Some good new pieces, but still no franchise QB
THE general manager has procured young talent and the head coach has changed the culture of the locker room, and no one right now views the Jets as a laughingstock and a team you want to show up for your homecoming game. On e Te a m. On e Goal. One Tough Out. Todd Bowles and Mike Maccagnan have transformed the Jets into a team that can lose to anyone on any given day or night, but can also beat anyone on any given day or night. Nobody, not even Tom Brady and Bill Belichick, scares these 3-3 Jets, a smarter, tougher, more unified and more disciplined and more resilient outfit than anyone expected. Good job. “The thing I love so much about this young team is that it has a lot of passion,” Leonard Williams said. “We have a lot of want-to, we have a lot of passion, we have a lot of fight, and that’s what’s gonna get you there.” Get you where? The playoffs ... playoffs? Playoffs? “In order to be a pl ayoff te a m,” Steve McLendon sa i d, “we have to beat Miami.” As the Jets prep for Sunday’s game in Miami, here’s a look at the jobs Bowles and Maccagnan have done, and some of the key new pieces:
Todd Bowles
B owles would rat her stop listening to Gladys Knight and the Pips than tank a game, much less a season.
He has grabbed his team by the neck and dragged it out from a maddening, self-defeating culture. He has gotten a team no one believed in to begin believing in itself. He has been the teacher and leader a team filled with so many young and /or inexperienced players needs. He is doing things his way in his third season the way Bill Parcells decided to do things his way in his second season. If you didn’t think he could coach after last season, and coach here, he is reminding you that maybe, just maybe, he can.
Mike Maccagnan
He rolled the dice and drafted Christian Hackenberg in the second round of the 2016 draft when Dak Prescott was still available and lasted until the fourth round. That will haunt him until he finds a franchise quarterback.
His competit ive re bui l d in 201 5 worked for 15 weeks until it imploded, and Ryan Fitzpatrick, Darrelle Revis, Brandon Marshall, Eric Decker, Nick Mangold, Marcus Gilchrist and David Harris were shown the door.
But Maccagnan has infused new blood into the roster with more than a few players who should be building blocks for the future.
WR Jermaine Kearse
Sheldon Richardson had to go, and Kearse — with 26 catches for 299 yards and three touchdowns — is only 27 years old. He isn’t considered a No. 1, but he’s a pro, and a second-round pick in 2018 came along with him.
DE Kony Ealy
The Jets needed a pass rusher, and here is a guy who is only 25 and once dominated Super Bowl 50 and bats down passes on his way to the quarterback.
CB Morris Claiborne
A former No. 1 pick with an injury history who is only 27 years old, Claiborne has been a significant upgrade over the faded Revis.
TE Austin Seferian-Jenkins
A former second-round pick who has changed his life and career following a battle with alcohol, he has given the Jets a threat at a position that has been an eyesore.
WR-PR Jeremy Kerley
Back home with the team that drafted him in 2011, Kerley’s a proven, dependable slot receiver who was slighted by former offensive coordinator Chan Gailey in favor of Quincy Enunwa. And he’s still only 29.
LT Kelvin Beachum
He has rebuilt his career following an injury-plagued 2016 in Jacksonville, and only 28.
Maccagnan’s trade of malcontent Calvin Pryor for Demario Davis was a steal. (His big-ticket signing of Muhammad Wilkerson? Not so much).
His 2017 draft — safety Jamal Adams in the first round, safety Marcus Maye in the second round, running back Elijah McGuire in the sixth round — looks impressive on the surface, and signing Josh McCown as his bridge quarterback has been a godsend. Good job. But there are two elephants in the room for the two of them: Hackenberg. And Deshaun Watson. Maccagnan didn’t draft Watson in the 2017 draft because he made the mistake of drafting Hackenberg in the 2016 draft.
Hindsight is 20/20 and all that, but the Suck For Sam narrative would have been rendered moot had Maccagnan solved the Jets’ franchise quarterback problem.
Adams was the sixth pick, and as bright as his future is, Maccagnan has yet to get Bowles or Woody Johnson or Christopher Johnson a young, franchise quarterback.
With his team not Sucking For Sam, Maccagnan better find one in the 2018 draft. The clock will be ticking on him and on Bowles until he does.