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Florham Park – Mike Maccagnan held the Jets pre-draft press conference today, and as expected, not much of the event was about the draft . . .
Mike Maccagnan continues to play this Ryan Fitzpatrick situation just right.
When asked about the reason for the Brian Hoyer visit, he said, “Our focus is Ryan, but you never know what might happen in free agency.”
Very well put.
In a nutshell, what he’s saying, is that they have every intention of re-signing Ryan Fitzpatrick, but if another team comes out of left-field and signs him, the Jets need to be prepared with a Plan B.
Here is the problem for Fitzpatrick. Would another team be interested in signing him? Probably, but not for $9 million a year, the area the Jets offer is in.
So while the Jets offer doesn’t float his boat, it remains the best one out there.
The only thing that might help Fitzpatrick get a better offer elsewhere, is if he remains a free agent into OTA’s and mini-camps around the league, and a starter suffers a serious injury. That would help him perhaps get a better offer elsewhere.
Maccaganan made it clear today he’s not concerned with Fitzpatrick missing spring practices.
Fitz might be his own worst enemy on this front. Everyone saw how well he did taking over as the starter early in training camp last year. He didn’t need a ton of time. We have all seen that first hand.
So Maccagnan isn’t going to panic during OTA’s or mini-camp and increase the offer significantly. The specter of the quarterback missing time in the spring isn’t making the GM lose sleep.
And this narrative that the Jets might pick a QB high in the draft, with Fitzpatrick out of the mix right now, is a reach.
Might the Jets pick a QB during the draft? Absolutely.
But not because of Fitzpatrick. Maccagnan sticks to the board, and he’s not just saying this for window-dressing.
“We try to view the draft in a vacuum,” Maccagnan said. “I don’t think Ryan’s situation impacts our draft.”
And like we’ve discussed before. Picking a QB in this draft doesn’t provide them a starter for this year. The guy is going to need time. So what does that have to do with Fitzpatrick? If Fitzpatrick doesn’t re-sign, the Jets will go get a veteran, and let him compete with Geno Smith and Bryce Petty.
Overall, the press conference was pretty non-eventful and Mr. Coffee didn’t say much.
He did say “at the end of the day” and “in a perfect world” quite a bit, his two verbal ticks.
In between, it was pretty boring and not newsworthy.
I guess the reporters like him better because he’s nicer to them than John Idzik was.
But honestly, he really doesn’t say any more than Idzik does. There is no difference.
But who cares? It really doesn’t matter.
All the matters is how he does running the Jets football operation.
April 22, 2016
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