New York Jets general manager Mike Maccagnan cautiously laid out his team’s offseason plans for the first time on Thursday, skimping on the details while he tiptoed around questions about the futures of soon-to-be free agents like Muhammad Wilkerson, Damon Harrison and quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick.
Maccagnan tried to keep his statements broad, vague and impassive. He hinted at what comes next for a franchise that, despite a 10-6 record, fell short of the postseason for a fifth straight year and does not have the salary-cap flexibility it enjoyed when Maccagnan arrived a year ago.
“Everybody in the league is trying to figure out what everybody else is doing,” Maccagnan said. “We have a lot of decisions to make. We’re still in the process of putting together our game plan, and how we view the free-agency market.”
In a lighthearted, 30-minute session, Maccagnan was most candid while discussing his interest in re-signing the 33-year-old Fitzpatrick, who set a franchise record with 31 touchdown passes while earning just $3.25 million this season, a figure that is likely to soar in a new deal.
“We’d like very much to get him back, obviously,” Maccagnan said. “But we’ll see how things work out.”
Maccagnan was not quite as direct initially about the team’s intentions with Wilkerson, the Pro Bowl defensive end, saying he generally would like to keep all of the team’s impending free agents.
When asked directly if the Jets want Wilkerson back, Maccagnan decided he needed to restate his original answer and said the simple answer was yes, “very much.”
“How we manage to do that,” Maccagnan added, “time will tell.”
Would it be possible for the team to retain all of its key members of the defensive line, Wilkerson and Harrison included?
“It’s not impossible,” Maccagnan said, sounding a bit like somebody attempting to cheerfully assess a friend’s unrealistic chances of dating a supermodel. “Like anything, you can do many different things with how you manage the salary cap.”
Maccagnan also revealed that Wilkerson is expected to miss at least six months as he recovers from a fractured right fibula that he suffered in the season’s final game against Buffalo, a loss that prevented the Jets from making the playoffs. It remains unclear what effect the injury will have on Wilkerson’s free agency and his potential return to the Jets.
The Jets’ salary cap will be more restrictive than it was a season ago, when Maccagnan spent nearly $180 million on free-agent contracts in his first five months on the job. He suggested that this offseason will be considerably quieter than the last one, when wholesale changes included hiring coach Todd Bowles, making the sixth pick in the draft (Leonard Williams) and acquiring stars like Darrelle Revis, Brandon Marshall and Antonio Cromartie.
Bowles, in his season-ending news conference, said he would like the team to get faster, and that presumably will be a key objective. Quarterback also remains a volatile position, particularly if the Jets are unable to re-sign Fitzpatrick, although Maccagnan offered encouraging words about both the rookie Bryce Petty and the backup Geno Smith, who is under contract for next season.
The Jets will hold the No. 20 overall pick in this year’s draft, and Maccagnan did not rule out the team’s selecting another quarterback.
“It’s such an important position, I think every NFL team, with maybe a few exceptions, goes into the draft looking at that position as a position of interest,” he said. “We’re no different.”
Maccagnan spoke animatedly, trademark coffee in hand, but said he had not had time to reflect on what most would judge to be a successful one-year turnaround of the team. He deflected questions aimed at assessing his own performance.
He also resisted the temptation to make too big a deal out of a first season that, ultimately, ended bitterly.
“We’re happy with the progress we made,” Maccagnan said. “You’re hoping to be a team that competes for the playoffs and we came up one game short, and that was disappointing.”
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