Former New York Jets Quarterback, Josh McCown announces retirement

NFL journeyman, Josh McCown announced his retirement on Monday after playing for eight teams, the last of which is the New York Jets.

Josh McCown made his name in the NFL for being the guy who seemed to have played on every team. Between 2005 and 2008 McCown played on four different teams and in 2016 a picture went viral of his daughter and several of her friends wearing jerseys of teams McCown had played for ironically not including his most recent stop with the New York Jets.

The funny thing is, this picture was taken at my high school, Marvin Ridge High School. Marvin Ridge is an essential part of McCown’s story and his career because, in the middle of his career, McCown served as the quarterback’s coach for the high school. Due to injury, McCown played only three games between the 2011 and 2012 seasons. With this, McCown went home and served as the quarterbacks’ coach for the Marvin Ridge Mavericks in Waxhaw, NC.

During bye weeks or essential events at Marvin Ridge, there’s a good chance you could find the NFL quarterback attending one of the Maverick’s games. It was because of this that my hometown of Waxhaw was always rooting for McCown through the ups and downs of his career.

When Jay Cutler went down due to injury in 2013 and Josh McCown stepped in, everyone was excited. Only a year prior you could see McCown on the sidelines with a headset on helping coach Marvin Ridge and then all of a sudden, and he was the starting quarterback for the Chicago Bears.

Eventually, McCown found himself as the quarterback for the Jets with expectations of going 0-16. To the surprise of all, the Jets finished the season at 5-11 and were the better team in New York. Now, 5-11 surely isn’t anything to be proud of, but when you’re expected to go 0-16 because of your lack of talent, it could be worse. McCown was a significant reason why the Jets did exceed those expectations.

Before the 2017 season, McCown had started in more than ten games only twice in his career, once with the Cardinals in 2004 and once with the Buccaneers in 2014. This being said, no one expected much out of McCown in 2017.

In 13 games, McCown managed to throw for 2926 yards, 18 touchdowns, and only nine interceptions. Now, these numbers might not be too high, but when you consider the talent McCown had around him, he could have done much worse.

In McCown’s second season with the Jets, he was sidelined for the third overall pick in the 2018 Draft, Sam Darnold. Many players might sulk and disappear after losing their job in their 16th season, but that’s not what McCown did.

McCown viewed this as an opportunity to help a young player in his first season in the NFL. Instead of seeing Darnold as an enemy, McCown saw him as someone who’d be in the league long after he was gone and he helped mentor and teach Darnold about the game and how different it is at the next level. Jets fans in a way have a lot to thank McCown for because their future with Sam Darnold is directly tied to what McCown taught him in their one year together.

McCown had a very respectable and non-conventional NFL career, and I, for one, can’t wait to see what’s next for him with ESPN.