The Jets aren't tanking, so stop asking. 

Jets GM Mike Maccagnan refuses to even say the word.

"I'm not going to put any limitations on what we can or can't do," Maccagnan recently told the team's beat writers, per Sports Illustrated.

Matt Forte doesn't want to hear it, either.

"It's a good thing we don't operate off of what the fans think and what everybody on the outside thinks," Forte said, according to The Record. "What we think as a team, that's what's going to happen. And none of us on the team think that we're going to tank. So all I have to say about that is: Bring it."

Forte is the only big-name Jets veteran who survived this offseason's Red Wedding roster purge, and is just one of three players on the current roster over the age of 30. The other two? Josh McCown, the 38-year-old QB who the Jets gave $6 million to this offseason, and long-snapper Tanner Purdum. Yep, a long-snapper and McCown, the ultimate journeyman who Jets coach Todd Bowles likened to a kindergarten teacher in the Jets QB room.

That's right, Bowles thinks Christian Hackenberg and Bryce Petty are kindergartners.

(The Jets are back at training camp! Don't MISS anything as they prepare to try and return to the playoffs -- take five seconds to Sign up for our Free Jets newsletter now!)

But, no, the Jets aren't tanking. Roger Goodell said so, too, in a meeting with Jets season-ticket holders, so it must be true.

"I don't think any team tanks, I really don't," the commish said.

And yet … after finishing 5-11 last season and missing the playoffs for the sixth straight year, the Jets decided to take a blowtorch to their roster and get rid of every single good veteran player they had, Forte aside.

They declined the $10 million option on left tackle Ryan Clady's contract (he retired last week) and released both right tackle Breno Giacomini and former Pro Bowl center Nick Mangold. They also cut kicker Nick Folk and said goodbye to former All-Pro cornerback Darrelle Revis and five-time Pro Bowl wide receiver Brandon Marshall, who promptly signed with the Giants. But the two roster moves that really drew sideways glances from around the NFL were cutting veteran linebacker David Harris -- without warning, in June, three months after the start of free agency -- and then sending Eric Decker packing as well.

The Patriots, of course, snatched up Harris, while Decker landed with the Titans.

All of that roster cutting leaves the Jets with $17,619,936 in dead money this season, second only to the Ravens, but it also sets them up to spend big in free agency next offseason. According to Over the Cap, the Jets have $61,677,862 in cap space after 2017, second only to the Lions'  $70,132,185.

It also leaves them with the worst roster in the NFL -- and maybe the NFL's worst roster in a decade, according to one GM.

Our own Will Brinson crunched the numbers, and the argument is pretty persuasive that the Jets are going to be historically bad in 2017. That's looking even more like a certainty after placing their top wideout, Quincy Enunwa, on injured reserve Monday.

These are the WR options available to McCown this season, who's only averaged 173 passing yards a game in his 14 NFL seasons and a whopping 6.7 yards per attempt.

Yeah, rebuild? This isn't that. This is one of those scrape jobs in high-end real estate markets like Manhattan and San Francisco where they just tear out the entire existing structure.

If you don't think the Jets aren't fully in the tank for the right to pick first in the 2018 NFL Draft, then you probably think that Sammy Sosa doesn't look any different since he retired from baseball.

All of that said, will the Jets actually be bad enough to lock up the No. 1 pick? And if so, will they actually get the right franchise QB? Of course, that's contingent on the premise that they won't start seeing drastic signs of improvement from Christian Hackenberg, their second-round pick a year ago.  

According to the MMQB, Hackenberg was kicked off the field in Monday's practice because he couldn't break the huddle right.

The Jets, by all appearances, are all-in for the right to take Sam Darnold, Josh Rosen or Josh Allen at No. 1. But just because the front office has gutted the roster to be terrible doesn't mean they'll actually end up with the worst record in the NFL this season.

No, this isn't a nod to "Major League," it's just the realities of the NFL, which is averse to NBA-style tanking. Here's why. 

Tankin' ain't easy 

For one, don't think for a second that Bowles or any of the current Jets players on the roster plan on just quitting. A man coaching for his job is willing to take desperate measures, and while Bowles may well be Dead Man Walking and the odds-on favorite to be the first coach fired this season, this is the NFL. He's auditioning for his next job, at the very least.

And, as we all know from one of Bowles' predecessors as Jets coach ...

The schedule also doesn't set up that great for a full tank job, and that's because it's soft. According to Football Outsiders, the Jets have the NFL's 25theasiest schedule. That's based on projected average Defense-adjusted Value over Average (DVOA) of next season's opponents.

Meanwhile, the 49ers (third-toughest) and Browns (11th-toughest), two teams that could very well likely be in the running again for a top-three pick, play tougher schedules, according to Football Outsiders.

Our SportsLine win projections, prior to the Enunwa injury, has the Browns winning an NFL-low 4.6 games while the 49ers are projected to win 6.2. Also in the running for that No. 1 pick, according to SportsLine?  The Bears (4.9 wins), Rams (5.5), Lions (6.9) and Chargers (6.9).

The Jets play host to the Jaguars and Chargers and play at the Browns, so there is that.

Neil Greenberg of the Washington Post points out the flaws in just assuming the Jets will bumble and butt-fumble to the No. 1 pick:

The big problem, besides the Jets playing a relatively easy schedule, is that they already were really bad last season and still couldn't manage a top-three pick. … The team scored 25.9 points fewer than expected during the regular season based on the down, distance and field position during passing situations. Plus, the swap of Ryan Fitzpatrick for Josh McCown is almost a wash — Fitzpatrick's Total Quarterback Rating was 33.2 in 2016, just slightly behind McCown's (35.1 QBR). Perhaps the team transitions to Bryce Petty or Christian Hackenberg, but playing worse than Fitzpatrick did last season is a tall order.

The defense, rated 28th by the game charters at Pro Football Focus in 2016, might be in a similar pickle. The loss of Revis is addition by subtraction. The aging corner had the 13th highest passer rating against in coverage last season (104.2), essentially making the average quarterback as good as Aaron Rodgers of the Green Bay Packers. And Harris ranked 35th of 57 linebackers overall by PFF, hardly an important cog in a defense that ranked second to last in DVOA against the pass in 2016.

Perhaps the Jets' roster moves reduce their win total by a game or two, but that still might not be enough become a "Sham For Sam" or one of the top three spots.

No. 1 isn't always No. 1

There's also this: Even if the Jets lock up the No. 1 pick for the right to select the draft's best passer, there are no guarantees that that QB will turn out to be the best pro, or even a franchise QB . That's especially true, given the Jets' history. This is a franchise that's still searching for the heir to Broadway Joe, 40 years after he retired.

While the 2017 draft's crop of QBs is supposed to be among the best of the last 10 years, the draft, last time we checked, remains as much art as science. Want proof?

Just among the NFL's QBs last season, according to PFF's rankings, only four of the top 10 were the first QB off the board in the year they were drafted. Included on that list are Tom Brady (Lucky No. 199 overall, the sixth QB taken), Aaron Rodgers (No. 24 overall, second off the board), Drew Brees (No. 32 overall, taken after No. 1 pick Michael Vick), Russell Wilson (No. 75 overall, sixth off the board), Derek Carr (No. 36 overall, fourth off the board) and Ben Roethlisberger (No. 11 overall, third off the board).

Yes, there's Andrew Luck, Matt Ryan, Cam Newton and Matthew Stafford -- all the first QBs taken in their drafts. But you get the point. Or if you don't, how about this: Would you rather have 2017 No. 1 overall pick Jared Goff right now or Carson Wentz, Paxton Lynch or fourth-rounder Dak Prescott?

Or what about the 2014 draft: Would you rather have Blake Bortles (No. 3 overall), Johnny Manziel (No. 22), Teddy Bridgewater (No. 32) or Derek Carr (No. 36)?

Or what about Alex Smith (No. 1 overall) or Aaron Rodgers (No. 24) in 2006?

Want us to go on?

There are no sure things in the NFL, especially at the top of the draft, and especially not with the Jets, which is why assuming they're destined for the No. 1 pick, or the next great QB, is foolhardy. Last time we checked, Darnold, Rosen or Allen aren't seen as the second coming of Andrew Luck or Peyton Manning, although Allen has been called the next John Elway. We'll wait and see. There's a whole season of college football to be played in 2017.

And, to be sure, are no sure things with the Jets, not even tanking. What do you expect from a team that can't even break the huddle right?