The Jets traded up from No. 6 to No. 3 in the first round of this year’s draft with the expectation that the team is going to pick a quarterback for the third time since Mike Maccagnan became the team’s General Manager in 2015.
Maccagnan selected Bryce Petty in the fourth round of that year’s draft and took Christian Hackenberg in the second round the next year. Petty has made seven unremarkable starts over the last two years and Hackenberg hasn’t played a single snap, which leaves the Jets still in search of a quarterback and leaves Maccagnan unfazed about the prospect of picking one again.
“I’m very confident from that standpoint,” Maccagnan said at last week’s league meetings, via NJ.com. “That doesn’t faze me. It’s the college draft. Guys you’ll hit on. Guys that don’t pan out, that’s part of the process. But we feel pretty good about this year’s group and where we’re situated.”
Maccagnan added that one has to “look at where the picks were made” when considering Petty and Hackenberg’s failure to pan out. Those represent smaller misses than taking a quarterback at the top of a draft while also illustrating how much is riding on this year’s pick for both the Jets and Maccagnan since another miss could leave the next swing to someone else.