The Patriots are one of the cheapest teams in sports history I'm not sure that being cheap is such a bad thing in a salary cap sport.
Hugh Douglas and John Abraham belong on that list. Yeah the Jets made some head scratchers, that's for sure.
Sometimes players will restructure or take a hometown discount if they feel that the team is a Super Bowl contender. In other words, no Jet has ever agreed to a hometown discount.
Add to that Hugh Douglas, James Farrior etc. They have a history of letting good players go or trading them before they hit it big.
You have to draft good to be loyal, and sometimes you draft too good and have to make hard choices. We got abe, pennington, and ellis in the same draft in the first round, which means their contracts all expired at the same time. no way you can pay 2 franchise DEs and a franchise QB huge money in 1 offseason. Ellis stayed and the jets were very good to him. chad had the looks of a franchise QB and you have to pay those. He would have been if it wasn't for the injuries. Abe was the odd man out because he was always banged up. We got a 1st round pick for him which resulted in mangold. We got mangold and brick in that same draft and we were very loyal to them. brick played his entire career as a jet, and mangold will likely do the same. We wanted revis to be a lifelong jet, he was just too money hungry. for that he spent a year in TB and a year in NE. and then came back. he'll play 80% of his career as a jet and we got a 1st rounder for him. we are in a tough spot right now because richardson and wilkerson and williams were all drafted by us, play the same position, and all look like studs. You can't have a top tier DE sit on the bench and not start. we can only keep 2 for the long term. Williams isn't going anywhere. he is cheap for 3 more years. Richardson or wilkerson will be gone next year and I think the jets aren't sure which one they want. It's a tough call to make. Both are studs. We have been loyal to david harris, he is a career jet. Drafted in the 2nd round and we've had him for 9 years already.
How can the Jets not be paying our guys properly under the capped system? Are you saying they pay some people too much and others not enough? The old system where an owner could wave at the cap while never coming close to it in terms of cash spent is gone. You have to pay 89% of the cap or you're in violation of the CBA at this point. Woody was never cheap before the system changed over either. We gave Chad a 7 year $62M deal at a time when the best QB's were getting $9-10M a year. We gave him a huge $19M outlay the first year of that deal also. We gave D'Brick and Mangold huge deals at the time they got them. We gave David Harris a huge deal. We signed Calvin Pace at the top of the free agent market and then gave Alan Faneca a huge deal at LG. The idea that Woody and the Jets are somehow cheap is just ludicrous. I'd say it is the other way around at this point: agents think Woody is a soft touch and so they don't negotiate with us they just wait to see if the Jets will fold.
The Jets got a 1st round draft pick for a 28 year old player with injury concerns who was looking for a huge contract. Twice. That's good business decisions at work. Nick Mangold and Sheldon Richardson were the players taken with the picks. Again, good business decisions all around.
Plenty of other teams do the same thing. NE is notorious for trading players before their contracts expire. At the end of the day, the NFL is a business and the managers have to do what they feel is best for the team's future. In hindsight, we may not agree with some of the decisions (ie I really disliked how we threw Leon Washington to the curb after his injury), but every move is a calculated risk. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't. There is no loyalty in business.
What i'm saying is the jets don't take care of the home grown talent properly outside of maybe Brick and Mangold.. Besides them... free agents come in here and get paid nicely and leave before our home grown talent gets an extension.
If were not talking about how they get paid then what do you mean by loyal? These teams don't owe these players anyhing but checks.
Actually "NY Jets" is a singularity as is the word team. Fifty years or so ago this was discussed ad nauseum when movie trailers warned "'The Birds' is coming!"
Look at Kobe, and even moreso Duncan. Thats loyalty. Even when their health an talent diminished those winning organizations stuck with them. Unlike the DWade ordeal in Miami who is still a top 5 shooting guard in the league. Jets never maintain/gather enough talent at once in order to be contenders over a period of time. Last year 10-6 this year im biting my nails because of the qb situation. So i mean loyal in terms of allowing great players to finish out their careers with the team that drafted them although they have aged and they are not as good as they were 10 yrs ago.
One team's problem is another team's fortune. Herm did try but Abraham is just another example of the Jets blundering a top talent. He goes to Atlanta and makes two more Pro Bowls and is named All Pro twice so clearly the Falcons didn't let his alcoholism affect his play.
It's bad business when those players go on to have stellar careers in other cities. Not to mention Parcells basically giving Douglas (the DROY winner) away for very little. Multiple All Pro and Pro bowls for both. The Jets are still searching for elite edge rushers all these years after they let both of them go. Hardly good decisions all around.
The Jets took care of: Chad Pennington, Wayne Chrebet, Jason Fabini, Jason Ferguson, Mo Lewis, Marvin Jones, Aaron Glenn, Richie Anderson, Shaun Ellis, Victor Green, Marcus Coleman, Jerrico Cotchery, David Harris, D'Brickashaw Ferguson, Nick Mangold, Mark Sanchez, Bryan Thomas, Chris Baker, Darrelle Revis (once in 2010), Kerry Rhodes, Brandon Moore, etc. The guys they weren't able to reach an accommodation with were Kerry Jenkins, Lavernues Coles, Randy Thomas, John Abraham (and it wasn't all about money with JAbe), D-Rob (changed schemes to a 3-4), Jonathan Vilma (same issue), Darrelle Revis (3rd time is the charm for anybody, why the Jets re-upped for #4 is beyond me but Revis is still an excellent CB so at least the contract is not a waste), Sione Pouha and Mike Devito (Rex wanted to become bigger and more athletic at the same time in the defensive front) and now Snacks (was a mistake, Jets should have re-upped him at $5M a season in 2014) and Mo (just too expensive a contract to swallow with an 8-8 team in the offing and a lot of talent that makes him redundant on the roster.) The Jets have done a much better job of retaining talent over the years than is generally recognized and money hasn't been the big x-factor except in 2003 and this year. Revis just held Woody over a barrel once too often. Nobody likes being held over a barrel by one of their employees.
