{"id":27827,"date":"2015-02-24T03:51:28","date_gmt":"2015-02-24T07:51:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jetnation.com\/?p=27827"},"modified":"2022-04-01T03:05:15","modified_gmt":"2022-04-01T07:05:15","slug":"maccagnan-hopes-ailing-corners-lead-to-surplus-new-york-jets-todd-bowles-dee-milliner-dexter-mcdougle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/2015\/02\/24\/maccagnan-hopes-ailing-corners-lead-to-surplus-new-york-jets-todd-bowles-dee-milliner-dexter-mcdougle\/","title":{"rendered":"Maccagnan Hopes Ailing Corners Lead to Surplus"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Glenn Naughton<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Realizing he was stating the obvious, Jets GM Mike Maccagnan prefaced his recent comments regarding the Jets secondary and their need for quality cornerbacks in making it clear that his thought process is one that permeates throughout the league. “I will say this with cornerbacks — and I don’t think this is anything any other GM wouldn’t say — you can never have enough good ones, so I would be very happy if we had a surplus at that position.”<\/p>\n

A surplus at a position that was the Achilles heel of the defense last season may\u00a0not seem plausible on the surface, but in all reality\u00a0the idea isn’t all that far-fetched when taking a look at the big picture.<\/p>\n

Maccagnan was speaking this weekend\u00a0at the NFL combine according to al.com<\/a>\u00a0and discussing a time frame for the return of third-year cornerback Dee Milliner who missed all but three games\u00a0last season as one of two\u00a0young Jets cornerbacks who suffered season-ending injuries.\u00a0 While still a relative unknown at the pro level,\u00a0 fellow cornerback Dexter McDougle was also shelved for the duration of the 2014 season.\u00a0 By all accounts, the rookie was\u00a0working his way up the depth-chart prior to tearing his ACL\u00a0while defending a goal line pass in training camp.<\/p>\n

Both injuries would prove to be costly, but Milliner’s was devastating.\u00a0 A strong finish to his up and down rookie campaign that earned him defensive rookie of the month over the season’s final four games was cause for optimism.\u00a0 Entering 2014, he was slowed by a high ankle sprain suffered in training camp and didn’t play\u00a0in the season opener but suited up for the Jets’ week two contest in Green Bay.\u00a0 Milliner would play\u00a0just 41 of 72 snaps, struggling before\u00a0his ankle tightened up and he pulled himself\u00a0out of\u00a0the game.\u00a0\u00a0When all was said and done it was a bad day for Milliner.\u00a0 He was beaten\u00a0 for 137 yards and a touchdown on five catches according to a newsday.com film breakdown.\u00a0 After sitting out weeks three and four due to the ankle injury,\u00a0the corner\u00a0returned in San Diego and was one of the Jets’ few bright spots in\u00a0a 31-0 blowout loss.\u00a0 A lackluster effort on defense didn’t impact Milliner as he held opposing receivers\u00a0to just nine yards while being credited with two passes defended.\u00a0 However, a torn Achilles at home against Denver\u00a0that following Sunday would bring his season to an end.<\/p>\n

Losing Milliner, McDougle and free-agent addition Dimitri Patterson<\/a>, who was released for going AWOL prior to the start of\u00a0 a pre-season game, wound up being too much for the Jets defense to overcome.\u00a0 In what was a virtual revolving door at the cornerback\u00a0position, a pair of former undrafted free-agents, Darrin Walls and rookie Marcus Williams,\u00a0turned out to be the best of the bunch and garnered the\u00a0 majority of the\u00a0playing time.\u00a0Both will likely get the opportunity to compete again this season, but whether or not either one earns a starting role remains to be seen.\u00a0 Other than Walls and Williams, safety Antonio Allen, Seahawks and Raiders cast-offs Josh Thomas and Phillip Adams,\u00a0and former first round pick Kyle Wilson played sporadically throughout the season.<\/p>\n

Should Milliner and McDougle indeed return and play at a high level, the Jets will very likely have the surplus that Maccagnan referenced.\u00a0 Given the uncertainty of the situation,\u00a0the GM\u00a0and new\u00a0head coach Todd Bowles will have import at least two starting caliber cornerbacks through the draft and free agency if there are any hopes of being competitive in 2015.<\/p>\n

One popular target in free agency among Jets fans is Seahawks CB Byron Maxwell.\u00a0\u00a0Landing the big corner\u00a0may be easier said than done\u00a0as his former coordinator in Seattle, Dan Quinn, is now running the show in Atlanta as their new head coach.\u00a0 With that being the case, the Falcons are considered\u00a0an early favorite to\u00a0land Maxwell’s services.\u00a0However, despite a healthy cap situation with roughly $20 million to work with, the Falcons are nowhere near the Jets projected $40-$50 million in spending room.\u00a0 If it comes down to dollars, which if often does, the Jets should\u00a0have the ability to bring Maxwell in if he is indeed their number one choice.<\/p>\n

If you believe what the pundits are saying, come draft day the Jets will either reach for cornerback early on, or hope to snag one after the first round if they stay at their current spot, number six overall.\u00a0 CBSsports.com<\/a>\u00a0provided a trio of mock drafts showing no cornerbacks being selected before the sixteenth overall selection, but that could all change following Michigan State’s Trae Waynes’ strong showing at the combine<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Of course\u00a0nobody outside of the Jets organization knows what their draft boards look like, but it may come down to the age-old debate of drafting the best player available, or the best player available who fills a need.\u00a0 Along with Waynes, Washington’s Marcus Peters, and Miami (Ohio) Quinten Rollins are\u00a0some of the top\u00a0players considered to be worthy of a first round selection.<\/p>\n

Maccagnan and Bowles are\u00a0less than\u00a0three weeks away from the start of building their roster when free agency kicks off on March 10th.\u00a0 The draft will then follow\u00a0from Apr 30th-May 2nd.\u00a0 A key\u00a0free agent\u00a0signing or two, paired with a strong pick at cornerback could play a big part in helping the Jets bounce back from a season in which the only place\u00a0there was a surplus\u00a0was the loss column.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Glenn Naughton Realizing he was stating the obvious, Jets GM Mike Maccagnan prefaced his recent comments regarding the Jets secondary and their need for quality cornerbacks in making it clear that his thought process is one that permeates throughout the league. “I will say this with cornerbacks — and I don’t think this is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":26376,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,6,1337],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-27827","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl-draft","8":"category-featured-editorials","9":"category-home-slider"},"acf":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Dee-Milliner-2.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/peLffi-7eP","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27827","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/38"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27827"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27827\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58683,"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27827\/revisions\/58683"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}