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The career of Mallett is on a rising trajectory. He has gone from being the overlooked backup of Tom Brady, to the short-term savior of the Houston Texans, to the favorite of the free-agent quarterback class of 2015.

His value to the New England Patriots was so minimal, they traded him to the Texans for a conditional seventh-round pick in 2016. When Ryan Fitzpatrick fizzled in a 31-21 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles in Week 9, Mallett became the starting quarterback when Houston returned from its bye week.



If head coach Bill O’Brien was looking for consistency, Mallett was no better than Fitzpatrick while posting a 1-1 record in his two starts. A torn pectoral muscle in his second game against the Cincinnati Bengals ended his season.

Injuries to all three quarterbacks on the season-opening roster, including rookie Tom Savage, forced the return of training-camp castoff Case Keenum to start the final two games of the regular season.

In his search for a starting quarterback, the only promise O’Brien has made that he is certain to keep is the process will be competitive.

We feel like we have some good guys here in the building that played well for us this year in Mallett, Fitzy (Fitzpatrick), and Case Keenum. We've got some guys right here and we know there are guys out there. We know, especially as Mallett here as a free agent, we understand that. So, we're still in the process of evaluating our guys. We are in the process of evaluating what's out there and I believe, at the end of the day, we'll make a good decision for the Houston Texans. We'll make the right decision and it will probably be a competition. It will be something where guys come in and compete and have to win the job and that's the way it should be and that's what we're looking to do.

Mallett has to be the favorite right now, because he was the choice to rejuvenate the offense when “Fitzy” could not keep it humming along. Keenum won both his starts but still has problems with his accuracy, completing less than half his passes in a startling win over the Baltimore Ravens.

O’Brien tossed off “free agent” in his description of Mallett’s contractual status as if he was flicking a fly off his pecan pie. After all, why would another team seriously pursue a thoroughly underdeveloped player who fetched so little on the open market?

Enter the New York Jets to add a new competitive aspect to the Texans quarterback competition. Kristian Dyer of the Metro website quoted a league source as saying the Jets “will be looking in free agency for some real competition for Smith.”

Now that former Texans official Mike Maccagnan is the Jets’ new general manager, the source thinks “Mallett and the Jets are a natural fit. He'd be interesting in a quarterback competition to say the least.”

While Maccagnan’s interest in Mallett may be just a rumor, the amount of cap space he has to play with is not. The Jets have $45,515,645 to drive the price up far enough to make Texans general manager Rick Smith sweat bullets.

Jets head coach Todd Bowles hired Chan Gailey as his offensive coordinator. Pro Football Reference lists Gailey’s offensive scheme throughout his NFL career as “Erhardt-Perkins,” the same scheme to which Mallett spent three years assimilating as a member of the New England Patriots.



The roll call of free-agent quarterbacks with any substantial career success is so short, the only names are the aging Michael Vick (34) and the aged Matt Hasselbeck (39).

This turns the long shot with the frame (6’6”, 245 pounds) and ballistic arm into a hotshot, which can serve to jack up the bidding. The Jets might have to contend with the Cleveland Browns ($47,835,870) and Buffalo Bills ($30,303,328), two quarterback-starved squads with more cap gap than the Texans.

Until free agency opens on March 10, the level of monetary interest in Mallett is purely speculative. It is without question there will be other teams with the capability to drive the price right out of the Texans’ reach.