I simply can't get excited about the season with the QBs we have on the roster. I would have taken Hoyer at 2 million for a year, but now Fitz is the only option. If he doesn't sign we are looking at 6-10 at best.
We don't have the money....it's not a matter of it being a slap in the face We offered him around 7-8 which is about all we can offer without completely blowing up the team.....if he thinks he's worth more than that then go get it from another team, but it's just not worth it to pay him more at this point when you consider a variety of factors that I'm sure have been discussed Seems like it's better we just part ways unless Fitz can swallow his pride
Petty or Geno...if they step up their damn games just might be able to give us more in terms of big plays downfield and maybe even leading a comeback There's no argument that Fitz had just about everything in his corner last season....familiar system, great WR's, terrible schedule, great defense that got a lot of turnovers and a good running game Yes Fitz had some good games himself but it was usually when we didn't even need it with a few exceptions.....when the defense and running game struggled a little, Fitz's true colors came out......He was never able to really lead a comeback or make big plays downfield that were there to be had over and over Part of me just wants to see what the young guns with a million times more physical talent could do with a very good team around them, sue me
Felt like we were looking at 6-10 regardless lol. Fitz is what a 12 year vet... Slim chance he repeats his performace...i mean it only took him his whole career to play decent finally. Especially with this schedule. Those duck balls aint flying vs the defenses we got to face this year.
Supposedly we haven't talked with this guy in "weeks".. we drafted Hackenberg in the 2nd. That to me was the icing on Fitz's cake. We played the little negotiating game the whole offseason. We're now heading into camp. Knowing Bowles, this Fitz drama won't sit well with him. Especially when he has a "best man wins the job" philosophy. He wants fitz to come in and COMPETE for the job.. Now, like Rex with Revis... TB had his first boo-boo by being too loose lipped in a press conference. Todd Bowles said at one point during the recent playoffs that "FITZ IS OUR STARTER NEXT SEASON"....... "FITZ IS OUR STARTERRRRRRRRRRRRRR NEXT SEASON" ... Now that sure makes it difficult for Mac to lie and say we want him back to compete.. when we know that's just Mac trying to sign fitz for cheap. TB messed up with that. It's over for Fitz IMO. We haven't made the necessary moves to clear cap space to sign him. WE CAN'T EVEN AFFORD TO SIGN HIM FOR THE 7-8M WE'RE OFFERING! Now we have 3 QB's on the roster and we are not budging from our original offer. I don't see where the progression is.. i just see the time ticking. Remember, TB said they do have a deadline on this whole thing... and i think that was on draft day weekend.
I get that, but you never know, you may be pleasantly surprised. If nothing else, we have a number of new faces on D and they should be exciting/fun to watch this season. Will Williams/Skrine/Burris play better than Cro last season at CB? How much of an impact will Lee and Carter make in shutting down pass completions over the middle? Will Mauldin develop into a topnotch pass rusher? Will Jenkins help in that regard? Will the new additions on the DL make up for the loss of Snacks and will the Jets still be great at stopping the run? Will Williams blossom in his 2nd year at DE? We also have some new RBs which could make things more interesting and exciting on offense. Will Bowles and the CS do a better job of having the team prepared to play each week and will the game management improve?
I doubt that Bowles is going to go far into the OTA's before he names a starter who he expects to run the offense next season. That's the Parcells/Gibbs mode: you have to know who your starter is even if somebody else might take the job in camp. Right now he's said that Geno is the nominal starter but I'm guessing that in a few weeks that will have solidified into somebody expected to start next season, like it did with Geno going into June last year. If I was Fitzpatrick I would get back with the team before that moment because I don't think this is going to stretch out much past June 1st. I think Bowles is going to decide to go with what he's got at some point and then the Jets will likely close off options to create more cap space and just move forward from there.
I will say I'm excited as hell about the defense. Didn't initially like the Darron Lee pick but I've done a ton of reading up on him and if he pans out could be a special player. Love the Jenkins pick. I think Mauldin is the real deal. If anything, we have the pieces to have a top 3 defense, which alone could get us to maybe 8-8 if all goes according to plan. Add some decent QB play and we're a playoff team.
Don't know how they are going to use him. That is beyond my pay grade. But once he is a 3 down guy, he can make the defense look entirely different on consecutive plays. Not a lot of guys can do that.
He has also said that if Fitz is not back, Geno is the starter. He sees the writing on the wall, honestly I don't want Fitz back, relying on an aging journey man with a weak arm that can't throw the ball down field and take advantage of the deep threats the jets have is not something I look forward to seeing. Time for the young guys to step up and lead this team. Even if we have to throw bombs all game I want to see a young QB taking snaps.
Here is my take on this. Let's for a second put the QB issue aside. We won last year to a large extent because our D kept us in the game, while handicapped by a dismal special team effort. The O scored enough to win a few and did not commit stupid mistakes. But by no means we were feared by anyone. This year our D could potentially take it to another level, far more speed at the much needed LB position and strenght at the CB/ safety. Special teams can not possibly do anything but improve field position. Enter Petty, Geno or Fitz....With such a strong supporting cast the QB discriminator might not be as large as many people think, and sure enough not worth investing money we don't have. This is Fitz we are talking about...not Andrew Luck.
The first half of the season sets TB and Mac up well. Regardless of who starts the team could find themselves out of contention before the bye, if not before. If they're not, whoever is starting sure as hell will have earned it. If they're out, it's the perfect opprotunity to make a change. No pressure on whoever comes in. Either way, my money is on Hack getting real reps this season.
I think you're right. I think they deliberately didn't sign Fitz because they wanted to see if they could draft Hackenberg (I suspect if they'd offered him $10 million he would have taken it). Fitz and his agent were stupid enough to play along by asking for ridiculous money that no one else in the NFL is stupid enough to give him (which is really amazing given how stupid many of the front offices are). The Jets front office knows that Fitz is a limited QB, who had a career year because of spectacular wide receivers and shit the bed when they needed him to step it up to get to the playoffs. No way is that worth $15+ million/year. Fitz was overall an OK QB last year, at best. His inability to hit the deep ball allows the defenses to crowd the line of the scrimmage and he repeatedly throws into double and triple coverage - he was lucky he didn't throw a lot more interceptions last year. I think the Jets were kind of hoping that someone else would give him the $15 million+/year that he wanted so that they wouldn't have to deal with this anymore. Now the Jets can't clear up a lot of cap space without trading Mo, but they can't trade Mo until he signs the tender offer, which means that Mo can essentially veto a trade, so he's not going to sign the tender and permit a trade unless the team he's traded to gives him a new deal at $16 million+ per year. That doesn't mean he's not tradable, it just means that they're probably not going to get too much for him. If they can't get more than a third round pick then they just might let him play out the year, let him walk next year and get the supplemental draft pick for him which would probably be a 3rd round pick in 2018. The whole Mo situation now gives the Jets an excuse to not sign Fitz even if he drops his asking price to what they'd offered him before (e.g., we'd love to pay him that but we just don't have enough cap space to do that ...). If they think Hack will be starting before the end of the year (and I think the Jets do despite what they've been saying publicly), then Fitz is unimportant. Play Geno for the first half of the season, which has a brutal schedule - let him take his lumps and then put Fitz in for the 2nd half. Gene could even surprise you in the first half of the year as he's never had anywhere near the calibre of WRs that the Jets now have. Alternatively, if you think Hack's ready after training camp, then let him win the training camp QB competition and just start him. I think Fitz is gone, just like you do. I also think that the entire approach Fitz used has generated a fair amount of bad will with the Jets organization and this allows them to make him a cautionary tale for future contract issues. "Remember what happened when Fitz had that great year and tried to hold a gun to their heads ..."
I was happy to the extent that i thought it was the most logical choice for what was available. I can't say it excited me though
Nice post. They are going to start the engine without Fitz. This org doesn't lie public ally. It's Geno Smith on Sept 3 guys...omg. We may go 2-4 the first 6 games or worse. The FO wants Petty and Hack at QB like yesterday as soon as old Chan has them ready. To infinity and beyond Jeti lol!!
