TRUE VALUE
McCown making impact on field, as QB mentor
JOSHMcCownismaking $6 million this season with a chance, through playing-time incentives, to make $8 million. That makes him one of the most underpaid players in the NFL, because he’s not merely a player, but (unofficially) a coach, too.
McCown has been as much the Jets starting quarterback this season as he’s been an assistant coach under center.
The beauty of McCown — who Sunday against the struggling 3-9 Broncos in Denver will tie his career high for the most starts in one season (13) while enjoying his finest season of a 15-year journey that has included playing for eight different teams — is that he embraces his role as a de facto coach and mentor as much as he does quarterbacking this 5-7 Jets team that’s trying to make the playoffs for the first time in seven years.
There’s no way to tell right now where the respective careers of Jets backup quarterbacks Bryce Petty and Christian Hackenberg will end up, but if either or both eventually find success as NFL starters, McCown will have had a lot to do with it.
In more than 30 years of covering the NFL, I’ve never encountered a veteran player more serious and sincere about paying it forward, doing everything he can to help make the younger players on the team better — even after he’s gone.
“He has a personal mission to do that,’’ Hackenberg told The Post. “And it’s not just the quarterbacks. It’s the receivers, the offensive line, the defense. It’s everybody. He’s got really good perspective for everybody to learn from.
“He’s just got a gift, man, and he uses it. His job is the take the game plan, go out and execute the game plan and do that at a high level. And he does that and he does the extra stuff on top of that.
“He’s a rock for this team in a lot of ways. Whether he knows it or not, he’s affected a lot of guys in this locker room in a very positive way.’’
Petty is in his third season, having started only four games. He’s dying for his first legitimate chance to be a regular starter and said he finds inspiration in McCown’s career path when it comes to hoping for his chance to come.
“For me, regardless of what happens here, as I look down the road, seeing what Josh has done is a testament to anybody in that you have a dream, you work toward the dream and you never let up,’’ Petty told The Post. “That’s been a really cool vision for me to look back on and see, ‘Hey, he’s been on a number of teams, been out of the league, came back and he’s having arguably one of the best years he’s ever had.’’
McCown was named the AFC Of- fensive Player of the Week for his performance in the Jets’ comeback victory over the Chiefs last Sunday. Not bad for a journeyman who was an afterthought signing in the offseason by the Jets, whose hope was for Hackenberg or Petty to win the starting job in the summer.
It’s not that the Jets disrespected McCown. His reputation as a strong-character player who makes every locker room he enters a better place than it was before he arrived preceded him. It’s just that McCown was the Jets’ second, third or fourth date choice for the prom as they scoured the offseason free-agent market. He was a backup plan that became the plan.
“At the start of this thing for him, it wasn’t glamorous,’’ Petty said, referring to McCown’s meandering career journey. “It’s been tough. The dude’s been out of the league before. They said, ‘No.’ He didn’t get a call.’’
Until the Jets called, and it was the best call this regime has made in its two-plus years.
When offensive coordinator John Morton was asked Thursday if he’d like McCown back next season, he said, “Sure. Why wouldn’t I? Look at the stats. Wouldn’t you?’’
“But,’’ Morton, always the dutiful assistant coach abiding to the chain of command, quickly added, “I don’t make that decision. You can ask the head coach that and the people upstairs.’’
The head coach, Todd Bowles, and “the people upstairs’’ (meaning general manager Mike Maccagnan and his staff) would be crazy not to bring McCown back next season.
He’s the team’s most valuable player and there is no second place.
And the true value of his presence might not even really be known until Petty and/or Hackenberg get a chance to play and possibly prosper.