Josh McCown signed with the Jets, and for that he deserves some kind of award. He’s been slaving away in lesser circumstances for the last three years, bouncing around from the Bucs to the Browns and now to the Jets – all teams with no prayer of finishing .500.
McCown is supposedly a swell guy. In his late 30s, he’s like an additional assistant coach – the perfect quarterback to mentor along a youngster. I saw a blurb suggesting he’ll wind up in a coaching role.
As a player, McCown has some Ryan Fitzpatrick in him in that he’ll go down slinging, trying to make downfield passes rather than just settling for checkdowns and happily jogging off when the punt team comes on.
But McCown has limitations. He’s not good enough to lift a lesser team to respectability.
Over the last three years, 33 quarterbacks have started at least 20 games. Of that group, McCown has the worst won-loss record. By far.
QUARTERBACKS WITH 20 STARTS SINCE 2014 | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Player | W | L | T | Pct |
Tom Brady | 35 | 9 | 0 | .795 |
Peyton Manning | 19 | 6 | 0 | .760 |
Carson Palmer | 25 | 11 | 1 | .689 |
Ben Roethlisberger | 28 | 13 | 0 | .683 |
Russell Wilson | 32 | 15 | 1 | .677 |
Aaron Rodgers | 32 | 16 | 0 | .667 |
Alex Smith | 30 | 16 | 0 | .652 |
Brock Osweiler | 13 | 8 | 0 | .619 |
Teddy Bridgewater | 17 | 11 | 0 | .607 |
Andy Dalton | 26 | 17 | 2 | .600 |
Cam Newton | 26 | 18 | 1 | .589 |
Matthew Stafford | 27 | 21 | 0 | .563 |
Andrew Luck | 21 | 17 | 0 | .553 |
Nick Foles | 11 | 9 | 0 | .550 |
Matt Ryan | 25 | 23 | 0 | .521 |
Joe Flacco | 21 | 21 | 0 | .500 |
Kirk Cousins | 18 | 18 | 1 | .500 |
Ryan Tannehill | 22 | 23 | 0 | .489 |
Ryan Fitzpatrick | 19 | 20 | 0 | .487 |
Sam Bradford | 14 | 15 | 0 | .483 |
Tyrod Taylor | 14 | 15 | 0 | .483 |
Eli Manning | 23 | 25 | 0 | .479 |
Jameis Winston | 15 | 17 | 0 | .469 |
Derek Carr | 22 | 25 | 0 | .468 |
Brian Hoyer | 13 | 15 | 0 | .464 |
Drew Brees | 21 | 26 | 0 | .447 |
Marcus Mariota | 11 | 16 | 0 | .407 |
Philip Rivers | 18 | 30 | 0 | .375 |
Jay Cutler | 12 | 23 | 0 | .343 |
Colin Kaepernick | 11 | 24 | 0 | .314 |
Blake Bortles | 11 | 34 | 0 | .244 |
Josh McCown | 2 | 20 | 0 | .091 |
—Ian Allan