The New York Jets begin their 2018 offseason schedule. Plus, Mike Maccagnan’s record in the draft may surprise you.
While many folks have their eyes set on the 2018 NFL Draft, it actually all gets started on April 16th. Here is the New York Jets offseason 2018 calendar (via NewYorkJets.com):
Phase 1
Week 1 — Monday-Thursday, April 16-19
Week 2 — Monday-Thursday, April 23-26
Phase 2
Week 1 — Monday-Thursday, April 30-May 3
(Rookie Minicamp — Friday-Sunday, May 4-6)
Week 2 — Monday-Thursday, May 7-10
Week 3 — Monday-Thursday, May 14-17, Monday, May 21
Phase 3
Week 1 — Offseason training activities 1-3, Tuesday-Thursday, May 22-24
Week 2 — Regular OTAs 4-6, May 29-31
Week 3 — OTAs 7-10, Monday-Thursday, June 4-7
Mandatory Minicamp — Tuesday-Thursday, June 12-14
The work starts tomorrow.
One team, one goal. #1T1G pic.twitter.com/NStdzHoQpI
— New York Jets (@nyjets) April 15, 2018
It should start to feel real now. Last year was a weird year. Everyone in the media said the team was going to suck and be hovering around ‘Cleveland Brown’ level. How could you possibly get excited about that?
This year the team is expected to have a rookie quarterback with promise and coming off an offseason spending spree. 2018 is going to be a year to remember without a doubt.
For a team that hasn’t been to the playoffs since 2010, it’s odd how many Jets fans walk funny because of the silver spoon jammed up their blowholes. I’ve heard so many Jets fans ripping Mike Maccagnan for a variety of reasons from the Muhammad Wilkerson contract, to missing on mid-round prospects, and some.
First off no one is perfect and secondly who consistently hits on their mid-round picks? Well, Magic Mike actually.
21 out of Maccagnan’s 22 picks past 3 yrs are still on the roster, and 6-7 are solid-to-good starters. That’s a high hit rate. If the Jets land the right QB at pick No. 3, they'll turn things around a lot faster than people think. Confidence level, @espnSteveLevy ?
— Todd McShay (@McShay13) April 15, 2018
NFL Draft Analyst Todd McShay revealed this juicy nugget on Twitter over the weekend:
“21 out of Maccagnan’s 22 picks past 3 yrs are still on the roster, and 6-7 are solid-to-good starters. That’s a high hit rate. If the Jets land the right QB at pick No. 3, they’ll turn things around a lot faster than people think.”
Let this simmer for a second before reading on. We can complain and nitpick all we want, but the fact of the matter is Maccagnan has actually done a marvelous job putting this team in a position to succeed.
The next obvious domino to fall is the quarterback position. If you have a guy at the games’ most important position, you’re a contender. If you don’t, you’re a pretender. History speaks for itself.
So as good as Maccagnan has been, his legacy is going to be written for better or for worse by what he does with the No. 3 pick. Outside of quarterback, the Jets need to find offensive line depth, a pure edge rusher, and maybe some young corners in the 2018 NFL Draft.
