New York Jets: Do Teddy Bridgewater, Josh McCown deals change draft plans?
The New York Jets draft plans are abundantly clear now that they have signed Teddy Bridgewater and Josh McCown to one-year deals, or are they?
The New York Jets have signed quarterbacks Teddy Bridgewater and Josh McCown to one-year contracts. McCown’s is a $10 million deal. Bridewater’s is a base deal of $5 million with $10 million in incentives.
It is now clear what the Jets plan to do at quarterback. They will draft a quarterback at No. 6 and hope to groom him for the future, and possibly move on from Bridgewater or McCown when the time is right. Well it’s not that simple.
Rich Eisen made a valid point in his tweet on March 13:
I know the Jets are used to their top drafted QB warranting zero reps in practice, but how does a first rounder get development time with BOTH McCown and Bridgewater in the mix unless...
— Rich Eisen (@richeisen) March 14, 2018
1) McCown or Bridgewater won’t be there Week 1 or
2) The Jets won’t draft a QB?
It would be nonsense to think one of the players they just signed to those deals wouldn’t be on the active roster come Week 1, barring injury. So what about the second part of his tweet? Most people are assuming the Jets will draft a quarterback at No. 6 overall in the 2018 NFL Draft. The Jets could swerve us all and not take one, and it wouldn’t be ludicrous for them to not take one.
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The big reason why: the rookie wage scale. What if both McCown and Bridgewater are healthy enough to play Week 1? That means the rookie you draft will end up being the third string quarterback, and not get enough reps in practice to develop.
According to Spotrac, the No. 6 overall pick will take a cap hit of $4,383,347. So, basically what people are saying is that, on the chance that either Bridgewater or McCown ends up off the roster Week 1, they should draft a guy. If not, they end up paying a player nearly $4.4 million to be the third string quarterback, get hardly any reps in practice and probably not be on the game day roster. That’s ludicrous.
Bryce Petty and Christian Hackenberg aren’t even making $3 million combined. One of them should be the third string quarterback, because the likelihood of getting the third string quarterback in a game is slim, as we saw with Hackenberg in 2017.
The Jets should take a risk and hope that Bridgewater can be healthy and be their guy moving forward. If it doesn’t work out, they can draft the guy in 2019. Spending a year as a third string quarterback does the quarterback no good and isn’t good for the organization.
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Sometimes you have to take a risk, and taking one on someone who has already played in this league, and shown he can, is much better than taking one on someone who we don’t know can actually play in the NFL.