I had the sense they knew Manning wasn't an option(by choice or not) long before his release. They just put on a show for the media to say they "looked into" Manning.With the contract #18 got, clearly were the Jets were not legit players.
Well, they waited until after Manning said no before giving Sanchez his extension..you can believe what you want but I think they would have jumped through hoops to fit him under the cap if he had said yes.
Like I said...whether it was their choice or not..they knew long before his release that he was a no or a "not likely" It was reported the jets "made a phone call", there was never anything about a courtship, sales pitch or anything of that kind. They knew they were longshots but went through the motions to appease the fan base & media. the "No stone unturned" mantra.
That extension was a glorified restructure, and Rex has never made any bones about his belief that Manning is the best QB in the league. It was a no-brainer that they would give him a shot before making any decisions at QB. It was also a no-brainer what his answer would be, but they did their due diligence.
Whatever the sequence of events leading up to where we are, we're here now. And I can't help but think about the Monday Morning Hangover the jets are experiencing. We go into the draft with less picks. And there's less Cap Space. Which means less Free Agency; less manuevering. But we finished last season in a sliding decline at 8-8, so we've obviously got these holes and/or issues to address. Tebow is onboard now, but will it be enough? "Oh Lord, let us pray."
If we come out of the '12 season with anything above a .500 record it will be a small miracle. God forbid if we make the playoffs. People may start taking Rex Ryan seriously.
What if the Jets start 1-4, give Tebow a shot, and then go on a massive winning streak (and maybe, just maybe, win the division?) what then?!
Spot on answer - why people bang on about how crazy it was for the Jets to "extend" Sanchez escapes me.
Because his contract was guaranteed for another year, which means, if he is not starting by then, that the team's cap situation will likely have been adversely effected into that year with insufficient corresponding benefit. The part about it that ticks me off is that the putative reason for this extension, that is getting more cap room this year, is problematic on two levels. One is that the Jets have the cap constraints they do this off season due to past decisions that are very questionable. The second is I don't trust the FO to make effective use of what cap space they have. Feel free to continue igorning these I think obvious reasons to question Sanchez's contract extension. But they are there nonetheless.
Firstly, nice usage of putative. Secondly, it seems like you're stretching a bit in order to criticize the move. Criticizing it based on the fact that they did it in response to the tight cap space which in turn was caused by the FO giving some players inflated contracts in the past is a pretty roundabout way of criticizing it, but I guess it makes some sense. To criticize it because you don't trust the FO to make use of the cap space that we have doesn't make sense to me. What does that have to do with the Sanchez extension? If you don't trust them to make good decisions with the money that they freed up by extending (restructuring) his contract then you just don't trust the FO to make roster decisions, period. Would you have trusted the FO to make effective use of the even smaller amount of cap space we had if they hadn't extended Sanchez's contract? I don't see the correlation.
What it has to do with the extension is in comparing the costs and benefits of the extension. If they put the additional cap space to good use, or had some specific purpose and need to use it for and that was a good allocation of resources, that would be one thing. If it not put to good use, as in imo the money going to Tebow that is over what they had slotted to pay Stanton, but that's just one example, then the cost of the extension will outweigh its benefits. And of course the cost will be not only the money itself but the additional effect going into 2013 that such money will have to go under the cap. Look, I know I am really down on the FO lately, and some might argue I am being too cynical about them. They may do some things yet this off season to redeem themselves, at least somewhat. I certainly hope so. But do I think I am being too cynical? No, not really.
