Maccagnan with Francesa today

Very generic answers. I didn't hear the whole thing on my ride home though. What'd he say about the free agent signings?

 

Macc can talk. He almost lulled Francesa to sleep with some of those long answers. He also was careful to touch on the same point multiple times, both in a single answer and to reinforce it in a subsequent answer. This makes it unlikely that he'd be misunderstood.

 

Not too hard to make Francesca fall asleep on the air, is it?

 

I'm really rooting for Mac, every time I hear an interview with him he comes across as very intelligent. It also at least seems like he has a plan, now we just gotta hope he can execute it and he doesn't go down with the Bowles ship.

 

So far, I've only been able to listen to half because it keeps hanging. These are my reactions thus far.

He is obviously very intelligent, well-spoken, has a philosophy, and doesn't second-guess himself. He said that if they take a player off their draft board due to character issues, and that player falls, they don't second-guess themselves and reconsider. He said that with injured players they have in mind a round in which they would take him, and if he falls to that round or lower, that they would. IMO those things are very good.

The one thing I heard that really concerns me is that he seems obsessed with value and based on what he said doesn't really consider need. He said that they don't go into a draft thinking that they have to get a player at a certain position, that if it works out that they can, great, but if not, they're going with who they think is the best player. IMO it's thinking like that that results in having Mo, Williams and Richardson all on the DL, with offensive players, OLB and other positions being ignored. Using that philosophy the Jets might never find a QB or never find a pass rusher. IMO sometimes you have to target a player, and then move up or down as necessary to get him. One can't always just stay pat and let the draft come to them.

IMO one has to consider need. If one doesn't have an NFL-caliber player at a position or several positions, it doesn't make one bit of difference how great your depth and talent is at another position or positions. He said that they had Maye rated slightly higher than other players they liked at that point in the draft. With that being the case, then I think Maye was a mistake, even though he may wind up being a great player for the Jet. If those players that were slightly rated lower were Sidney Jones, Quincy Wilson, Adam Shaheen, or Tyus Bowser, then I think Mac and the Jets made a mistake. I think any of those players would have helped the Jets more than Maye will. I don't think he was talking about either Cook or Mixon, because I don't think that they were on the Jets' draft board. Marcus Williams would have been a wash since he's a safety as well. Samuel Curtis is a homerun threat, but he is seen mostly as a slot receiver, and the Jets already have a very good slot receiver in either Decker or Enunwa depending upon alignment I don't think that he would have had the impact or helped the team more than Jones, Wilson, Shaheen, Bowser or even Maye. I think the same thing about Gerald Everett. He's a move TE and doesn't block, and imo is not what the Jets need.

He said that they did try to trade up a couple of times in the 3rd to get players, but failed, and then when the players they liked were gone, decided to trade back and hope that they could get one of the group of players that they had rated at that place in the draft. He said that the 3rd round of the draft pretty much fell the way they had their board set up. First, I'm surprised that he tried to trade up, as I don't think the Jets could afford to trade up. Second, this seems to go against his value statement. If you're just going by BPA, then why trade up? Third, I hope to hell they weren't trying to trade up to get Larry Ogunjobi, DT. If so, Mac should be fired now. My guess would be either Ahkello Witherspoon or Alvin Kamara or possibly Dawuane Smoot, DE (OLB) or Cooper Kupp. If so, that could indicate that need was possibly being considered, but it may just be a matter of they didn't really think the value was there (didn't like any of the players that would be available to them at their pick), and thought they'd get better value and a better player by trading up, and it is coincidental that most of that group of players happen to fit Jets' needs. Would it really be better value, however, since the team would be having to give up at least two, if not multiple picks for that player?

So it's a little unclear if Mac misspoke earlier regarding always going with BPA. If BPA is truly Mac's philosophy and he is inflexible on that, regardless of need, then I hope he will be fired along with Bowles following this season.

 

I don't take anything a GM says during a radio interview so literal. It's pretty clear to me that the CS and FO blame a lot of the defensive breakdowns from last year on the safeties and saw that position as big of a need as any. Can anyone really blame them for that?

 

not to mention this was the deepest DB draft in the last 10 years.

 

nice summary!

i think when teams say BPA they mean their pick. it doesn't mean they won't target or trade up for someone hey really like but just that when they are on the clock they will take who they consider to be the BPA or best value for the pick.

 

Why not? This isn't before the draft. There's nothing to be gained from answering disingenuously or dishonestly. One doesn't have to go so much information, but if one gives information, then it should be accurate/factual, not contrived to somehow manipulate the media. Fans and media remember a GM's words, philosophy, and if the GM later contradicts himself, which he undoubtedly will if he isn't answering literally/honestly, then he's embarrassed and has to backtrack.

There's no doubt the safeties shared a big chunk of the responsibility, but then imo, so do the CBs, the secondary coach, Rodgers and Bowles.

 

You HAVE to consider need. We were so deep at WR BEFORE the draft (not even including Devin "my knee hurts again" Smith), it made no sense to use 3rd and 4th round picks there. Good teams spread out their picks among multiple positions and do not usually go back to back safeties, Wrs, and CBs as the jets did on 2017 and totally ignore OL. Started out well with Adams, and then rest of the picks and the position they play very curious ( to put it kindly) or bad (to put it bluntly) given weak overall jets roster.

 

This actually isn't true at all.

You should go look at some of the more successful teams in the draft and the patterns they use in the draft.

You'd be surprised how often they actually do pick for need of their team. It's not very often.

If they do go for need, they will target a player in the draft, find a way to move up on the draft if they are 100% sold on said player.

When you target, he should be rated much higher than anyone else on your board, if your going to trade up. You don't just trade up in a draft of a player is deemed "the best in the draft" at just that position. He also should be at the top of your board, at least high enough to justify the target.

That's what good teams do. Mac is using the approach of BPA, we're in rebuild mode. I'm happy with our draft.

 

The problem with targeting a player and trading to move up, is quite often you give up a lot of collateral to draft a bust, especially in the early rounds where trading up cost so much.

I like McCagnan's approach of grading several players and staying put or even trading down if there's a good chance he can still get 'one of his highly rated guys' a bit later on.

He doesn't seem to 'fall in love' with a player and sell the farm to get him.

 

You only do this type of thing anyway if you feel your team is close to a run at the Championship. Otherwise it's just silly.

 

Respect your opinion but what about the jets offensive line? Teams play FIVE OL at a time , but only 2 safeties, 2 WRs (usually) and 2 CBs. The jets NEED a MUCH better OL--Look at successful teams like the cowboys--the way they built their OL thru the draft! Mike Mac, now, has drafted a grand total of TWO offensive lineman in 3 drafts and both in the 5th round. The jets are NOT going anywhere with Mike Mac totally ignoring the OL during the draft for 3 years running. You cannot in good faith tell me there was not one decent offensive lineman there during ANY of the nine picks Mike Mac had this year. Did we really need to draft WRs in the 3rd and 4th round with all the WR depth we already had even considering Devin Smith injury?

 

I disagree. In general I'm not a fan of trading up unless one balances that in the same or a subsequent draft by trading down. That said, while imo it's not something to be done more than once per draft, and not even every year, it can be a perfectly acceptable way of addressing needs.

Of course you don't do it for just any player at a position out of desperation. But in a draft like this that was historically strong and deep at CB and pretty darned strong at OLB and with those both being pretty big needs, I think it pretty ridiculous that the best they could do is come up with 6th round prospects at those positions. IMO there should have been 2-3 CBs and 2-3 OLBs that they targeted, and depending upon how the draft fell, trade down or trade up to get one of them. Of course any trade requires a trade partner, but with all the trades in this draft, I find it incredibly difficult to believe that they couldn't have found a trade partner. As it is the Jets tried to trade up, succeeded in trading down and even for a pick in next year's draft.

We've already seen that taking the BPA every year in the draft for the last 7-10 years has led to so many DL picks while other units have been totally ignored. One can't always fill holes in FA adequately. Needs must be addressed and holes adequately fixed if the team is ever to be a legitimate competitor. It won't ever happen if we keep addressing a handful of positions while ignoring others year in and year out.

 

Maybe it's not the philosophy that's flawed, but the judgment of those making the picks during that time as to who the BPA was. We've whiffed way too often in that time frame is the real issue.

I don't see how reaching for need would help matters. Take the guys you think are most likely to succeed, and if it's close, obviously the edge goes to the player who would help the area of weakness.

 

Agree.

Every successful Jets team over the past 20 years had at least a good OL....at times regarded as one of if not the best in the league.

Sure, Mac knows we're years away, but a few years turns into who knows if the OL continues to be ignored.

 

you and me maybe, but teams like the bears just traded away like 5 draft pics to move up one spot for a developmental QB who's years away. Thinks like this make no sense