The NFL Combine is off and running in Indianapolis, and that means all 32 teams' general managers and head coaches take their turns at Podium A in the East Club in Lucas Oil Stadium to talk with local and national reporters over the next two days before everyone gets down to the business of testing, timing and talking to this year's invited college players.
Jets head coach Todd Bowles' media availability window came this afternoon at 2:45 p.m. ET, with GM Mike Maccagnan following right after. Here is our selection of nine quotes from Mike and Todd at today's news conferences:
Todd Bowles
On where the Jets need help in this year's draft and unrestricted free agency periods...
"I think we need help everywhere. We had a lot of positions that played well, but we need to upgrade at the same time. We know we're an older team and we want to get younger at almost every position, and we'll try and do that."
On why the Jets released CB Antonio Cromartie earlier this week...
"After we looked at the tape, he didn't have the greatest year but he played with a lot of injuries to his credit. Antonio Cromartie's one of the finest players I've ever coach and it was a hard decision to make. We need to upgrade a little bit at that position. That's why the decision was made. There's a chance he could come back so we'll see how it goes down the line. But there's a chance."
On how he sees the starting CB position opposite Darrelle Revis now...
"It's open right now. Obviously you've got Buster [Skrine], you've got Dee [Milliner], you've got Marcus [Williams], you've got a couple of guys there that can play. It's an open competition and we'll see who wins out."
On what he thinks new ST coordinator Brant Boyer will bring to the table...
"Brant was a special teams player for about 10 years with Jacksonville and Cleveland. I coached him in Cleveland for a couple of years. He went on to Indianapolis and became assistant special teams coach for four years. Very bright, very energetic, understands the game, probably has a lot of fire in him for what I'm looking for and getting things done and how I think the connection needs to be made between him and the players."
On how different it is for him the last two years at the Combine than it had been the previous two years when he was Arizona's DC...
"I'm here longer. It doesn't change much. You just add a couple of days on. You've got to get familiar with offensive linemen, punters, kickers. You're just here longer and you've got to do more work."
Mike Maccagnan
On the process of trying to sign DE Muhammad Wilkerson before he gets to free agency...
"Mo is a very good player. Obviously we'd like to have him with the organization going forward. But like I said, all options are on the table. I don't really want to speculate on all that stuff, but at the end of the day, we like Mo very much. We do realize the franchise tag is an option that every team with their players to potentially hold onto them and try to keep them long-term."
On his and the team's game plan for trying to keep not only Wilkerson but also NT Damon Harrison on the D-line...
"I know a lot of people have speculated, 'Can we keep all of them?' It's not outside the realm of possibility but it would be a very big investment in that area. Everybody here from the other teams are all trying to guess what everybody else's game plan is. ... We like both Mo and Damon, and we're going to figure out a way to ideally keep both of them."
On negotiations to also sign potential UFA Ryan Fitzpatrick...
"I don't really want to speculate where we are in terms of our negotiations. At the end of the day, we like Ryan, I think we have a good situation for Ryan. We just have to come to an agreement on cost, in a perfect world that both sides think is fair. That's still to be determined here in the near future as we go forward toward free agency."
On how the Jets stand regarding this year's salary cap...
"Right now we're potentially in the middle range in terms of cap space. We may make some moves to create a little more cap space. But I think going into this year's free agency, what we're going to try to do is, you're trying to figure out which way you can best maximize the impact of the money you have. I think teams tend to do is they forget that it's a long time till Sept 1 and the season starts, so we have a lot of time to solve those problems going forward."
