The article on NFL.com said Jets and Cro were trying to restructure but couldn't agree. Now Cro is a UFA and can test his market value. Maybe he will still come back after getting a market eval, maybe he won't. Either way he is not getting $15M from the Jets this year. Good luck Cro. I wish you the best.
Bittersweet for me. Cro was a good player who gave us some great memories and years as a Jet. sad to see him go, but this is a business.
Cromarties release was expected as the plan all along was to let to Cro test the FA market and possibly return. I still think Cro has a better chance of being resigned than us paying $9-10 million a year for Verner. I would rather have Verner but that is a lot of money. But then again CB is a premium position in Rex's defense and Verner would be a big upgrade over Cro. If we sign Verner the question is do we then try to duplicate Seattle and make a play for Byrd. I think that is very unlikely to invest $20 million on a safety and a CB. We will have $50 million in cap space. $8 million for rookies, $10-15 million for a buffer and extra spending money. Meaning we have about $ 30 million to spend on a CB, OG, Safety, RT (whether Howard or a replacement) backup QB, WR and possibly a RB like Tate. That $30 million could go fast. What I like is the FO is looking at young players like Verner and Asomoah. Players also with upside that we can build around. Rather than signing older players for a quick fix.
Cro gave us his best for 4 years. You can't ask for more than that. Came to the team with a rep as being not interested in contact and turned into a decent tackler. Made some great plays for us over the years. I hope he catches on somewhere and does well.
I don't think he's coming back. The way they are parting ways makes me think not. Rex wishing him and his family luck and apparently they tried restructuring and he didn't take it. Signs that he will not be back. Also I highly doubt we invest money in another back like Tate. He believes he is top 5 and will demand some good money. We just traded a draft pick for Ivory and he had a solid year when he was healed from a nagging injury. We have far more needs than going after a running back. The secondary is the ONLY weak link on this defense. I can see Idzik spending some money on Verner and Byrd to complete that side and start building the offense. If we signed both, we would literally not even think about the defense anymore and just primarily focus on offense.
Sad to see him go, he gave us some good years. But his contract was too much especially with his injury issues.
cro did what he was supposed to do here, get us by peyton and brady, and a year after watching peyton shred every corner not named revis in the afccg we beat them both with cro opposite revis. one of the best moves tanny ever made i.m.o.
loved cro as a JET... he wasa huge part of our success getting to those 2 AFC championship games... his kick return against the colts might have been the biggest play in that 2 year run
You are correct. Had he not allowed Shonn Greene to run by him without any effort in '09 we may not have won that game.
Lots of people thought Cro was going to be a problem when he got to New York based on his reputation. Seems like he came here, and really grew up during his time with the Jets. He went about things the right way and was a good leader on the field after Revis went down last year.
In my opinion, we still need to draft a linebacker in the first four rounds. Whether that be an OLB or an ILB. We need to groom Harris' replacement, and still need a OLB to start across from Coples.
The rules were changed to give a 3 day negotiating window before the official start of FA. This was an attempt to cut down on tampering.
Keep in mind the Jets parted ways with Cro once before and then brought him back. In regards to Tate he is a luxury item but a relatively cheap once who is expected to command a $4mill average salary similar the average amount Asomoah is expected to demand. Cro's release, testing of the market and possible resigning has been what has been expected and talked about since mid season last year. Right now Cro is a much more likely signing than Verner considering Verners $10 million price tag and the amount of competition. Although I hope we do go Verner as he is younger, better and will make us a better defensive team. But Verner is also 1/3 of our likely budget that we will be spending on a CB, OG, Safety, RT (whether Howard or a replacement) backup QB, WR and any luxury items like a TE or RB. That is $30 million roughly we have to spend 6-8 players and I think its almost a certainty we sign a CB, WR, OG, QB and RT before the draft and a good probability we sign a TE and Safety. Adding a pass catching dynamic RB like Tate is certainly a luxury but given the lack of quality FA WRs and TEs that might be Idzik's immediate way of upgrading the offense. $50 million or realistically $30 million is going to go very fast. We can afford to make one big purchase on a guy like Vernar but almost certainly not two. My guess is this one of the reasons we are considering a guy like Hawkins is the FO does not want to risk $6 million a year on a question mark like Sanders or Tate when we can invest a lot less in cheaper options with a better return like OG, RB and TE. If Cro wanted to come back as a safety I would find that a lot more interesting. I think he could be a very good ball hawking safety that could use his athleticism to close ground and shrink the field. It would solve our problems of teams taking advantage of us on deep passes. I think his skill set is more suited to safety especially as he ages.
