Maccagnan comments on Decker/Harris moves (w/analysis)

After receiving criticism from the media for not facing them today following the news that the team is cutting ties with two of their veteran leaders in Eric Decker and David Harris, Maccagnan did eventually meet with media this evening.

Some of his comments:

On the timing - "There's never a good time for this".
On Harris - Maccagnan has the utmost respect for Harris, but it was an "organizational decision" and had nothing to do with getting Demario Davis back.
On Decker - He has been told if they can't find a trade partner, the team will move on without him.
On the roster - It's going to be a competitive roster and young guys will get a chance to show what they can do.
On the rebuilding effort - The plan from the start was always to build through the draft.
On the salary cap - The team has more flexibility now, but the moves were not financially motivated.
On how he'll judge this year's team - He will look at wins and losses along with how players develop.
On if the team is tanking to get the number one pick - "That's not our focus".

He offered no comment on whether the Jets have the worst roster in the NFL or are shopping any other veterans.

Quick Analysis

It's good that Maccagnan was prepared to face the media but there isn't much here to settle concerns over the team's short-term future.

The commitment to a full rebuild is positive, but the jury is out on whether Maccagnan has the ability to build through the draft successfully with early returns on his first two draft classes being hit and miss.

By "competitive roster" it sounds like Maccagnan is talking about the players on the roster competing with each other for roles rather than the team being competitive week-to-week. While it's healthy to foster such an environment, I doubt many of the few remaining veterans will be relishing the prospect too much. Still, if they don't buy in, then Maccagnan has shown today that he'll happily move on from them next year without looking back in that case.

While the team continues to talk about building through the draft, the cap flexibility he refers to also looms large. The Jets typically spend up to the cap, so that money will need to be invested in veteran players one way or another.

Eventually, if you draft well enough, then you need that cap flexibility to re-sign everyone and keep the team together, but they can't roll it forwards forever because they'll need to comply with the minimum spending requirement. So, ultimately the team will also have to build partly through free agency and could theoretically be expected to bring in an influx of talent as early as next year.