Larry David Tried Unsuccessfully To Get New York Jets GM Mike Maccagnan To Draft Lamar Jackson

Comedian Larry David tried to get the Jets to draft Lamar Jackson and Reggie Bush

If Larry David was in the New York Jets war room in 2018, he would have been pounding the table for a quarterback, just not the one that the team selected. 

Prior to the 2018 NFL Draft, the star of Curb Your Enthusiam spoke with then Jets general manager Mike Maccagnan. During the conversation, David claims that he told Maccagnan the Jets should draft Lamar Jackson. 

The Jets used the third pick in that draft on Sam Darnold who is likely to be the team’s franchise quarterback for the next decade. Jackson, though, is the frontrunner to be named the league’s MVP and is the breakout star of 2019, having led the Baltimore Ravens to the top seed in the AFC. 

In an appearance on Tuesday on the ‘Michael Kay Show’ on ESPN New York, David relayed the story of when he tried to play general manager of the Jets. 

“I did call Mike Maccagnan before the 2018 draft and I recommended that he draft Lamar Jackson. I have a witness. I have a witness,” David said on the appearance on Kay’s show. 

“He kind of gave me the most condescending…I told him that. He kind of laughed at me. But who can blame him? No one thought Jackson was going to be anything.” 

The show actually opened with Kay and his co-hosts discussing the NFL and the hiring of Joe Judge by the New York Giants as their head coach. As part of this conversation, the selection of quarterback Daniel Jones last year by the Giants came up. 

David then chimed in about assessing quarterbacks and how general managers, in his estimation, don’t know how to assess college quarterbacks. This was before he shared his story on trying to convince Maccagnan that the Jets needed to select Jackson in the draft. 

“No they don’t. They really don’t - when you think about the fact that [former NFL executive] Bill Polian wanted to make Lamar Jackson a wide receiver, what does anyone know? They don’t know anything.” 

Kay also played a soundbite from former Jets general manager Mike Tannenbaum on the show. It turns out that David has tried to play draft guru before when, in 2006, he called Tannenbaum to tell him to select Reggie Bush in the draft. 

In that draft, the Jets utilized their two first round picks on D’Brickashaw Ferguson and Nick Mangold.