Yeah - from what I've seen, the rookies should cost between $2.5M and $4M to sign. I haven't actually seen the new scale floated yet, so there's some guesswork there. I used a $2.5M total figure for all rookies in my estimates however.
Scott might restructure, but I don't think Pace is likely to agree without additional guaranteed money down the road, which we may not want to do. I don't think this is realistic. Teams just don't operate this way. Every team leaves money unspent for contingencies. I think they'd rather save $2M and not sign someone like Ellis rather than risk this. I agree with most of the rest of your moves however. At the end of the day though, even with a restructure of Scott's deal, that doesn't leave much money to deal with a replacement for Cromartie, signing someone like Landry, re-signing Folk, Eric Smith, Drew Coleman, and just whatever other roster filler we want.
You rarely see teams sign random, replacement free agents off the street in the middle of a season. ...and actually the Jets do operate that way. Martin Tevaseau, Patrick Turner, and Marcus Dixon were all promoted from the PS when guys went down. Are you looking at the Jets roster while your making this stuff up? First you mention that we don't have a replacement for Richardson on the roster, when we obviously drafted his replacement last year. Now you're saying we need to replace Antonio Cromartie? Kyle Wilson will be our #2 corner is Cromartie ends up elsewhere. A veteran corner will be signed to play nickel or dime and players like that aren't expensive. Finally, kickers and backup defensive backs do not cost much.
The Jets activate guys off the practice squad to be sure, but they also leave money in reserve for other acquisitions. There's a reason that the guy who runs Jetscap.com thinks a $2M figure must be kept in reserve for this. I didn't say we don't have a replacement. I just listed all the free agents we had departing. Those roster spots need to be filled. We can fill them with undrafted rookies, or guys making the minimum, but that's still something that needs to be addressed. A veteran backup corner may not be expensive, but he isn't free either. That's maybe $2.5M we need to budget if we want to get someone other than roster filler there. I didn't say they did. My point is they cost something - they aren't free. When you're playing with as small a cap figure as the Jets have, even "cheap" pieces can eat a significant percentage of what room you have left. Eric Smith made over $1M last year. When you only have about $15M total to play with, that matters.
This isn't being discussed as much as it should be. Cutting Tomlinson saves about 3.1 million in cap space, according to nyjetscap.com. The combined salaries of Shonn Greene, Joe McKnight, John Conner and whatever we'll pay Bilal Powell don't come close to that. I mean... I know he's got a tattoo and everything, but this is business and LT's a third down back.
I think LT would take a pay cut just to stay here as a 3rd down back, well hopefully. And is it pretty much an understanding that dead money will count towards the cap?
I mean, I think it's great that LT would be concede the starting position to Greene, and would likely take a pay cut, but do we really need him? I feel like either McKnight or even Connor could take that spot and probably do just as good if not better.
If Clayton's report is correct, then yeah. The $1.2M over the salary cap figure comes from dead money and giving David Harris a franchise tender value.
Yeah, I mean, I don't think it's that crazy. In college he was regarded as being pretty reliable when it came to getting first downs in short yardage situations. "And when you need him to make a carry in short yardage, he almost always picks up first downs." (would post the link if I could). And from everything I've read, he's got pretty good hands. Good enough that his college considered turning him into a tight-end. I won't really know until he gets some more playing time though. I mean, I wouldn't say make him the exclusive 3rd down back or anything, but the combination of McKnight and Connor as well as Greene starting is a good argument for letting LT go. Not to mention the extra cap space.
Conner is not going to carry the football when there are 4 RBs currently on the roster. LT may be gone, I'd never rule it out. But Powell will get snaps over Conner. Conner is going to take T-Rich's spot. His job is to blow people up and give the trio more room. I too expect McKnight to be a contributor this season. I truly think this kid has turned the corner mentally and understands what it means to be a professional.
Agreed. A large part of the reason I want to get rid of LT is because I'm pretty optimistic of what McKnight could offer. I mostly just don't see what LT could offer at this point in his career that McKnight couldn't.
I'd like to keep the continuity that we have. I'm hoping our front office can make everyone happy and we continue to build
I do like Joe McKnight and think he will be a good player for us, but are you basing this on the Bills game? Other than that game, I don't know what your basing this statement on rather than just your opinion. LT was one of the top backs in the league for the first handful of weeks and was still pretty serviceable throughout the rest of the year (for the most part). If Schotty handles it correctly this year, and that's a huge IF, I can see LT having that spring all the way through the Superbowl :grin:
Pass blocking is a very underrated skill for a rb. It's also the reason we didn't see greene as much as many wanted to last season. With Tomlinson in the game the entire playbook is open. With the younger guys you are going to limited depending who is on the field.
