TIME TO HAND OFF
Josh, Jets must soon give ball to young QB
The final moments of most breakups often sound like this: It’s not you. It’s me. Oh, sure. Sometimes it really is them, but a clean getaway is often hard to pull off. So, self-blame is the strategically sound move.
The Jets are nearing that moment with one of the most genuinely great people to pass through the organization in a long time.
Time is running short for Josh McCown.
The veteran quarterback has been much more than advertised for a wayward team. He has been a mentor, leader, positive locker-room presence and pretty damn good football player. McCown, frankly, has been the Jets MVP of the first half of the season.
But a necessary transition lies ahead, a move that must be made for the betterment of the franchise. For all the terrific qualities that McCown provides, this reality remains: He’s 38 years old, and therefore not the future for this franchise at the game’s most important position.
The Jets’ feel-good first couple months shouldn’t cloud the big picture: The star-crossed organization still needs to figure out what to do with Bryce Petty and Christian Hackenberg.
The pair of young quarterbacks needs to play in real games in this new offense sooner than later. They need to prove whether they should be a part of the future. They need fair chances this season.
Todd Bowles, of course, wants and needs to win games to prove that he should be a part of the future here too. If McCown beats the Falcons and Bills to improve the Jets to 5-4, it’d be a tough sell inside to change quarterbacks with a real eye on a playoff run.
It’s an altogether different story if the 3-4 Jets lose their third in a row on Sunday. McCown should start one final game on a short week against the Bills next Thursday night before the braintrust makes the quarterback transition.
In that scenario, the Jets would be either 4-5 or 3-6 with extra time to prepare Petty for the Buccaneers in Week 10.
It should be Petty’s job until further notice.
“Everybody’s competitive. Everybody wants to be in there,” Petty told the Daily News. “I would totally be lying if I said I was just sitting back and comfortable. I want to be in there. Hack wants to be in there. Josh wants to be in there. That’s the good part about it. I’m definitely ready and excited for when that time comes.”
“I feel like each and every time I get out there, I get better and better and I’m seeing more and more,” Petty continued. “It’s shown through my first year of preseason to last year to this year. That’s what keeps me going. I know that I’m getting better today, tomorrow, the next day. So, when I do get called, it’s going to be the last time I’m going to have to be a backup.”
Petty has the moxie, toughness and leadership skills required for the job, but admittedly has had a steep learning curve coming from a simplified spread college system. Learning his second offense in three years has been his biggest challenge.
How long he holds on to the job, of course, remains unknown. Hackenberg, who hasn’t taken a regularseason snap in 23 games (he’s only been active twice), has learned valuable lessons despite taking his lumps this preseason.
The two young signal callers have spent much of the first half of the season pushing each other on the scout team in practice. They’ve even established their own rules to fuel each other. The rules: If you complete a pass, you stay in for another snap. If you throw an incompletion, you’re out.
Although Petty admits that “it’s tough to gauge” how much better he’s become through the first half of the season as McCown’s backup, both Hackenberg and he have learned pivotal lessons during each week of game-planning.
“All I’m judging myself on is: Do I know the game plan? Am I ready if I’m called?” Petty said. “I feel like I am. I want to stay ready. I want to stay as prepared as Josh. That’s our mantra in the QBs room: Be as prepared as he is.”
Hackenberg’s work ethic has helped him remain mentally sharp during the week even though he’s fully aware that he won’t be in uniform on Sundays.
“You got to hold yourself to a standard,” Hackenberg said. “You got to look in the mirror. As a professional, you have to say, ‘My job’s to come in and be sharp and know what I’m doing every day.’”
Hackenberg and Petty have AP learned a lot from McCown in a short amount of time. The veteran’s outlook is contagious. His willingness to share wisdom from his 15year career has been invaluable.
He’s been far from perfect, but how can you really complain about a guy who’s second in the NFL in completion percentage (69.2) and won three games for a team lampooned all summer?
“He’s awesome,” Hackenberg said. “He hasn’t flinched the whole year. In meetings, he’s always explaining how he sees things. He lays it out there. It’s an open forum.”
McCown has been terrific for the Jets in so many ways, but time is running out. It’s not McCown. It’s the Jets. They need to move on.
@MMehtaNYDN