Starting Josh McCown in 2017 would be a dire mistake

With training camp on the horizon come late July, the New York Jets will officially start an open competition at quarterback. Unfortunately, that means Josh McCown has a shot to be their Week 1 starter which would be a dire mistake.

As of right now, things are calm when it comes to the New York Jets. Players and coaches are on a break until the end of July as to when training camp will officially begin. Until then, all fans can do is wait to see how all these young players will develop and progress this Summer.

There is, however, one situation that could end up once again being a terrible mistake for the Jets. Their quarterback situation is once again a huge question mark since at this point in time, they have Josh McCown, Bryce Petty, and Christian Hackenberg all competing for the starting position.

It’s expected that the best quarterback that proves himself throughout training camp and preseason football will emerge as the clear-cut starter under center. The only problem is, the Jets are handling this quarterback situation wrong from the start.

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In the grand scheme of things, it would have made more sense for the Jets to have just Petty and Hackenberg compete with McCown solidified as a backup since that’s what he’s best at with the Jets.

They’re not going to win many football games with McCown under center but at least if Petty or Hackenberg get to start, the Jets will get a great glimpse of what either player can do.

If one plays poorly, they can demote him and start the other to see what they can do. It’s important to finally get a good idea if Petty or Hackenberg has the potential to be a future franchise quarterback. McCown isn’t part of the long-term plans and it would be a waste of time for him to start and have both young quarterbacks on the bench.

It’s time to let them develop the real way through regular season action. That would be the only way to determine if they’re worth keeping around after this season or if it’ll be back to the drawing board at quarterback and drafting yet another in the 2018 NFL Draft.

The Jets won’t know what they have with Petty or Hackenberg unless they see what they can do in games that actually matter. McCown was brought in to mentor and be a positive locker room presence, but he shouldn’t be in a position to start since the whole point of rebuilding is trying to see which young players are worth building around upon.

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If the Jets fear that Petty or Hackenberg is that bad, then it’s time to move on. But the truth of the matter is Petty has a very small sample size to work with and Hackenberg has yet to take a single snap in a regular season game. They’re both pretty unknown as far as their overall progression but it’s time the Jets stop with this trend of starting a veteran quarterback over younger options when they need to fully evaluate both players with a larger sample size. It’s not going to happen if McCown starts in the most importation position on the team this upcoming season.