8 Position battles to watch out for heading into NFL training camps

#7 Jets' quarterback – Josh McCown, Teddy Bridgewater and Sam Darnold

This is kind of a unique situation with the Jets. They have a 39-year-old journeyman quarterback in Josh McCown coming off his best full season as a pro. They brought in a 25-year-old signal-caller in Teddy Bridgewater, who had some pretty good moments with the Vikings. Then they traded up in the draft for one of those college kids at the top.

Surprisingly that third overall pick ended up being Sam Darnold after a lot of people (including me) linked Baker Mayfield to them. Not only are all three of those guys at completely different stages of their careers, but they also offer three skill-sets you can’t really compare to each other. Let’s work ourselves from oldest to youngest.

McCown is entering his 16th NFL season with his eighth team. Last year he matched his career-high in starts with 13 a piece and totaled career highs in passing yards (2926) and touchdowns (18). While he doesn’t impress with any specific attribute, he plays with a lot of poise and leadership, which was key for a young Jets roster, that had players calling him Uncle Josh.

Bridgewater was a late first-round pick by Minnesota back in 2014. A few games into his rookie campaign, the coaches put him in the starting lineup and he played all 16 games the following season while leading his team to a home playoff game (which they lost in traumatic fashion on a missed cheap-shot field goal by Blair Walsh).

During training camp in 2016, he suffered a horrible knee injury that kept him off the field until he got two pass attempts late in a game this previous season, with one of them ending in an interception. When healthy, Bridgewater is a solid game-manager with decent mobility, who wins within the structure of an offense. Depending on his health, he could be the wild card in this competition.

And then there’s the young, promising rookie. I don’t think the Jets expected Darnold to be there at number three, but they sure didn’t mind selecting the then-20-year-old as their QB of the future. I had the young man as my top quarterback and number five overall prospect available. He’s a smart, gritty and confident competitor.

While he got himself into trouble with turnovers and wasn’t quite as ready mentally for the NFL game as a Josh Rosen for example, he possesses excellent leadership qualities, keeps his eyes downfield while extending plays and gives teammates the believe, that they are always in the game with him at the helm.

As you see, all three guys offer very different total packages and it’ll be interesting to see which direction this organization will go. I could easily see all three of them getting playing time at some points of the season, but I think Darnold will be their guy after this year.