CAN YOU HACK’ IT?
Bowles: There will be competition for starting job
PHOENIX — The Jets do not have a starting quarterback.
That might not be breaking news, but it was notable that coach Todd Bowles declared an open competition at the position between Josh McCown, Christian Hackenberg and Bryce Petty. When the Jets signed McCown to a one-year, $6 million deal last week, some assumed he would be named the starter entering the Jets’ offseason program. Not so. “There will be good competition,” Bowles said Tuesday at the NFL’s owners meetings. “There will be heavy competition for the job. Nobody’s been promised a starting quarterback job. Everybody will get a chance to play. We’ll make that decision going forward when train- ing camp starts as we see production from certain people.”
Bowles said the reps will be divided up pretty evenly in the spring. One issue is Petty’s health. He is recovering from surgery on his left shoulder. But it sounds like the plan is to give all three an equal look in the spring then re-evaluate the situation entering training camp.
The Jets also may add another quarterback to the mix in next month’s draft, perhaps with the No. 6 overall pick.
“You never say never,” Bowles said. “We want to take the best player depending on how it falls at six. There could be a quarterback there that we want. There could be somebody else that we want. You have to see how the draft falls. You can never take enough good players. We’re not ruling them out, but we’re not ruling them in either.”
The Jets have been linked to some of the top quarterbacks in the draft such as North Carolina’s Mitchell Trubisky, Notre Dame’s DeShone Kizer and Clemson’s Deshaun Watson. Bowles was asked which quarterback he liked most. “Roger Staubach,” he quipped. If the Jets draft a quarterback in the first round, it would be an admission that Hackenberg, who they drafted in the second round last year, is not the quarterback they hoped he would be. For now,
though, Hackenberg will be given a chance to start after not playing a snap as a rookie.
“You hope Hack gets better and is going to come back with a new attitude,” Bowles said. “You want him to play better right from that standpoint. It’s not going to stop us from drafting a quarterback. Hack’s not afraid of competition, and nobody else on the roster needs to be afraid of competition. If you are, you’re in the wrong business.”
Bowles clarified he did not mean Hackenberg’s attitude was poor last year, but he expects to see a difference in him now that Hackenberg knows he has a shot at the starting job.
“His attitude was great last year,” Bowles said. “We just knew we were redshirting him and he wasn’t playing, so this year he has a chance to play, he’ll have some pep in his step.”
The Jets are back at square one at quarterback after letting Ryan Fitzpatrick and Geno Smith walk as free agents. The team has been searching for a franchise quarterback for most of the past 40 years — with a few pockets of good quarterback play by Ken O’Brien, Vinny Testaverde, Chad Pennington and Mark Sanchez.
“We just have to make sure we have a guy that doesn’t turn the ball over and we have a guy that can manage the room, and make sure we help that guy and not put it solely on the quarterback,” Bowles said.
The Jets added the 37-year-old McCown last week not only to compete for the job, but also to serve as a mentor to Hackenberg and Petty. Bowles said he knows McCown from a brief time in 2008, when McCown was on the Dolphins while Bowles was on the coaching staff there.
“I’ve known Josh for a while,” Bowles said. “What he brings to the table inside the locker room and on the field is immeasurable. Those were the types of guys we were trying to sign and look for going into this thing. Josh fits that bill.”