BIG MAC LIKES BIG QBs
Now Mac has to pick right guy — history says it won’t be the 6-footer
WHEN the Jets handed Todd Bowles and Mike Maccagnan two-year contract extensions in December, at the end of a second straight 5-11 season, many people viewed it as the Jets being content with mediocrity.
Saturday, they showed that is not the case.
The trade with the Colts to move up to the No. 3 pick was an aggressive move by Maccagnan, the fourth-year general manager who needed to make one. He was not content to sit back at No. 6 and let the “best player available” fall to him as it did in 2015 and ’17 when he took Leonard Williams and Jamal Adams, respectively.
Instead, Maccagnan made the move that had to be made and did not waste any time doing it. He could have waited into April and closer to the draft, but the price might have risen or the Bills, who also need a quarterback, might have beaten him to it. The price to move up to No. 1 would have been way more costly and a trade with the Giants for the No. 2 pick never seemed realistic considering the teams’ complicated relationship.
Now, the Jets have a shot to get their man. Sam Darnold, Josh Allen, Josh Rosen and Baker Mayfield are viewed in various orders as the top quarterbacks in this draft. This trade tells you the Jets have three of them rated nearly equal. I would suspect those are Darnold, Allen and Rosen because Mayfield does not fit the profile of what Maccagnan usually looks for in a quarterback.
This has nothing to do with the off-field concerns about Mayfield, although those probably don’t help. But at 6-feet tall, he is short for a quarterback, and Maccagnan likes big pocket passers with monster arms.
Look at the quarterbacks Maccagnan has brought to the Jets as GM. The smallest are Ryan Fitzpatrick and Teddy Bridgewater, who are both 6-2. Christian Hackenberg and Josh McCown are both 6-4, and Bryce Petty is 6-3.
It is premature to say Mayfield has been ruled out, but I would think he is the long shot of the group.
Just going by the big-frame/bigarm model that Maccagnan has shown he has liked, Wyoming’s Josh Allen would be the top pros- pect. He is 6-5 and can throw the ball a mile. The problem is you don’t always know where it’s going. Allen had a career completion percentage of 56 percent. Rosen and Darnold both 6-4.
The truth is tthe Jets probably have not even settled on an order with the quarterbacks yet. They have been studying them all since last fall, but there is plenty of work still to be done. Maccagnan attended the pro days of Rosen and Mayfield last week. He will be at Darnold’s and Allen’s this week. The Jets have private visits set up with all of the quarterbacks. Their objective is to spend as much time as possible with each quarterback before making this franchisechanging decision.
You could argue the Jets gave up too much in the trade. Three second-round picks are a hefty price to pay for a rebuilding team. But you overpay for quarterbacks, whether it is with money or with draft picks. Kirk Cousins is not an $84 million quarterback, but the Vikings had to pay him that to get him. Quarterbacks are not always the top players in the draft, but they will always go at the top of the draft because of the position and its importance.
The Jets could have waited to see which quarterback fell to them. There are the examples, of course, of Russell Wilson in the third round for the Seahawks and Tom Brady in the sixth round for the Patriots. But that is like believing you are going to hit the lottery just because the guy down the street did.
Ma cc ag nan made a bold, decisive move. The Jets said they are not happy with mediocrity. Now, they just have to pick the right guy.