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Mike Maccagnan had his pre-draft press conference on Monday.
He was very cordial, but it was a complete waste of time.
But Jets fans really shouldn’t care about how awful this press conference was.
They should only care that he gets the third pick in the draft right.
The concept of “winning press conferences” is a dumb one in sports.
It only matters about winning on game day.
The one criticism of the media I’d have from this press conference where basically about the third pick in the draft.
We all know he wasn’t giving to give us anything on this, so why not ask a few questions on that, and then move on to other things, like . . .
“Mike, you guys really didn’t address the need for a game-wrecking OLB pass rusher in free agency, and you are clearly going to pick a QB in the first round, so how are you going to fill this big need?
“Mike, you had three players arrested in three straight months this off-season, some people think you don’t care much about character – what is your response to this with the draft coming up?”
“Mike, how are you able to accurately analyze Christian Hackenberg since he has played one snap in a regular season game?”
“Mike, with a new offensive coordinator and line coach, are you looking for a different kind of offensive lineman now, players who excel at zone blocking?”
You might be wondering why I didn’t ask any of this. Because I don’t like how
these press conferences are handled, and I’m tired of fighting city hall.
I think it lasts like a half-hour. There is a room full of reporters. And what ends up happening is certain people, and I won’t name there here, will end up asking four or five questions, and some people will ask none. It comes down to who can jump in fast enough.
If I were running these press conferences, I would handle it like political press conferences, or Super Bowl and NCAA pressers. You call on people in an orderly fashion, and you spread the questioning around, You don’t let a few people, who don’t give a damn that other people are trying to jump in with questions, dominate the proceedings.
Look, I’m no wallflower, but sometimes I just don’t feel like playing the game where you have to jump in with perfect timing to ask the next question.
Perhaps it’s because Maccagnan’s answer are generally so boring, I’m not motivated to play this game where you have to jump in with perfect timing.
Maccagnan was asked what he’s looking for in a quarterback, and said, “I don’t want to sit here and say this is how we see players because, as I mentioned earlier, everybody is trying to figure out what the other team is trying to do. From a competitive standpoint, there’s lots of things we look at from a quarterback from the physical standpoint, from an intangibles standpoint.”
Yeah, like answering this question in a generic fashion is going to tip his hand. This is paranoia to the nth degree.
But once again, I’m not going to sit here and complain about Maccagnan’s boring press conferences.
He’s not in Florham Park to “win press conferences”.
He’s there to build a roster that can compete for a championship.
So the most important thing for the Jets is that he hits the third pick of the draft out of the park.
That is all the really matters.
April 23, 2018
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