Well he signed a 5 year contract worth $35 million, so that equates to about $7 million/year. $12 million of that is guaranteed. It is a difficult question to answer, but one thing I can tell you for sure is I would have guaranteed less money overall, but would have done more of the guaranteed money up front. The Giants guaranteed him about $2 million every year, that they can't get out of. Even if they cut him in 2016 for cap savings, they'll owe him $6 million in dead money. What that basically means is if Rodgers-Cromartie only feels like playing football hard for another season and a half, and they want to cut him before the 2016 season, he'll be collecting $2 million per year for the following 3 years just for sitting on his ass. For whatever reason, the Giants needed to guarantee him all that money spread out over 5 years, which makes it look to me like he was going to choose the Jets and the Giants got panicked and pulled the trigger on longer guaranteed money. I can tell you right now the Jets wouldn't have wanted to sign him to a 5 year deal, and even if they did it wouldn't have guaranteed him any money in those last few years, making cutting him an easy formality. Decker signed a contract for a similar amount, even though he has 3 more million guaranteed, it is front loaded and has less guaranteed over the last 3 years. If we want to cut Decker with two years left on his contract, we would eat a combined $3 million and save a combined $13,250,000. If the Giants cut DRC at that same time they will eat $4 million and save a combined $11 million. Now which player is more likely to be on the roster longer, the 27 year old WR who has played better each year he has been in the league, or the 28 year old CB who has had up and down years, bounced around 3 different teams already, has been traded and cut, and has already openly talked about retirement. Now the way I see it is the Giants know all of this, but were wiling to pay more to get him for just a couple years because their time to win another SB is limited where the Jets are about to step into what could be a very long window of SB competitiveness. Would DRC have brought more production to the Jets in 2014 than a rookie will? Most likely, but matching the Giants offer would have benefitted the 2014 season at the expense of the numerous seasons where we are most likely able to compete for the SB. Idzik has a plan, and sometimes it involves forgoing something good to get something better later. This is all made easier by the fact that we still had a top 10 defense with poor CB play last year, and I doubt a 1st or second round rookie will make our secondary worse than it was with an injured Cro and rookie Milliner. Our defensive line is only going to be better. There are a million and one factors, but another important factor is that the Giants need someone who can match up with Pierre Garcon and Dez Bryant twice every year, and the Jets biggest rival is NE, who don't have a super athletic outside receiver. They operate with different types of receivers especially TE's, slot guys, and receiving RB's. Milliner can match up with Mike Wallace and Stevie Johnson. As I stated in a different thread, the Jets have invested in ways to combat NE's different weapons, including a safety who can man cover TE's (Antonio Allen), a speedy ILB who can cover receiving RB's (DeMario Davis), and multiple slot CB's (Kyle Wilson and Demitri Patterson). You don't need to throw a 5 year mega deal at DRC when his main coverage responsibilities are going to be Kenbrell Thompkins (2nd year UDFA) Brian Hartline (decent WR#2) and whichever WR steps up as the WR#2 in Buffalo. Sure we will play some teams with 2 good WR's but the division is the most important, and winning it gets you to the playoffs no matter what your record is.
And just to throw it out there quick, the Jets run different looking schemes to match up with different teams. The reason we played some more zone vs Miami is because they had no good RB or TE, so we could run cover two's without worrying about what would happen when we moved the safeties from up in the box to deep cover help. Each team has changed a bit, for instance Miami signed Knowshon Moreno, with the idea that he will either open up some chances for their WR's to make plays, or make defenses pay for giving too much attention to the WR's. The point is that it's far too simple to say the Jets should run more zone, because you have to evaluate each opponent individually.
The Jets' front 7 is very good, but rushing the passer isn't their strength. It certainty isn't enough of a strength that they can rely on it to mask a huge deficiency in the backfield. PFF actually had the Jets as being ranked 20th in the league in pass rushing productivity (which includes sacks, hits, and hurries) when bringing 4 rushers last season (http://cowboyszone.com/threads/pass-rush-numbers-2013-compared-to-other-teams.287217/). Sure, it is reasonable to expect some improvement from the young players, but major improvement in that area isn't something you can depend on. Without a strong pass-rushing front seven or great talent at safety, the CBs are going to have their share of responsibility whether you want to admit it or not. Also, saying that the CBs can't be worse than last year doesn't carry much weight as far as I'm concerned. The Jets only faced one team in the top 6 ranked passing offenses last season, and gave up 382 yards and 2 TDs to Drew Brees in that game. This year they will face five. Even with that relatively easy schedule last year (as far as their secondary is concerned) the Jets were well below average in both yards (22nd) and TDs (19th) given up through the air. As far as passing defense is concerned, a repeat of last season shouldn't be seen as a success. Maybe you think that their offensive improvements will put them over the top instead, but their 7th worst in the league point-differential last season (a better indicator of future performance than W-L) suggests they might need to improve just to reach the same 8-8 record. It's hard for me to envision them getting into the playoffs with this schedule and their current lineup of CBs and Safeties, whether you add a rookie into the mix or not. I don't think that Idzik should be judged entirely on any one decision that he he makes, but I do think it is fair to question this one.
You are right I think I said this before but your analysis is absolutely terrific. Thank you for summing things up so well and taking the time to reply to my post. Sometimes I am not sure if you are in the Jets front office! This deal by the Giants was way over the top and although I was disappointed at the time your info here makes me rethink a lot of things. First off, I should not have said Idzik had egg on his face for letting DRC go. He actually saved the team $. Additionally, he moved forward getting CJ. I absolutely agree Rex can work a defense using what he has and no need to spend on a FA. The Jets should be an Offensive minded team.
First, we beat the Saints no matter what the stats were against us. Second, Quinton Coples is going to improve as a pass rusher, I understand that speculation isn't fact but I expect Coples to be a significant pass rushing presence. Third, I can envision the Jets taking a S and CB consecutively in rounds 1 and 2, so that adds two key players in their weakest corp from a deep draft. Fourth, 3 of the 5 teams you are referring to aren't even in our conference. You don't plan your roster around 3 teams that you're facing in the first 4 weeks of a season that you will then proceed to not play until 4 years in the future. Even if the Jets suffer losses at the hands of those 3 teams, they are literally 3 of the 4 least important games we play all season. Peyton Manning will be a handful, but remember they now have Emmanuel Sanders where they used to have Eric Decker. I think we can all agree Decker is a better receiver than Sanders. Fifth, even if the Jets offense isn't great, they will give the defense more time off the field with a better rushing attack. We added three highly integral parts to our offense that we didn't have last year, a reliable WR who can produce scores, a legitimate backup QB, and an explosive playmaker. Those improvements combined with a couple more pieces in the draft will make the Jets competitive in every game they play this year.
If you've set your team up to lose three games on your schedule, you'd better be incredibly confident in your ability to win 85% of the remaining games if you want to reach the playoffs, which is pretty ridiculous to ask of anyone. There is nothing remotely close to an "unimportant" game in the NFL. It probably isn't a coincidence that the past three Super Bowl champions have all had suffocating pass defenses. You think that Izdik is purposefully allowing that to be a weakness for the Jets going into this season? It's all fine and dandy to think that other factors are going to combine to make the CB situation okay, but why shouldn't they have tried to address it in a much more direct manner? The Jets had plenty of cap room to sign an experienced player without greatly restricting their ability to address future needs. It was clearly one of their biggest weaknesses. The Jets might "survive" this decision in the same sense that they "survived" the same weakness last year, but unless multiple things go spectacularly well, it's hard to see them taking a significant step forward. It's a big gamble that was avoidable. By what measure did the Jets have a top-10 defense last year? Not yards allowed (11th) or points allowed (19th) or takeaways (31st)...
If I were you I would worry how to prepare for the Jets this season on offense. Are you on this site to "spy" for BB? LMAO I don't recall hearing that the Pats can defend against the run over 4 quarters. Revis will be tied up with Decker. That leaves another WR open plus Geno, Vick and Chris J., Ivory will pick up 1st downs rushing. You can't win if the Jets stay on the field.
First, I've already explained why DRC wouldn't have been a good choice, show me which CB you think would have been important to us to sign, and I will be happy to explain the downside to such a signing. Second, don't quote me as saying "unimportant" when what I said was "least important," and there is a significant difference in those two phrases. Even something very very important can be the least important among a group of other highly important things. Third, no one set their team up to lose 3 games, the Jets still have a chance to win any or all of those 3 games, I was merely making the point that even if they did lose, better to lose those games than division or conference games. Fourth, as far as the 3 most recent SB winners, neither the Ravens nor the Giants had particularly good CB's. They benefitted from excellent defensive line play more than CB play. Fifth, If the Jets improve in basically every way on offense, and the defensive line is continuing to develop, plus we have 12 draft picks... So tell me again why spending an early round pick on a CB with starting potential is setting the Jets up for a worse season than 2013? Sixth, oh man you really got me on this one, the Jets clearly weren't anywhere close to a top 10 overall defense... Clearly sitting at 11th overall isn't even close to being top 10. Out of sheer technicality you're right, but the Jets only gave up 1.5 more yards per game than Buffalo, which is ranked #10. They also rank 9th overall in yards per play, which is probably a better measure anyway. So for all intents and purposes, yes, the Jets fielded a top 10 defense.
Brent Grimes signed a deal that could be $16 M / 2 years. Alterraun Verner signed a 4-yr deal with only $14 M guaranteed. Aqib Talib's contract could be a 1-yr $11.5 M deal. The Jets could have done any one of these deals and still would have plenty of money available for future signings. If they didn't want one of the most coveted guys who have the most upside, there were still some starting quality players who could fill in for a year or two and wouldn't have required a big investment: Tarell Brown started 42 games over the past three seasons for the 49ers, and was signed on a 1-yr $3.5M deal. Corey Graham signed a 4-yr deal with $8.1 M in guarantees Walter Thurmond III signed a 1-yr $3.5 M deal, played mostly slot but outside as well Brandon Browner, 3-yrs $1 M guaranteed It's this type of player that I think the Jets should have gone for. I have serious reservations about DRC, so I am not suggesting in any way that the Jets should have gone in that direction. Again, my question is why not get somebody with a known ability to contribute, even if it is a mid level nothing-special type guy. I guess I should't have used the quotation marks without reading over your post again, but my point was that five games against teams with elite passing attacks should be a good reason to look closely at your team's secondary, whether three of them are out of conference or not. The Jets will be facing a much heavier dosage of passing attacks this year, plus the Patriots won't be in the beginning stages of learning to play without their 3 best receiving weapons from the season before. A just-as-good pass defense won't go nearly as far. Spending the pick isn't what I think will hurt the Jets. It's relying on him to fill in the #2 role, and assuming that Millner can handle the #1 role (or vise-versa) that I think might hurt them. The Jets' OL is still pretty mediocre from what I can tell, especially in pass protection, and that isn't the best combination with a QB like Vick who struggles to stay healthy. WR talent is still below average, even with Decker. Both QBs seem to turn the ball over at a very high rate. The offense should be better, but how much is still a very big question. On paper, the Jets should improve overall from last season, but that doesn't really say much. Improving from 8-8 doesn't necessarily mean that the Jets will make the playoffs, and as I already mentioned, their 8-8 record last year isn't really representative of how poorly they actually played. Combine that with a schedule that seems almost tailored to expose their biggest weakness, and I just think that Izdik could have put the Jets in a better position going into this season by making one move that didn't even have to be very costly. I would consider touting the tenth ranked defense as a "top-10 defense!" to be borderline misleading. Calling the 11th ranked defense that is just flat out wrong, especially when they don't do the other things that defenses are supposed to do particularly well, such as preventing opposing offenses from scoring (I consider that to be pretty important). I don't think the Giants truly had a top-10 defense last year, and they were ranked #8. Any metric where the Jets defense is anywhere close to top-10 is surely being heavily influenced by their #1 ranked run defense, which isn't particularly relevant to this conversation.
It was a response to a poster who asked me a question, and they seemed satisfied with the way I wrote it. If someone looks at my posts and thinks they are too long, they are more than welcome to skip over them, they're loss. I don't really care, but thanks for the commentary.
Trying to help you, this is a message board for all to read. If you feel you need to get your point across, it's a lot easier for others to read your message when you have paragraphs and spaces.
If you're trying to help I don't think snidely referring to a post I took the time to thoughtfully write out for one particular poster's benefit as a "mass of crap" is the way to go about it. Especially considering you're a mod, and the mod's claim they want this board to be a friendly place, don't you think you should lead by example? If you have a comment on some of the actual material I posted, feel free to comment I'd love to hear it. If you have some statistics that show people have a hard time reading paragraphs that are long, feel free to share them in a friendly matter. I don't take kindly to my posts being referred to as a "mass of crap" especially if you didn't bother to read it, so if that's how you help, help someone else because I'm just fine without it.
Sorry you took it personally, wasn't a slap on the material or content. Since you took it personally, I apologize. This is a mass of material that is difficult to read and a lot of posters in the past complain when someone fails to use paragraphs. We don't keep statistics on this situation, I've been on this site for 11 years and know what works. You don't have to worry about me offering my opinion, I voice mine quite strongly in this forum.
There is so much here that is just flat out inaccurate, I don't even know where to start. From the top then. -Brent Grimes would never have signed a two year deal worth $16 million dollars compared to what he was offered in Miami. Grimes would have been a good fit in terms of how he fits the scheme but Miami gave him an even better contract than DRC got in NY, they gave him 4 years $32 million, which averages to $8 mil/year, and they gave him $16 mil guaranteed, that's $4 mil more than DRC. Grimes is also 2 years older, he's already 30. You clearly don't have a damn clue how NFL contracts work, which is fine, but don't act like you do. Why would Grimes sign a 2 year $16 mil with us when he has the opportunity to make so much more in Miami? I don't know if you're assuming the Jets would just guarantee the whole contract or something, but it doesn't work that way. In Miami, Grimes has financial security because there is no chance they'd cut him until at least two years of his contract are up, meaning he will make $14.25 million over those two years. He is still guaranteed $3 million more over the next two years of his deal, so in reality he will not earn less than $17.25 mil, and that's assuming he is definitely cut after year three. I'm sure Grimes is banking on himself playing well enough over the first two years that they won't want to cut him, and at worst will have to restructure his deal. Only a complete and utter imbecile would sign a 30 year old CB with an injury history to a two year $17.25 million contract 100% guaranteed, and that's assuming Grimes would even take that deal which I doubt he would because he has the potential to earn more in Miami. I don't even know what else to say because I could go on, but I'll leave this one at "You know nothing about NFL contracts." -As far as Alterraun Verner is concerned, I won't even bother explaining why the guaranteed $ you listed for him is incorrect, because Verner is not a good fit for the Jets system. Do you know why he signed for significantly less $ than Grimes even though he is only 25 and coming off a pro-bowl year? Probably not, so let me break it down for you. Verner is a cover-2 specific CB, because his skills are limited. He is good at what his teams ask him to do, but that is because they only ask him to do specific things. Verner is a ball hawk who does not have the physicality required to play press man coverage, the Jets' main coverage in Rex Ryan's scheme. He is a perfect fit for the Tampa-2 defense, which rarely runs anything other than a cover 2 zone that relies on outside pass rushers forcing the QB to get the ball out quickly. The CB's in this scheme keep their eyes trained on the QB, preparing to break hard and fast on a pass into their zone. It is not a shutdown defensive scheme, it's a "play from ahead and harass the QB into making an error" scheme. So the reason he got paid so much less is because even though he is good at what he does, those skills are not as valuable as a the skills of a CB who can matchup 1 on 1 and win the coverage battle with a WR. Plain and simple, he wouldn't have fit on the Jets defense. -Saying we could have gotten Aqib Talib for a 1 year $11.5 million dollar contract is where you genuinely show you know nothing about the salary cap or contracts. As I said before, it's fine if you don't understand how it all works but don't act like you do, it just makes you sound like complete fool. Talib's contract guarantees everything he earns in year 1, which totals $7,906,250, and then $1 million per year for the next 4 years. But all Talib has to do is be on the roster for 3 days into the second year of the contract, and he is instantly guaranteed $6 million more. If he is seriously injured in his first year, he doesn't even have to be on the roster and that $6 million more is still going to be guaranteed. Not only would Talib be the biggest idiot in the world to turn down that kind security, what you seem to be implying is the Jets could sign Talib by just guaranteeing him 1 full year at $11.5 million, when his cap hit this year is only $8 million. First off, Talib would never sign that contract over the Broncos contract for a lot of reasons, but the simplest of which is that if he suffers a serious injury in that year with the Jets he would be totally out of luck, and would have to sign as a 29 year old CB with a history of attitude issues and a serious injury. Whereas with the Broncos, he gets the full use of their facilities as he rehabs and is guaranteed a hefty sum of $6 million. don't worry, I'm not done putting you to shame yet but I can only put so much into one post.
What about the fact that he extremely grabby? His "physicality" I feel like is often misinterpreted. Just because he likes to get his hands on a receiver (illegally) it doesnt mean he's a great physical corner. Ive watched about 6 games of his and have never come away extremely impressed. Honestly think Id prefer Kyle Fuller if I had to choose. And there's no way he is/was a better prospect than Milliner. Milliner was a top 5 prospect that slid because of injury concerns. He flashed true #1 ability at the end of last year. Im not sure Dennard will ever be more than a very good #2 and for that reason there are many players I would prefer at 18.
Darrelle Revis was the most "grabby" CB I've ever seen play, but the key is that he stays balanced, thus making it less apparent to refs that there is a hold taking place. If you grab a jersey or arm to re-direct a WR while maintaining your balance, more often than not a ref won't notice. If you grab a WR because he just put a move on you and you're trying not to let him separate as you almost fall over, the ref will see it every time. Part of being a very physical CB is that grabbing, and Dennard does it quite well. His physicality is also apparent when he tackles RB's and you would be surprised what a difference that can make. When you lay a hit on an RB (as a CB) and knock them backwards, you just saved an extra yard or two that most CB tacklers give up as the RB runs into them. It also makes RBs remember where you are, and they are less comfortable bouncing plays to the outside knowing you're there gaining momentum ready to smack. Dennard's biggest value to me is the aggressiveness he plays with mentally, combined with his broad understanding of defensive scheme. He is a wonderfully football-smart player, something that escapes most people. One of the coolest things I've seen a CB do is trail a WR across a formation pre-snap, from slot-left to tight-right, and blitz instantly, without a moments hesitation, and sack the QB. It takes a really great understanding of your scheme to know what you're doing in a situation like that, and a lot of trust from the coaching staff to have the freedom to make a decision like that. Guess who did that? Darqueze Dennard. Sure, we'd all love to have CB's that run 4.3 40's, but he is plenty athletic enough to be a damn good starting CB. There is no CB in this draft that showed the combination of athleticism and technique that Milliner did before he was drafted, and if you take his college production vs any of this years prospects, he would still be the first CB drafted. EDIT: Added better paragraphing so hopefully it satisfies everyone.
