It's thinking like that that gave Nnamdi Asomugha a $14.5mil average between this season and next, and a QB franchise tender for 2011. Paying Lito $5-7 is a great way to ruin the team's ability to sign rookies.
It's possible that Lito tests the FA waters and comes back for a couple of million with performance and games-played incentives. No way in hell they keep him with his current contract, he has only played 4 games past the halfway point.
I like the idea of Lowery and Sheppard sharing time as #2CB... for one more year at least. Then in 2011 we draft another CB.
Tory Holt, 2 catches for 24 yards. I'd take that over a player who has spent more time in the doctors office than the field. Problem with Lito is, his new contract will be huge. I think it averages like $6 mil a season if Im correct. I sure don't wanna pay that much, lose an higher draft pick, AND to see him get injured for half the season. He has been very injury prone his entire career and has only two seasons where he was active in all 16 games. Maybe Philadelphia is cursed. McNabb has 7 out of 11 seasons where he didn't play all the 16 games. Westbrook has never played a full season. Whatever. If Lito is to come back, it has to be a release and sign type of a deal where we would try to sign him to a new and lowered contract, not the one we had offered initially. I am impressed by Lowery. He has been solid this yr, not giving up awful lot. He could be better though and with time, he will. Nickel is perfect for him, but I've seen him cover even Moss pretty nicely. I like his future. He will eventually be our starting CB next yr or in his 4th year barring injury. Him and Strickland would be pretty good at the #2 CB and Nickel spot.
Lowery also got burned a few times against that Sims-Walker guy. He was the weak spot in our passing zones in the first half, they had to put Revis on Sims-Walker in the second half because of Lowery. Rex wants 2 man-cover corners so he doesn't have to send the house all day long and tire out his from 7. Lowery is definitely not there, if he is even starting corner material.
I missed most of the first half but some people are making it sound like Holt had a career game against Lowery. Sims Walker is having an excellent year and we kept him to just 3 catches 49 yards. Not bad at all there either. Like I said, I didn't see most of the first half, but I have generally been pretty impressed by Lowery over his 25 games.
I suspect that Lito will be on the roster next season, but there is no way they are paying him the $10,000,000 bonus. Could be a release and sign kind of thing.
Maybe you should watch it then before expressing strong opinions about how players performed in it. Lowery looked overmatched in the first half. It was obvious. With Lito on the field, this defense is tremendously improved. If you think 5-7 mil for our second corner is too much, you don't know much about some combination of current cap dynamics or this teams defensive scheme. We play a lot of man coverage on the outside, you can't fill that slot with some scrub #2 like you would if we played more zone coverages. For example, Jabari Greer got 6 mil a year last offseason from the Saints. He's got skills, but he was well off the cutting edge of corner deals, he's about the sort of guy we'd be looking to sign if we don't keep Lito. Barring some incredible progress in Lowery's game, it'll be Lito next year, or it'll be a new face. And FYI, when Revis's deal is up, theres a pretty good shot he'll be signing a record deal for a defensive player. It wouldn't be the first time a corner has been the highest paid defensive player in the league, and right now, there aren't many you can argue are better.
That right there is the reason why the Jets shouldn't be spending $5-7million for the 2nd CB. Just because the year is uncapped doesn't mean that money suddenly becomes infinite. And I still cannot see why you want to spend that much money on an aging corner with injury problems who can only play, at most, 3/4 of this season's games.
IMO, Lowery's been better than Lito this season. Didn't think we lost a thing with Lito out. Lito is also an awful tackler, he missed one on the Sims-Walker td I believe.
The two reasons I've articulated here already. 1, 5 mil is not a lot of money on the cornerback market. 2, in order to free up defenders for Rex's overload blitzes, you have to have cornerbacks who can hold up in man coverage. You can't go hunting for bargains at corner if you want to be able to bring 8 man blitzes. If there's a younger and cheaper guy who can get the job done, fine, but I'd be surprised if there is. Lito's a good player in a position where we have to have a good player, and by no stretch is he overpaid for the position.
Please, show me the evidence that $5million is the average salary for a #2 corner, since you're such an expert on salary cap dynamics vis-a-vis the #2 corner back position. Also, what about the fact that Lito is only earning $3mil this year? What the Hell has he done thus far to earn a $2mil raise? Yes, it's important to have corner backs who can cover man-to-man on the field if you're going to send blitzers. I mean that in the sense that you shouldn't really try it with 9 players. Corners are not the players that make blitzes effective, it's the pass rushers. Lowery was our starter against Tennessee(win) and New Orleans(Held Brees to 10 points and under 200 yards which has only happened twice this year). If you want a pass rush, you invest in the DL and LB corps. Lowery is already under contract and can effectively when this team has a pass rush. Baltimore's starting corners last year were Fabian Washington and a very old version of Sumari Rolle who is no longer in the league, and not by his own choice. And as for this little Gem: 2007: The 49ers sign Nate Clemens to an $80mil contract including $22mil in guarantees, making him the highest paid defensive player in the league. They go 5-11 with their defense ranking 22nd against the pass, 20th in scoring. In 2008, 7-9 20th against he pass, 23rd in scoring. 2009: The Oakland Raiders give Nnamdi Asomugha a three year contract with $28.5mil guaranteed in the first 2 years which can escalate to $45mil total guaranteed if the team picks up an option for a third season. Thus far: 25th in scoring, 14th against the pass - a statistic which is artificially bolstered due to the 31st overall ranking against the run. Teams that spend that much money on the secondary are typically: 1. indicative of horrible, horrible front offices and 2. left with little money to spend on other positions of the defense, positions which are typically more likely to make a play on the ball (DLine, LB corps).
Let's see how Lito plays the rest of the season before we think one way or the other, as he has only played a few games worth of defense for us. We have 7 more games to see how he does, which is about double the amount of time he's played for us so far
Not gonna bother quoting you, because your logic is horrible. Bad teams signing good corners and continuing to be bad doesn't mean much if you only decide to discuss the bad teams. The Eagles shelled out big bucks for Asante Samuel and Ellis Hobbs, wanna talk about how horrible they are at building a roster? For everything the Raiders do poorly, you won't find a single person (excluding yourself) who says keeping Asomugha was a bad idea. Lets see, I cited Jabari Greer a few posts back, he was signed for 6 mil a year to compete for a starting job. He's turned into a pretty quality starter though, so they got a winner on that deal. Generally speaking teams have been overpaying for corners for years, remember when the Jets signed David Barrett? I'm sure you don't, but they had to pay like 4 or 5 mil a year to get him, and that was in 2004, AND he was a terrible player. More important than any of that, in 2005 with Rex Ryan as the defensive coordinator and Chris McAllister installed at cornerback and playing himself into consideration for 'Best in the NFL' status, the Ravens signed pro bowl CB Samari Rolle away from the Titans. Look, if you want to reject the logic of having a quality secondary to back up a blitzing front thats your business (you're disagreeing with the coaches, but again, your business). You have to at least accept history, which shows Ryan is going to make it his business to have pro bowl-level talent at both corner spots. As for Litos deal, its not a raise, he's coming off a contract squabble that mostly sat him on the bench for a year in Philly, he's on a 3 mil 'prove it' deal to be followed by a solid market deal at 6 mil a year if the Jets decide that he has, in fact, 'proven it.' His play when he's been on the field has been great at times; at others he's missed some tackles. And he had the injury. I said it earlier, as have others, my thinking is if he stays healthy the next 7 games and plays the way he played against the Pats in week 2, he'll be a Jet in 2010.
