Even though the 2016 season is over, general manager Mike Maccagnan's season is just getting under way.
"When the season ends everyone tends to think things slow down, but from the personnel standpoint and the coaches to a degree, this is when everything really starts speeding up," Maccagnan said. "In essence, it's almost our halfway point. We spent the past four or five months dealing with the season and now the next four or five will be dealing with the offseason."
The architect of the Green & White has a packed schedule over the next few months that features a lot of frequent flier miles and homework. The first item on the menu is a pair of collegiate showcases.
"January is obviously involved with pro free agency meetings but also college all-star games," Maccagnan said. "February we have college draft meetings and continue to work the pro free agency process. We have the Indianapolis scouting combine, then we get to March where pro free agency starts, which is very busy at the beginning of the month."
Maccagnan and his scouting personnel have done their due diligence in college all-star games in the past as 12 players on the Jets' current roster played in either the East-West Shrine Game or the Reese's Senior Bowl.
- East-West Shrine Game: WR Robby Anderson, RT Brandon Shell, CB Juston Burris, S Ronald Martin
- Reese's Senior Bowl:DE Lawrence Thomas, WR Charone Peake, K Ross Martin, OLB Jordan Jenkins, WR Devin Smith, QB Bryce Petty, CB Nick Marshall, OLB Lorenzo Mauldin
The general manager continued to lay out his schedule, addressing what the month leading up to the draft entails from his perspective.
"When you finally get to April, even though you're not traveling quite as much, you're literally in bunker mentality in terms of draft meetings and you're spending long hours watching film, reviewing players," Maccagnan said. "Then you get to the draft and finally get a chance to make the picks. It's a long four or five months basically when it's all said and done."
Here are some key dates on the horizon (all times ET). For a full list, click here.
- Jan. 13-15: Tropical Bowl, Daytona Beach, FL.
- Jan. 21: East-West Shrine Game, Tropicana Field, St. Petersburg, FL, 3:00 p.m. (NFL Network).
- Jan. 28: Reese's Senior Bowl, Ladd-Peebles Stadium, Mobile, AL, 2:30 p.m. (NFL Network).
- Feb. 15: Teams can designate Franchise and Transition Players.
- Feb. 28-March 6: NFL Draft Scouting Combine.
- March 1: 4:00 p.m. ET deadline for teams to designate Franchise and Transition Players.
- March 9: The 2017 league year, free agency and trading period begin at 4:00 p.m.
- April 27-29: NFL Draft, Philadelphia, PA.
