Jets general manager Mike Maccagnan sat with reporters in the Atlantic Health Training Center boardroom late this morning and responded to a lot of pointed questions on this year's season at the bye week. Here are 10 sound bites from Maccagnan's news conference on quarterbacks, the big-ticket names on offense and defense, and some young players laying a foundation for the future:
On his view of the Jets being 3-7 at the bye..."We're obviously disappointed by the season in terms of the record. ... We are happy with some things about the season. We do have a lot of younger players on the team who are contributing and we actually feel good about those guys going forward. But we're still in the middle of it, we still have a little over a third of a season to play. We'll continue to analyze ourselves, try to figure out ways to make ourselves better. We obviously all need to do better at our jobs. I think Todd [Bowles] has mentioned that, whether it's playing or coaching or even scouting, the personnel side, and that's what we're focused on."
On Ryan Fitzpatrick returning at QB this season..."I think going into it that we felt very good about the season Ryan had previously. Of course, I think everybody, and Ryan included, would probably say he holds himself to a fairly high standard and we all would like to have better success on the field as a team. But from the standpoint of bringing Ryan back, no I don't have regrets on that."
On starting Bryce Petty to help in the QB evaluation for next year..."All the decisions on who starts are Todd's. I've always felt the head coach — and I've been very clear on this — that's his decision to make. He does take input from, obviously, the coaching staff, myself, but I think going forward, that's Todd's decision. From my standpoint, you'd like to see young players play, but you also want to make sure they're ready for that. And to me it's a more complicated decision than some people realize. I'd like to see whatever is in the best interests of the organization, both short term and long term."
On if rookie Christian Hackenberg fits into the QB situation this season..."We like Christian. There are a lot of things about him that we see a lot of potential in and we knew going in there are things he'd need to improve upon. But we also wanted — and we said this early on if we were going to take a quarterback — at some point in time to have them in the pipeline to develop. We look back at where we took Bryce and his improvement from one year to the next, and he's made quite a bit of improvement. So the same thing would hold true with Christian going forward."
On re-signing Darrelle Revis and his play this season..."When we signed Darrelle, we were very happy based on where he was playing at. He may have said this himself, I'm sure there are plays he'd like to have back. But we still think he's a good football player, we do think he can help us potentially win. He has brought quite a bit to the locker room in terms of leadership and a veteran presence."
On Muhammad Wilkerson's season after signing his contract extension before camp..."We were happy when we signed him. Basically to have him under contract and also to have Sheldon [Richardson] under contract gave us some ability to really have some of our key players in place. But again, I feel good about that going forward."
On wanting to re-sign Richardson..."Those are more questions for after the end of the season and we have to see how the rest of the season unfolds. But at the end of the day, Sheldon's a good player and our goal is always to try to keep as many of our good players as we can."
On his convictions about Todd Bowles as head coach..."I think very highly of Todd. I have complete respect for him and the job he's doing. I think he's a very good defensive coach in terms of his knowledge, and I also think that Todd to my mind has a lot of the qualities of a very good head coach. We're dealing with stuff this season, and we knew this going in, we knew where we started, we knew where we eventually wanted to get, and we knew there was going to be adversity along the way. But he's very consistent and very focused and I think he has a very good pulse on the team in the locker room. ... I think he's going to be a very good head coach in this league and I think he's doing a good job right now."
On WR Brandon Marshall's downturn in production..."I still think Brandon's playing at a high level. I think it's just the consistency of the offense at times overall. Again, most every team that plays us usually tries to take him out of the game."
On Jets fans' reaction to the season..."We're not happy. We're disappointed with the record. ... We do know where we want to be eventually, and we do think we're making progress toward that. ... We're trying to focus going forward. We know where we want to get to. There's a lot of young players and positives that we feel good about. They may not necessarily show in the record, but we do think we're making progress."
