New York Jets: Mike Maccagnan and Todd Bowles now face huge pressure in NFL draft

The pressure is on New York Jets’ Mike Maccagnan and Todd Bowles to fix the most important position during the NFL draft.

The New York Jets are in the midst of the free agency process. We have been documenting them as they come, you know the names by now. However, as excited as we were coming into the process, there doesn’t seem to be a future process in place for the most important position on the field. There is plenty of pressure on Mike Maccagnan and Todd Bowles to now get it done during the NFL draft.

Of course I am talking about the quarterback position. We have talked about the two names involved, Josh McCown and Teddy Bridgewater. In a vacuum the moves aren’t the worst that could be done. McCown feels comfortable here and played well. Teddy Bridgewater is your ultimate boom or bust choice. If they don’t invest a lot it’s a low risk-high reward choice. In a vacuum, not so bad, right?

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But let’s look a bit more globally at what we know. They have given Josh McCown $10 million for one season. That’s a lot of money for a journeyman. He made $6 million last year, and though he did have a career season last year, the regression to his career averages is very likely. It seems like a lot of money to invest.

Todd Bowles has promised McCown that he goes into the off-season as the starter. That could change during training camp, but him being promised the role is interesting. Hopefully they aren’t planning on just moving ahead with McCown as the automatic starter.

Teddy Bridgewater has played a full game in two years. He was promising before he went down, but the fact is still that he hasn’t played in two years. They could have wasted their time and then some.

The other piece we have to remember is the fact that they couldn’t even score a visit with Kirk Cousins. They had the most money to offer and he wouldn’t even come to New Jersey for a visit. That says a lot about how the team is perceived around the league. Maccagnan is also perceived as a guy that doesn’t know how to find a quarterback. In three years he has not been aggressive at trying to fix the problem. It’s almost as if he doesn’t understand that it is the most important position on the field and arguably the most important in sports.

Next: Jets free agency tracker

So now the pressure is on for the NFL draft. Wouldn’t it be just so Maccagnan-like for the Jets to act as if they are content and go best player available at number six? After that they would take a project quarterback in the middle rounds. If they do that they are writing their ticket out of town. The Jets have no choice but to be aggressive and move up if necessary to get the quarterback they like. Whether it is Baker Mayfield, Josh Rosen or anyone else, go get him.

If they don’t, and they try to go for the bargain basement quarterbacks in the middle of the draft it’s over. Maccagnan and Bowles better freshen up their resumes because their days will be numbered.

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