FIRST TO WORST
Biggest problem for Jets might be winning the race to the bottom
BLESS Josh McCown’s unassuming, unbridled blind ambition as he powers on in pursuit of goals most of the free world believe to be impossible to attain.
The Jets’ 38-year-old quarterback, playing on his eighth team in 15 NFL seasons and carrying a 2-21 won-loss record as a starter dating to 2014, is a mere caretaker until the perennially quarterback-challenged franchise can figure out another solution.
But don’t tell that to McCown, the determined good soldier who is 0-1 as a Jet after last week’s 21-12 loss to the underwhelming Bills and entering Sunday’s game against the talented Raiders in Oakland, Calif.
“The reality is, as a unit, we are a young group,’’ McCown told The Post. “The idea is for us to grow each week, and hopefully at some point, you hit a stride in the season and you really take off. We’ve got to keep improving. That’s the goal.
“That’s what’s made those guys up the road [the Patriots] so special because Tom [Brady] chases improvement every year. He has every reason to be complacent because of the success he’s had, but he chases improvement every year. That’s our idea, to chase improvement no matter what.”
In the bigger picture, the only way for the Jets truly to improve to the point at which they become playoff and Super Bowl contenders for the first time since 2010 is to find a franchise quarterback.
Everyone — starting with McCown — knows McCown is not that quarterback.
By their actions, the Jets have been telling us since they drafted Bryce Petty they never viewed him as anything more than a competent backup. As for Christian Hackenberg, let’s just say the early returns on his summer performance were not exactly encouraging as it relates to him being the answer at a position at which the Jets haven’t had an answer in … well, what feels like forever.
Petty, for one, is not buying into the noise that the Jets’ sole mission is to suck for Sam or one of the Joshes.
“Everyone in this locker room knows what everyone is saying,” Petty told The Post on Friday. “We hear it, and we don’t believe it. There are 15 games left to go out and prove why that narrative that we’re going to be sitting there with the No. 1 pick will be false.”
As most know, there has been a tanking plan put in place by Jets owner Woody Johnson, who has his lonely eyes fixated on one of the top collegiate quarterbacks expected to be available in the draft (see USC’s Sam Darnold, UCLA’s Josh Rosen and Wyoming’s Josh Allen).
That Johnson mandate has left many with the assumption the Jets will be so bad this season they will be in position to have one of the top two selections in next spring’s NFL draft and have their pick of the quarterback litter.
Not so fast. Yes, based on how much they have gutted their roster of talent, the Jets are likely to be pretty bad. But so, too, are some other teams who are as starved for
a franchise quarterback as the Jets.
So the Jets’ biggest competition this season is not going to come from the AFC East rival Patriots, but the likes of the 49ers, Browns, Bills, Jaguars and even the Texans, Broncos and Redskins (if they cannot come to a contract agreement with Kirk Cousins).
The 49ers are slogging along with journeyman Brian Hoyer at quarterback and, like the Jets, cannot wait to have a crack at one of the college stars come springtime.
The Browns drafted Notre Dame’s DeShone Kizer and started him in Week 1, but there are hardly any guarantees he will turn into what they have been looking for.
The Jaguars, despite being more talented than the abovementioned bottom feeders and impressive in their Week 1 victory over the Texans, are not at all in love with Blake Bortles and would jump at the chance to start over at quarterback.
The Broncos, though still a decent team with a strong defense, don’t seem locked in at franchise quarterback with Trevor Siemian starting over their 2016 first-round pick, Paxton Lynch.
If we dig a bit deeper, Ben Roethlisberger sounded in the offseason as if he’s on the verge of retiring in Pittsburgh, the Chargers’ Philip Rivers and the Saints’ Drew Brees are not getting any younger, and the Cardinals’ Carson Palmer looks like he’s about to make his last stand.
The point is, Woody Johnson should make no assumptions this top-level quarterback pool is all for the Jets to dive into once this season comes to its merciful close.
We all know what happens when you assume.