A team-first player, Josh McCown is going to support whomever Jets head coach Todd Bowles selects as his starting quarterback next week. But make no mistake — McCown wants the rock when the Jets open the regular season in Buffalo against the Bills on Sep. 10.  

"Obviously (I'll be) very disappointed if I'm not the guy," he said following Monday's walk through. "But at the same time, we'll support whatever he decides is best for our team."

McCown has played one series thus far in the preseason. It was a successful one as he led an eight-play march that covered 78 yards against the Titans that culminated with a 4-yard score to WR Charone Peake. That was the Jets' first drive of the summer. McCown hasn't played since and the Green & White haven't entered the end zone in the 116 minutes of game action. Christian Hackenberg, who relieved McCown against Tennessee, started against last Saturday night in Detroit and Bryce Petty relieved the second-year passer in the second half.

"You're a competitor, you want to play every time you get a chance to," McCown said. "But I also know the situation and understand that we have two young guys that these preseason games can be valuable for because they can really get a lot of time and an opportunity to play, so I understood that that was the way Coach wanted to go."

The 38-year old McCown has received most of the first-team practice reps during training camp. Hackenberg has also gotten to work with the first unit while Petty's work with the starters has been relegated to walk through duty. McCown's preseason stat line is 3 of 4 for 75 yards with the 1 TD.

"You want to just put the best you can on tape so that you know you put your best foot forward," he said. "So I feel good about what we've done so far and how we've grown as an offense."

A positive force inside the locker room, McCown remains confident that the offensive unit has the pieces to be successful. Game plans are vanilla in the preseason and the Jets have mixed and matched at a number of positions.

"The things that we're going to do when we go out there is play smart football and protect the football," McCown said. "Those are the things that we have to do, and then who we become from a X and O's standpoint, I think that will materialize as the season goes. I think we have an idea  —  obviously we don't give that away right now  —  but I think, too, a lot of that will emerge as guys emerge and become playmakers."