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Sielski: Eagles, Jets take opposite approaches to most important position

Last year, the would-be NFL general manager met with the wise and accomplished former player personnel executive, and the two of them discussed the question that came to define the Eagles' 2016 offseason: What is the best way to find a great player at the most important position in football?

Last year, the would-be NFL general manager met with the wise and accomplished former player personnel executive, and the two of them discussed the question that came to define the Eagles' 2016 offseason: What is the best way to find a great player at the most important position in football?

The men spent a few days together, probing each other's mind to flesh out their respective philosophies about the search for a franchise quarterback. Finally, the elder man persuaded his conversation partner that the best course of action was to do the exact opposite of what the Eagles did during the 2016 offseason.

Of course, Mike Maccagnan and Ron Wolf weren't thinking or talking about the Eagles at the time. They were talking about the New York Jets, who, if possible, have had a harder time finding franchise quarterbacks over their history than the Eagles have had over theirs. If the Eagles, without an NFL championship since 1960, at least had that blessed decade with Donovan McNabb, the Jets have been hunting for the next Joe Namath since he guaranteed and helped to deliver a Super Bowl victory in January 1969. And when the two teams finish off their preseason schedules by playing each other Thursday night, they'll present disparate attempts to solve the same problem.

The Eagles' approach is well-trodden territory around here. Their leadership core - with owner Jeffrey Lurie, vice president of football operations Howie Roseman, and new coach Doug Pederson presumably leading the charge - decided that recapturing the success of the McNabb-Andy Reid era required them to draft Carson Wentz. To get him, the Eagles over two trades had to give up two starting players, in linebacker Kiko Alonso and cornerback Byron Maxwell, and three draft picks. That net cost, Roseman has since acknowledged publicly, already is forcing the Eagles to take chances on talented players who either had slipped in the draft because of questionable behavior (e.g. Jalen Mills, Wendell Smallwood) or had worn out their welcomes with other teams (e.g. Dorial Green-Beckham).

There are two ways to look at what the Eagles did. The first is to praise them for trusting their eyes, their instincts, and their research in pinpointing Wentz as the must-have quarterback in this year's draft - and for daring to sacrifice so much to acquire him. They've gone all-in on Wentz, and if he turns out to be as good as they think he will be, no price would have been too high. And even if the odds that he becomes a Brady/Manning/Rodgers-style superstar are low, well, you can't win the half-million dollars if you don't take the State Farm-sponsored promotional halfcourt shot, right? That's confidence.

Or - and this is the second way to look at what the Eagles did - it's conceit. For if Wentz flames out or suffers an injury that damages his career trajectory, the Eagles stand to lose more without him even than they might have ever gained with him - because of what they gave up to get him. They had to have been desperate to make a splashy draft pick or arrogant enough to believe that only they, among the NFL's 32 teams, had the ability to detect nascent greatness in a quarterback who was a starter at North Dakota State for less than two full seasons. Other than that, Icarus, was everything satisfactory with your flying experience?

Not long ago, the Jets learned a similar lesson themselves. In 2009, when Mike Tannenbaum was their GM and Rex Ryan their head coach, they watched 24 receivers volunteer to catch passes during a predraft workout for a prospective first-round pick. Ryan and Tannenbaum then theorized that, the more friends Mark Sanchez had, the better quarterback and leader he must be. They traded two picks and three players to move up to the No. 5 slot to take him. You know the rest.

Maccagnan is the Jets' general manager now, and during his interview process he had hours of time to pick Wolf's brain; owner Woody Johnson had hired Wolf as a consultant. Over nearly 40 years as an NFL executive, most notably with the Raiders and the Packers, Wolf so valued the quarterback position that he believed, as Maccagnan once said in a radio interview, "You draft one every year." You can develop them. You can trade them. Or you can uncover a gem for yourself. It's no coincidence, then, that the Jets could have four quarterbacks on their roster this season: Ryan Fitzpatrick, Geno Smith, Bryce Petty, and Christian Hackenberg.

What's interesting about the Jets' situation vis-a-vis the Eagles', however, is not the sheer number of quarterbacks each of them has. It's the risk/reward proportion that each front office was willing to accept at the position. The Jets aren't all-in on anyone. Fitzpatrick, 33, is on a reasonable one-year, $12 million contract. If he pulls off another Ponce de Leon act this season - he threw a career-high 31 touchdown passes last season - keeping him won't be too great a salary-cap burden for the Jets to bear. Smith, a 2013 second-round pick, is in the final year of his rookie deal; his days in New York are probably numbered. Petty was a fourth-round pick last year. Hackenberg was a second-round pick this year.

Now, consider the Eagles again: Because of projected salary-cap commitments and Wentz's presence, this is likely to be Sam Bradford's final season in Philadelphia. Chase Daniel is the designated backup. McLeod Bethel-Thompson is a warm body. Put simply, it's Wentz or nothing, or close to nothing.

May the best team win. Assuming either of them finally does.

msielski@phillynews.com

@MikeSielski