He’s staying put, y’all!: Josh McCown back to the Jets

What do you mean he’s not going somewhere else? That’s what he does, but not in 2018. Josh McCown will be quarterbacking the New York Jets for another year.

Well, this one comes as a bit of a surprise. Not that he got paid decently to play quarterback for somebody, but Josh McCown isn’t going nowhere in 2018. The journeyman signal caller won’t have to pack his bags to continue his NFL dream into his late 30s. McCown will sign a one-year deal with the New York Jets for 2018. Gang Green keeps its starting quarterback. NFL insider Mike McCartney was the first to break the news of McCown’s signing with the Jets.

Over the years, McCown has played for some terrible football teams. In his multi-decade NFL career, McCown has never had the same offensive coordinator in consecutive seasons. That trend will continue, as the Jets moved on from John Morton in favor of Jeremy Bates in 2018. Few, if any quarterbacks, are as good at learning a whole playbook from scratch in an offseason quite like McCown.

Even after entering a rough situation with the 2017 Jets, McCown played very well before getting hurt. New York might have only won five games, but this was a team many believed would go 0-16 in 2017. McCown gave the Jets’ passing game some aerial bite before succumbing to a broken hand.

The idea is that the Jets will likely go quarterback with their No. 6 overall pick. McCown is 39 years old and will probably have to groom this young signal caller coming out of college. He is the consummate pro, so this won’t be an issue. This move is to help the Jets give off a semblance of stability before they make the long-term switch at quarterback.

Contract Details

McCown will ink a one-year deal worth $10 million for 2018. This is coming off a year where McCown earned $3 million in his first year with the Jets. Though this deal doesn’t offer long-term stability, it offers quite the bump in pay for the veteran journeyman signal caller. McCown gets to stay put and get paid over three times what he made a year ago with Gang Green.

National Reaction

Next: 2018 NFL free agency tracker

Grade

By retaining McCown, New York won’t have to throw their first-round pick to the wolves in Week 1. $10 million for 2018 is a tad pricey, but it is the price to keep a high-end transition quarterback in-house. New York has a bunch of money since it whiffed on the Kirk Cousins sweepstakes. This isn’t the move Gang Green wanted to make, but acting swiftly to retain McCown is infinitely better than the Ryan Fitzpatrick debacle a few summers ago. Let’s hope the Jets get the right quarterback at No. 6, as McCown has been and never will be a long-term answer at the position.

Grade: B+