I am with you 100%. I have always wanted a QB homegrown, but they all have their question marks. Cousins is what he is and I think with an elite defense and strong run game that is good enough to make a team a real contender. Especially the fact now that he how a working knowledge of the offense Bates is going to install, this really allows this team to turn around quickly. The dream scenario ( I know other teams have money too) is FA signings: Cousins Ryan Jensen C Andrew Norwell G Breshaud Breeland CB LaMarcus Joyner CB Resign DeMario Davis ASJ Claiborne Release Mo Skrine Then with draft pick if Chubb is there you run to the podium and take him. If not you can strongly look at trading down with someone like the Cardinals or the Bills for their (2) firsts. Draft OT, Connor Williams, Mike McGlinchy and RB - Guice, Jones or Michele Later try a QB (Mike White, Lulatetta), NT, and be able to truly go BPA
We’ve had two bum QB’s have career years with terrible Jets teams. Imagine what an actually good QB might do on an improving Jets team. There’s nothing absurd about the potential of Cousins to the Jets being just what the team needs.
Whatever the Jets do they need to avoid bidding against themselves for Cousins or if they decide to make a trade up to guarantee a top 3 QB. It's too easy to get in a situation where you "guarantee" your result at a huge markup in price. And of course there are no guarantees, which is what the NFL is all about - no guarantees, no warranty, no sure thing. The 1996 Jets wanted to guarantee solid play at QB and a shot at the playoffs and so they signed a Super Bowl QB from the year before to a huge guaranteed contract. Neil O'Donnell played 6 games poorly and then got hurt and was out for the season. By 1998 he was gone as Bill Parcells realized he was not all that good. In 2009 the Jets wanted to get their FQB of the future and so they traded up for Mark Sanchez in a relatively cheap trade. Nothing is guaranteed though and Sanchez window closed to injuries and a talent decline around him. It's really painful at times to just sit at your spot and wait for somebody unexpected to get there. It's still the right answer most of the time. The QB is not the last piece of the puzzle on this team and guessing right in a big trade up is just going to leave the guy you guessed on in a situation where he's scrambling to cover talent deficiencies elsewhere. Guessing wrong obviously would KO the Jets for a few years. Cousins looks like a good QB, not a great one. If we don't sign him in free agency there are still a bunch of people out there who could fill for a year or two while the guy we draft this year proves out or doesn't - at a normal cost instead of a huge markup. Getting a FQB should be a priority for the Jets but this is no Drew Brees situation with Cousins. He's been healthy for 3 years and his play and the Skins play have declined each year. If he was a franchise QB the Skins would have moved heaven and earth to sign him. What they saw though was a good QB instead and so they declined to sign him long-term to a FQB contract. If the Jets get Cousins they should make sure that they are paying the market rate and that the market rate is not sky high.
Here's the problem though. The going rate for QB's is going to go up every season. The talent pool with QB's has gotten worse and as some of the more well known ones get older and will retire within the next few seasons, teams will be inclined to pay enormous amounts for good, but not Elite QB's. Also, I think labeling Cousins play the last 3 seasons as declining lacks some context such as who was playing with him, who got injured, the coaching, etc. It's a blanket statement and even then his completion percentage is above 60% and his TD to INT ratio hangs about high 20's while INT's are in the low teens. Also, we do not know what happened between the Skins and Kirk during negotiations and I should also remind you that the Skins went to great lengths to sign him and even posted a lengthy explanation of last seasons failed attempt at signing him to ensure fans that they tried very hard to do so. So in essence, the Redskins did want him for the longterm. This move to get Alex Smith I think stems more so from the fact that the Redskins are aware that Kirk is not coming back to them and they are unwilling to give him 34 mil a year. So instead they got a replacement in Smith, versus waiting and not doing anything. I will agree that the Jets should not be competing against themselves to sign him which is unfortunately a trend with Macc's bargaining with free agent (Fitzpatrick great example). Kirk will command 28-30 mil annually and by 2020 this salary will look very cheap compared to some of the other deals that will be given to QB's.
I prefer drafting a QB but would be completely on board w/ Cousins. I'm concerned the Jets will get left high and dry in the draft once Rosen and Darnold are off the board. I like Mayfield but not at 6. I like some of the other prospects more but they are currently graded in the 3rd-4th round. I'm also concerned this coaching staff lacks the ability to coach up a rookie QB. I think Cousins / Barkley accounts for at least +3 wins minimum. I also think the Jets should look at White & Falk to replace Petty.
Most of you guys trash Peter King as a know-nothing Pats sycophant, and now you're posting an interview with him? King is totally ignoring what Cousins himself has said. He doesn't care about getting the most money. He wants to win. He won't win with the Jets like he wants, and would probably wind up getting injured if Mac doesn't fix the OL. I think all these guys who are saying that the Jets are the most logical place for Cousins to sign are flat out wrong.
I have never trashed Peter King so there's that and just because they said it doesn't mean it 100% happening. On the contrary, thinking the Jets won't be serious players in the Cousins sweepstakes would be ignoring reality. Bates + Mike Shanahan connection (who drafted Kirk). They've talked I'm sure. The connection is there and I can see why Peter King thinks its a logical landing spot.
Basically, a good post. You're right that QB contract costs are going to continue to skyrocket or go up. I think your comments about the Redskins getting Smith are spot on. One small correction: Br4d didn't say that Cousins' play declined. He said that the Redskins' play declined. Big difference. Cousins' play didn't decline. It improved, yet it wasn't enough to elevate the Redskins. I think he was making the point that why should we expect his play to elevate the Jets. He also was saying that Cousins is a good, but not great QB, so the Jets shouldn't be willing to pay him as if he is great.
"Getting a FQB should be a priority for the Jets but this is no Drew Brees situation with Cousins. He's been healthy for 3 years and his play and the Skins play have declined each year. If he was a franchise QB the Skins would have moved heaven and earth to sign him. What they saw though was a good QB instead and so they declined to sign him long-term to a FQB contract." To me, Br4d is saying Cousins play has declined and the Redskins play has too. Tying a connection between QB and team, which I do not necessarily subscribe to because of how many variables effect overall team performance. I agree that Cousins is not Elite, as in he's not Brady or Rodgers. IMO, Cousins is a top 10-12 QB that if you surround with pieces can win regularly with and can do so for a 5-7 year period.
That doesn't make sense. Sign Cousins for at least 4 years (which he will demand) and have your highest draft pick sit for 4-5 years????
The Redskins have been a mostly bad team the last 3 years. Cousins has carried them to decent records and results. Aaron Rodgers would have won a few playoff games with the Redskins during that stretch. There is only 1 Aaron Rodgers though. So to say Cousins is not elite, I can slightly agree with. He is above average though. Stafford makes $27 million a year, Carr makes $25 million a year and I think Cousins is pretty much as good as them so he will make similar. Just how the league works now. When you have gone through Clemens, Sanchez, Tebow, Geno, Fitz, Petty and McCown, Cousins looks like Peyton Manning. So attempting to sign him is a simple decision to me. Hopefully Darnold, Rosen, Allen and Mayfield succeed in the NFL. Not a given though. So any move you make is a risk. Mac needs to take a risk this year. Bottom line.
Our fellow fans are so fucked in the head a few have proclaimed they’d rather have McNown that Cousins. Of course, it’s probably the same group that wanted Fitzpatrick, so we aren’t a fan base with any reasonable perspective at the position. Cousins is better than any QB we’ve had other than Pennington, Favre and O’brien. The idea that he wouldn’t help this team is ludicrous. It ain’t like we are a team with a rich QB history. We don’t have the luxury or dismissing any decent QB.
I think this is exactly what happened. It wasn't so much that they didn't want Cousins - they did - but Cousins was determined to test the FA waters and wasn't going to willingly resign with them unless they paid him $34 million, and that was way too much in their estimation. I think if they could've signed him for 26-28 million - more than they just signed Smith for - they would've done it in a heartbeat, but they didn't have that option. As to whether the Jets should sign him, if you say yes, then do you have a limit on for how much? Playing Devil's Advocate for a second, if he enables you to win a SB or two (or more) then is there a "too much"? Of course you can't know ahead of time if he will, and that's the problem. He might well just turn out to be good enough to get them to the p.o., and never farther, in which case whatever you paid him - even 20 million - would be too much. There's another aspect to all this, and that's philosophy. Since the days of Werblin and Ewbank the Jets have not had a philosophy or real identity. For a brief moment they had the Sack Exchange, and later with Rex, Ground & Pound, but these weren't built upon any bedrock philosophy, they just grew up out of the circumstances of who they had playing an coaching for them. And this lack of team philosophy has had them chasing one way and then the next looking for success and never finding it - sort of like the lost little boy in the store looking for his mother, wandering around while she's wandering around then neither finding the other. So what does this have to do with Cousins? If they sign Cousins, they're going to be "chasing after the latest hot thing" hoping that he can show them the way. But if they don't already know the way, he's not going to get them there. Or if he does, it will still take a few years while he and the team figure things out. By then, MAYBE, they get to a SB, and then they'll have a couple of years of his productive career left, assuming they can keep all the other pieces around him. Or instead they could draft the guy they want to finally build a team around, based upon a bedrock philosophy that is not only in sync with their new QB, but with all the guys they sign to play with him, now and in the future, This is what BB did in NE, and this is why over the years, the supporting cast can change - even key pieces of it - but as long as they replenish them with guys who fit their philosophy, and they have the Key Ingredient - a true FQB - as a constant, they continue to win. After 50+ years of watching the Jets "chase their momma" around the store, this is the approach I want them to take. Yes, I would LOVE to see them win sooner than later, and if signing Cousins gets them there sooner, I'm not going be unhappy, but I would be even happier if I saw the team I've rooted for for over half a century finally learn how to become a consistent winner like the Patriots, Steelers, Packers, Broncos, Cowboys and Giants. I want to see them become the next dynasty, and I don't think signing Cousins, by himself, will accomplish that. They need to find their identity and build around that. That doesn't mean Cousins can't be a part of that, but given their track record, they'll simply go with trying to find short term success without any thought for the future.
This is one of the best and fairest posts I've seen on the QB issue. In terms of QB pay, yes it's how the league works now, but the Jets have the potential to get a QB as good or perhaps better than Cousins for a fraction of the pay, and who would fit in better with the timeline of the development of the Jets' roster. While the rookie is learning/developing, Mac (or the new GM if he's fired) would have time to fix the holes on the roster. In the interim, he could trot out McCown again at QB. Let him take whatever beating the Jets QB would take. If McCown is as awful as many think he would be, it would achieve two very great positives for the Jets. One, it would probably insure that Bowles and Mac get fired, and two, would have the Jets in prime position to get their new LT or stud edge rusher in next year's draft, or be able to trade down and get additional picks with which to upgrade the talent and depth of the team. Your last two statements are spot on.
Exactly. 100% agreed. Not sure why anyone thinks otherwise. Also, he has been in a toxic situation. I think he could play even better with a team who wants him like the Jets. Thanks. Yeah, I am not sold on Bowles or Mac either, but I want to win. That plan would still set the Jets back a couple of seasons. It is a tough situation wanting long term success, but not being sure if Mac/Bowles can deliver it.
