Yes I do, and thats what I prefer. People want to give them new contracts here rather than extenstion. Did you miss it when I said "They should be resigned near the end of 09..."? If you wanna resign them before the draft, then they wont look for an extension, rather a new contract. Do you know the difference between a NEW contract and an extension?
Then, one year after we give that 7 million to some 'big name' player, how exactly do we sign our own? The cap rises, but so do player's cap numbers generally speaking. Dollars are always limited under the cap, if you want to sign your own guys, theres only so much you can devote to bringing in new ones. Weve given out quite a bit to new players in the last two seasons (Jenkins, Faneca, Favre for his one year, Gholston for however many years it takes, Woody, Scott, Sheppard). At some point its going to be Washington's and Mangold's turn to cash in, and when it is, if there isnt any money available in New York, they could end up elsewhere. At some point you have to turn your focus to your own players, and generally speaking, the closer that player is to free agency, the greater their demands will be. Washington is a good bet to get a new deal in training camp sometime. He's an explosive guy whos been useful in part time duty and made the pro bowl as a kick returner, nothing about that suggests the Jets will have to break the bank to sign him. If, on the other hand, he sees himself as a 20 carry a game back like a Brian Westbrook (which I see him being eventually), he may not want to be locked up long-term at what he feels is below his real value. If he gets a lot more offensive touches this season and continues to impress, hell start to be looked at as a Michael Turner type guy, a feature back looking for a team willing to feature and pay him. If you sign him before the season, and you can get him locked up for a couple more years at a salary befitting a solid part-time player and special teams contributer, that would be a fantastic move, because this guys price tag is going to skyrocket once the Jets actually start giving him the ball on a regular basis. If your not convinced, see ie Cotchery and Rhodes, two players the Jets locked up long before their contracts expired with deals well below what theyd be able to find on the open market today. By contrast, see Bart Scott and the Ravens. They wait until he's about to leave before they get serious about offering him a contract, and end up falling short of the Jets offer by like 2 mil. If they had offered him that contract even six months earlier, he would never have ended up a Jet. As for Mangold, theres no rush there. Solid, possibly spectacular lineman with two years left on his rookie deal, I dont see him holding out or anything like that, but you better make sure youve got the cash on hand to resign him in a year or two, or else find yourself a new center.
You said "don't want them to be resigned before the end of the season". The players get get paid each game week, once the season is over they are finished getting paid for that year. Once the season is over Leon Washington has been paid in full and has no motive to resign with the Jets before the free agency period starts. Why would Leon resign anyway, when he has no financial motive to do so? This is why there was no chance of Vilma resigning with NO during the period between the end of the season and the start of free agency, all his paychecks were in after the last game. Extending contracts makes financial sense for the teams otherwise they wouldn't do it so often. Lets use some hypothetical numbers. Lets say a player has two years left, you wait until he is a FA and sign him to a 5 year contract paying $5M a year for a total of $25M. Or you extend his contract, give him 7 years at $4M a year for a total of $28M. This second scenario is better for the player, which is why players agree to these sorts of deals. In many cases it is also better for the team, which is why teams agree to these deals as well. For the last five years the team will be paying the player $1M less per year by extending the contract. Teams are not stupid there is a reason they extend contracts, that is why Rhodes got extended, that is why Ratliff got extended. If they can't extend Leon its because they are being cheap with him, just pay the man.
Definitely need to resign Leon and Mangold ASAP. All of the strong franchises in the league take care and reward their great players who produce. Not only that but they are both good guys who stay out of trouble off the field. A lot of posters on here also brought up a good point that they will be cheaper this year rather than waiting until after '09 season. Git 'er done.
I said: I don't want them to be resigned before the end of the season, unless the new contract starts after the 2009 and 2010 season. There are about two months in between wk 17 and FA. A lot of players get resigned in that period. But if we sign them during the season, it should be a simple contract extension STARTING from 2010 for Leon and 2011 for Mangold. The idea of signing the players for 7 yrs 28 mil or 5 yrs 25 mil does not make much of sense. Jets would jump to it. But the player won't when he can make identical money in 6 yrs (last rookie deal yr plus 5). If Leon is to agree to a 7 yr 28 mil, do it without thinking twice. by the end of the contract, he'll be used up. He may not even see the last yr or two of his contract.
