Josh McCown: ‘When you come off playing your best ball, you want to keep that going’

By the start of the 2018 NFL season, Josh McCown will be 39 years old.

He doesn’t see that as a deterrent for continuing to play quarterback in the league.

‘I feel like I’m going to get ready to play the best ball that I’ve ever played’

If anything, McCown is more driven to keep his lengthy career, with its many stops, going. His strong performance with the New York Jets last season, which saw him throw for nearly 3,000 yards and 18 touchdowns (with nine interceptions), is fueling his passion at as high a level as ever.

“When you come off playing your best ball, you want to keep that going and I feel like I can give that to a team,” McCown told Bruce Murray and Brady Quinn on the SiriusXM Blitz. “My body feels great. I feel like I’m going to get ready to play the best ball that I’ve ever played — better than last year — and take another step forward.”

‘I broke my hand in Denver and my youngest got on the phone and she’s like, ‘We’re not finishing like this, we’re not going out like this”

McCown is head for free agency, so he might not be taking that step with the Jets. And as he plots his next move, he takes his family into account. Unlike most players in the league, McCown is dealing with a range of children that goes from college to elementary school.

“For me, my conversation is much different,” he said. “My oldest is a freshman in college. She’s working through her second semester right now. And then my boys are in seventh and eighth grade and have another daughter that’s in fourth grade. So (his next situation) more centers around family and how we’re doing as a group and where we want to go moving forward and our being stable and all that. We feel really good about that. I broke my hand in Denver and my youngest got on the phone and she’s like, ‘We’re not finishing like this, we’re not going out like this.’ She kind of set the tone early that we’re going to keep going.

‘We left the thing with the Jets on a high note, both ends’

McCown said he would be more than happy to remain with the Jets.

“We left the thing with the Jets on a high note, both ends,” he said. “I was just pleased with everything — the organization, from the top down: ownership to management and Coach (Todd) Bowles. So I think everybody there, it left on a good note and, hopefully, we can continue working together. We’ll see how the rest of that plays out in the coming weeks.

‘I would love a shot to go compete and continue to play’

“Obviously, everybody goes through free agency and they look at their roster and they make decisions, so we’ll see how that goes. So hopefully, it’s there, but if not I’m just excited about what the next opportunity may hold and I would love a shot to go compete and continue to play.”