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This New York Jets player isn’t buying the narrative that is being pushed and pushed and pushed this off-season. And I’m not either.
“I think we’re going to surprise some people,” David Harris told the New York Post on Monday.
I agree with him, but with an asterisk.
I’d say the surprise is based on Josh McCown being the quarterback and staying healthy. I think he can manage the Jets’ offense in an efficient manner, and compliment what should be a much-improved defense.
Look, I’m not hating on Christian Hackenberg, but I still think he’s a year away, especially since the Jets are putting in a new offensive system. Obviously, he could prove me and other doubters wrong, but right now, I just don’t feel he can bring to the 2017 Jets what McCown can. If he proves me wrong, I will be eat crow.
As for Bryce Petty, he’s a heck of a guy, but see him as a backup. Once again, if he proves me wrong, I will be the first to admit it.
So let’s continue based on the premise that McCown will start, and do a solid job managing the games.
If that is the case, the premise being pushed by those outside of One Jets Drive, that the Jets are in full-blown rebuilding mode, is just blather.
“I won’t say ‘rebuild,'” Harris said about the 2017 Jets. “Every team makes transactions in the offseason to try and better the team, and we still have the same goal as we do every year and that’s to win the Super Bowl.”
I agree with him. If the Jets gets solid game-management from McCown, I don’t think the team around him is as bad as some will lead you to believe. And Harris feels the same way.
“We can’t worry about what’s being said outside the locker room,” Harris said. “We’re the ones putting the work in every day. We’re the ones who have to go out there and step on the field and prove it day in and day out. People can say what they want.”
When you look closely at the Jets, they aren’t devoid of talent.
They are obviously loaded on the defensive line. I think Mo Wilkerson will be appreciably better in 2017 than he was last year. And when you team a now healthy Wilkerson with an emerging star in Leonard Williams, that is perhaps the most-talented 3-4 end combo in football. Sheldon Richardson is still around to platoon with them. He could be traded, but if he isn’t, that is a heck of a trio of ends.
Harris will line up next to Darron Lee, who I’m pretty sure will be a lot better in 2017. He now understands so much more about what he has to do as a 3-4 ILB.
Obviously you have two of the best safeties from the 2017 draft now working in Florham Park.
I’m not going to go over every position today, but I think you see where I’m coming from.
The Jets can definitely be a surprise team this year.
As long as McCown can be the game-manager I think he can be. There isn’t much this guy hasn’t seen from opposing defenses, and that kind of experience can help a veteran be a terrific game-manager.
May 15, 2017
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