Might be worth keeping Gang of QBs
MIKE MACCAGNAN didn’t want to draw a line in the sand between success and failure for his New York Jets in 2016.
“I don’t know if I would necessarily say playoffs or bust,” the general manager said Friday. “I know everybody probably wants that quote but we’re just working one week at a time.” Who is he kidding? This is a team that won 10 games last year. A team that fell just a few plays short of making the playoffs after an incredible end-of-season run. A team that just re-signed the quarterback that set a franchise record for touchdown passes in a single season (that, Maccagnan said, was a “big sigh of relief”).
The Jets’ season would be a failure if they miss the playoffs, whether Maccagnan wants to say it or not. Certainly, many of their fans have to feel that way.
But Maccagnan stuck to his guns during a 34-minute sitdown press conference on Friday.
“We’re gunning for the (playoffs), we’re like everybody else, we go into
Ryan Fitzpatrick’s return this week prompted the obvious question from inquiring minds: Will the Jets actually keep four quarterbacks on the roster this season? It would be an unconventional approach, but one that seems more likely given the dynamics at play. Three months after I thought it would be a peculiar move, it actually makes sense now for myriad reasons.
“It’s conceivable,” Todd Bowles said. “It all depends on the strengths and weaknesses of other positions.”
Fitzpatrick’s freshly inked one-year deal coupled with the fact that Geno Smith is on the final year of his rookie contract makes it wise for the organization to hold on to both Christian Hackenberg, who wasn’t going anywhere regardless, and Bryce Petty.
Mike Maccagnan intimated Friday that the much maligned Smith will be on the opening day roster.
“Without guaranteeing anything,” the Jets general manager said, “Geno’s in our plans.”
There was a moment a few months ago when I believed that Hackenberg and/or Petty might be able to unseat Smith, but the spring yielded some shaky results. Neither Hackenberg nor Petty looks ready to climb the quarterback pecking order in time for the start of the regular season.
A couple breakout preseason performances could alter the landscape, but nothing I’ve witnessed to date leads me to believe that a sea change is on the horizon. Smith easily looks more polished than his younger teammates. The team believes that he’s one of the better backup quarterbacks in the league.
Of course, if Hacken- berg or Petty impresses in the preseason, Smith might be expendable. But don’t hold your breath. The likely outcome will be that Smith, who has 29 career starts, will outperform his inexperienced teammates in the preseason, likely prompting the organization’s brain trust to clear room for all four signal callers this season.
It would be a mistake to cut Petty after investing 15 months into his development… unless he’s completely lost. “It looks like he’s improved,” Maccagnan said. “We’ll see again as he gets into the preseason games and we get the pads on… He seems to be making good progress.”
Not all positions in the NFL are created equally. It’s a quarterback-driven league. Always will be.
It’s a league of have and have-nots, and the Jets have been on the wrong side of the ledger for a very long time. The search for the Holy Grail isn’t as daunting as the search for a gold-star signal caller.
The Jets initially discussed keeping four quarterbacks when they selected Hackenberg in the second round three months ago. They have had internal talks about using the 2000 Patriots model when Bill Belichick kept four quarterbacks, because he didn’t want to expose sixth-round rookie Tom Brady to waivers.
Washington was the last team to start a season with four signal callers when it had Robert Griffin III, Kirk Cousins, Rex Grossman and Pat White in 2013. The Jets have started three of the past 15 seasons with four quarterbacks, including Mark Sanchez’s 2009 rookie campaign.
“We discussed the possibility,” Maccagnan said about keeping a quarterback @SethWalderNYDN quartet. “Because in our minds… in today’s NFL, you really want to take time to grow, develop and groom quarterbacks…. It’s not ideal, but sometimes quarterbacks get forced into the fire very early in their careers. Geno had that experience here. But we would like to have the ability to take and find players that we want to invest time with and work with and grow with.”
The prudent course of action would be to hold on to all of them in 2016 with Fitzpatrick and Smith on walk years. Hackenberg and Petty can learn from the sidelines with a possible chance to compete for the 2017 starting job.
“There’s a lot of cases where people carry a 10th offensive linemen, like we did last year for a period of time, (for) developmental (reasons),” Maccagnan said. “Maybe there’s a sixth corner that remains inactive for most of the season. You look at rosters around the league. (At) the back end of (the) roster, not every player is active. There are players that you’re literally keeping for future development. It may so happen that we end up doing that with four quarterbacks.”
It couldn’t hurt, right?