New York Jets: Josh McCown will win starting job

It may not be ideal, but the New York Jets will have no choice but to turn to veteran quarterback Josh McCown as the starting quarterback in 2017

For anyone who missed 2016, the New York Jets quarterback situation is a mess. They hoped Ryan Fitzpatrick, their bearded savior from 2015, was the answer — but it wasn’t meant to be. He threw way too many interceptions, so they turned to former failed second-round pick Geno Smith. He got injured, but it’s not like he hadn’t already shown he couldn’t be trusted before that.

From there they turned it back to Fitzpatrick and eventually to Bryce Petty. By then it was all about seeing what the youngster could do as they wanted to know if Petty could play. He struggled, which makes his future with the Jets murky at best. There was another guy as rookie second round pick Christian Hackenberg was on the bench, but he never got a shot.

New York keeping him sidelined despite the carousel doesn’t inspire confidence, nor does reports that his passes were finding reporters more often than receivers in his most recent work at OTAs (h/t CBS Sports).

Such concerns brought on by the play of Petty and the practice of Hackenberg makes it more and more likely that the Jets only chance of being competitive in 2017 hinges on them starting Josh McCown — who will be 38 years old when the season kicks off. This has to happen, especially given the lack of progress thus far by Hackenberg — who the team knew could be a project.

This isn’t a worst case scenario thing as McCown has played rather well at various points throughout his 14 seasons in the NFL. Although, he’s also had some seasons where he played very poorly. Overall, he is 18-42 as a starter, and is best served as a backup that can a team afloat until their starter returns.

With the Jets, no calvary is on the way. Even so, they have no choice. If they want to have any hope of affording Hackenberg the time to get ready that he so obviously needs, McCown — armed with his 59 percent career completion rate — has to take the field.

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Fans will probably hate him, but that’s alright. The team isn’t very good right now, but throwing anyone else out there would be damaging to any future they may have in the league.