New York Jets: Five internal free agents worth bringing back
Josh McCown
You know how in life, you find that special someone when you least expect it? You don’t expect the situation to be a source of joy until it just happens on its own? That is basically how things unfolded with Josh McCown. He was brought here with the reputation of a journeyman. For many of us, he was the last guy we wanted to lead this team. But he started the year, and we realized he was pretty good. We actually grew to like the guy.
It didn’t hurt that he put up the of his life by a wide margin. That certainly got the relationship going in the right direction. He never posted anywhere near a 67% completion percentage prior to 2017. Nor had he ever posted 18 touchdown passes. The last time he started double-digit games was back in 2014 with the Buccaneers. He threw for 11 scores in 11 games that year. We know he likes being on the field for this team:
There is one caveat. McCown can come back if he is here to be a backup/mentor. He should not be back to start again. My friend Joe Caporoso of Turn On the Jets talks all the time about regression to the mean with regards to player stats. He is absolutely right. Players generally play to their career averages. Career years are just that, career years. They don’t change the overall narrative of the player.
If McCown is the starter again, the likelihood is that the offense will regress and nobody wants that. We tried that with Ryan Fitzpatrick and that worked out really badly for us. Mike Maccagnan must learn from that mistake. Bring McCown back to mentor and be a backup only.