Sidney Rice is a big playmaker. You bring up Favre, how bad did Favre look in 2010 when Rice was absent?
Well there is a happy medium: We can spend the right amount of money and field a competent team. Some people (not saying you) act like a team has to pick a single extreme and that's it: Avoid free agency entirely and only use the draft OR spend every penny of cap space you have in free agency and who cares about the draft. You can't plan for future free agents because you don't know who will be available. Maybe it'll be the best free agency ever and you can pick up stars for pennies on the dollar. Maybe there won't be jack squat and you pay $10mil for a journeyman. You know who is available now, you know what the market value is now and you know that the cap is likely to continue to go up...so if there is a guy that helps your team now and in the future why not lock him up instead of playing through a full year with a hole at a position because maybe next year you can get a free agent to fill that hole? As for your draft predictions: I'm all for that, it sounds great. But: How many of those guys will be starters? How many will be impact players? Two? Maybe three? From last year Richardson was a huge impact player, Geno was mediocre, Milliner was terrible for about 75% of the season and then started to come on, Winters was mediocre to bad and the rest were basically useless. So why are people of this mindset that it's going to be so easy for us to draft and fill all of our current areas of need because we only got maybe three or four guys of any amount of value last year and we still need significant improvements at TE, WR, G, OT, CB, FS and we also need a backup QB and another RB wouldn't go amiss. We going to draft 8 guys that can fill the roles we need? I doubt it. We should sign the backup QB, RB (doesn't need to be a high end guy, just replacing Goodson), CB, G and another TE or WR wouldn't go amiss (doesn't have to be a high end guy either). Then we draft a WR and/or TE (depending on need), FS, OLB and then just add depth by picking BPA at various other positions. Signing all those guys will probably cost around $20mil at most, we cut Sanchez and save another $8mil+, we can sign all of our rookies and still not be pressed up against the cap. I don't have the exact cap figure obviously but with cutting Holmes, Sanchez and Cro it was about $50mil in cap space from various reports so it won't cost $30mil to sign our rookies and whatever Decker and that guard we signed have for cap hits.
Good post - agreed. Draft should get you MAYBE one immediate starter caliber player, with two being a bonus and three+ a windfall (unless the incumbents were just terrible). You should be trying to field your starters through FA and current roster.
Most of the negativity in this thread is the result of watching the Jets try to win the off-season every year from 2003 to 2012. That's not how sound football teams are built. They really are built through the draft. However if you've been conditioned to expect a news worthy event every few days during free agency and then a splashy trade up in the draft, well anything else is going to seem inadequate - even if what's going on behind the scenes is more important to actually winning a Lombardi Trophy. The team that's going to win the 2016 Super Bowl is putting in a lot of work right now on getting that done. However they're not likely to be spending a lot in free agency. They're putting in the legwork and the analysis required to make the 2014 draft a major windfall for their roster. They're carefully figuring out which of their players coming due for contracts have to be maintained and at what cost. They're poring over last year's film to see what they missed about the players they've acquired over the last few drafts. Figuring out if Quinton Coples can actually play OLB at a high level is more important than any free agent transaction the Jets could actually make this week. If he can play OLB then the draft process goes one way and if he can't it goes another. Figuring out if Damon Harrison is the real thing is more important than any free agent transaction the Jets could make this week. Figuring out how to get Mo Wilkerson locked up to a reasonable extension is more important than anything the Jets could be doing in free agency. You can't add a star caliber free agent at any position other than QB and really improve your team right away. Star caliber QB's never hit free agency. That makes the last week almost completely irrelevant in terms of competing at the highest level. All people had the chance to do early in free agency was overpay for somebody they were convinced they needed to have. The real value in free agency will be after the market settles, when players can be had for cheap on short-term contracts and you can actually patch a hole without creating a bigger problem down the road.
I like Pettigrew, I would like to have had him but good luck to him back in Detroit. we still have other options and the draft
It's apparent now our expectations for this FA were influenced on the past regime's approach. We are adhering to our mantra and not over paying or expending draft picks so that we can build a strong team through the draft. This conservative approach will pay off large dividends in the future if executed correctly. That said, I share the concerns of others. It takes years for young players to develop the skill set and confidence level to contribute at WR and CB. Even if we draft WR and CB with #1 and #2 AND even if they are can't miss prospects, they won't contribute to the level the Jets require to compete.
It's like I expected until recent weeks when we kept hearing the Jets linked to so many players and how they were going to be aggressive, that is when I thought we might make a big splash. I am happy w/ what we have done so fay but obviously there is plenty of work to be done.
Well, we are now worse at RT, we have no RG, we are worse at CB and maybe a wash at WR (if Holmes was healthy)...there is not much to be thrilled about and at this instant it doesn't look like we are as good as the team that finished last year 8-8. We will see what magic Idzik can do to make us better this year.
For what it's worth, Cumberland had a better season than Pettigrew by PFF's analysis. His deal also cost less than 1/3 of Pettigrew's... Maybe the draft is the way to go at TE
Anyone have any more hot stove news relating to MJD, Sanders, James Jones, DRC? ESPN's web site doesnt load correctly anymore.
After extending Wilkerson and Harrison and signing draft picks the cap space is going to be ~30M. Brilliant strategy. Of course Wilkerson isn't really good enough to justify getting a deal done, let's just have him hit FA and go to another team. 0 starting guards. 1 starting cb 0 starting safeties 0 starting TEs 1 starting WR Let's just fill all those holes with 5th round draft pick rookies. 6-10 season here we come.
I like how you act as if a multi million dollar staff of professionals aren't supposed to be able to handle player and prospect evaluation while making appropriate FA moves. You can't field a winning team with a 2nd round sophomore QB and 30M+ in cap space. Why do you think that signing a couple of extra quality starters would've compelled the team to draft Colt Lyerla in the 1st round? Why does Idzik seem to agree?
First off, the Jets have players at the saftey position. But to answer your question: Cook, Thurmond, DRC, Cromartie at CB Tillman at S Sanders, Nicks, Rice, Edleman at WR Finley at TE The only position that really scares me right now is Guard. Maybe they are content with bringing Colon back as long as his bicep is healed.
Actually they aren't really that good or they want too much money and that's why they are FAs however you can't build a really good team just through the draft..it will never happen. You can draft all the good players you want and by the time they become good in the NFL they are free agents and off to the highest bidder.
We're not definitively worse at CB. Cro had a bad year last and was injured last year and is 30. There's no way of knowing if he will bounce back to what he was in his prime, let alone what he gave us in 2012. Walls, despite the occasional mis-step, showed some goods last year. With a bit of improvement he'd be a very serviceable CB and he's the right ago to make that small step. I don't believe we're worse at RT either. Howard was just above replacement level, so is Giacomini. That's a lateral move in my opinion. I see the Jets as equivalent to where they were last year except for the RG spot and we've got the rest of free agency and the draft to improve upon that.
