NFL

Rich Eisen: Impossible to be excited about Jets’ present, but the future …

Rich Eisen is in the ideal place to view this Jets season: thousands of miles away.

The Los Angeles-based NFL Network host and longtime Jets fan reeled off the training-camp storylines he was most looking forward to, with teams reporting this week. He mentioned many things, including the Patriots repeating, the Falcons’ recovery, the suspect rookie quarterback class, the Raiders running out of time in Oakland with a favorite son (Marshawn Lynch) returning, the Cowboys’ ability to take another step forward.

“Oh, gosh,” the Staten Island native said when asked specifically about the Jets “If they’re going to tank they should go the whole way. I don’t think Josh McCown should see the field, God bless him. He’s a veteran who deserves a chance, but if you are going to tank you might as well just pull the plug, see what Christian Hackenberg can do.

“Then hope you lose enough games where you can be top two, top three. If you do, then you’re going to have yourself a really good pick.”

That seems to be the goal of this Jets team which did everything short of changing J-E-T-S to T-A-N-K on their helmets this offseason to send the message they are not playing for the 2017 season. Darrelle Revis gone, Brandon Marshall gone, David Harris gone, Eric Decker gone, Nick Mangold gone.

The only potential for optimism in 2017 is if Hackenberg can be a revelation in his second season. In his rookie year, the Jets would not let Hackenberg sniff the field, and talk of him hitting reporters with passes in OTAs has not exactly inspired confidence.

But, maybe he could be a reason to get excited by the season?

“I have none. Zero,” Eisen, who also hosts a daily talk show on DirectTV, said of his expectations for the former Penn State star.

“As long as he can tie his shoelaces together I think that’s better than what some people are saying about him. The Giants are a different story. With the addition of Brandon Marshall, I think they’ve got themselves a big-time Super Bowl opportunity. They’ve got the quarterback, the defense, the star offensive player [Odell Beckham Jr.]. They are in good shape, big time and can be a force in the NFC.”

The Giants drafted their potential successor to Eli Manning in the third round when they took Davis Webb. The Jets are expected to look for a definitive answer at quarterback in the upcoming draft unless Hackenberg far exceeds the football world’s predictions.

Eisen moved out to Los Angeles when he became the first on-air talent hired by NFL Network. He has a close eye on the two quarterbacks expected to go at the top of the draft next year — USC’s Sam Darnold and UCLA’s Josh Rosen.

Eisen is high on Darnold, who “took the city by storm” last season, but questions Rosen’s cockiness as he prepares for his third season. The concern with Darnold is that there have been reports that he does not want to play for the Jets and would try and find a way to avoid being drafted by them.

“I find it hard to believe all this talk that Sam Darnold would not come out because he doesn’t want to play for the Jets,” Eisen said. “You have to be kidding me. Which kid would never want to play in New York City, to raise their hand and say, ‘I don’t want to be in the No. 1 media market in the world and I am viewed as a savior and have an opportunity to put that entire city on my shoulders and have a ticker-tape parade [up] the Canyon of Heroes.’

“I don’t believe that. Someone is going to get that opportunity in green if the Jets are smart enough to lose enough games. “