Garrett gets takes him from the back of your fancy bench to a solid Weekly Flex option or a decent WR2. Moore is back on the radar, but more for DFS purposes than seasonal considerations. And in a narrow, shallow end position, Conklin is a back-end option with the potential to move up a few notches.

One area that doesn’t fare as well is the running game — 102.25 yards per game without Wilson, 126.6 with. Now Michael Carter is struggling with an ankle problem, James Robinson has no guarantees to be active, Ty Johnson a career JAG and rookie Zonovan Knight an unknown. You can hide one of these guys, but you can’t play them with confidence.