McCown enjoying career year at 38
It wasn’t wrong to think the Jets offense would be a disaster.
Who expected a journeyman quarterback’s 15th season to be one of his best? Who expected a 38-year-old to look better than he did at 28? Who expected a player with a 2-20 record over the past three years to win twice as many games in just over half a season? Who expected a former UFL player, given up on by eight NFL teams — including two practice squads — to become the universally respected leader of a competitive team? Now, who can expect anything but Josh McCown giving the Jets a chance to win each week?
“Josh has been playing great,” coach Todd Bowles said following Thursday’s 34-21 win over the Bills. “He’s a leader on and off the field. I can’t say enough about him, especially with all of the pieces coming in and out of the offense, lining guys up, controlling the ball game, not trying to do too much, but does just enough. [He’s] accurate, always upbeat. We can’t say enough about him.”
The signing of the stopgap quarterback in the offseason seemed to signal a white flag for the season. Now, several teams would happily swap their quarterbacks with McCown, who ranks second in the NFL with a personal-best 70.4 completion percentage, and is 10th in the league with a 96.1 passer rating, the secondbest mark of his career.
“Well great for me is good, first of all,” Bowles said Friday morning, of his comments about McCown’s play the previous night. “I knew what I had when I got him. It was just a matter of him staying healthy. He’s been nicked up for the past few years. It’s kind of hindered his performance and not put him on the field a lot, but Josh on the field, I mean, 37, 38 [years old], he understands we don’t want him to get hit a lot. He understands he has to slide. He understands he can’t turn the ball over and he commands the offense, and I think he’s in such a comfort zone with himself right now and understanding the game and seeing it that he’s having a lot of fun, and I’m enjoying watching it.”
Rarely has McCown been able to smile so much after games. In his 14 previous seasons, he won 18 games, last notching four wins in a season in 2004.
The veteran has been smart and efficient and opportunistic, ranking seventh in the league with 13 touchdown passes, and is on pace to set a career-high in passing yards, with 1,980 already.
McCown’s 25-yard touchdown pass to Robby Anderson on Thursday night gave him a league-high eight touchdown passes of 20 yards or more, while his third rushing touch- down made him one of two quarterbacks in the league with at least 12 passing touchdowns and three on the ground, joining the Cowboys’ Dak Prescott. McCown is also one of only two quarterbacks (Alex Smith) with a passer rating over 100 in at least five games, and one of two quarterbacks (Drew Brees) to complete at least 60 percent of his passes in every game this season.
After all these years, McCown admits this is about as well as he’s ever played.
“Well, I would think so [with] all things considered,” McCown said. “I’m just proud to be a part of this group, proud of everybody’s effort to, as an offensive unit, play good football. I think, more than anything, it’s a credit to the coaches and the guys around me. That’s really helped me and allowed me to play some good football, and hopefully we continue to grow together and get even better.”