If we can't get Brick to take a pay cut, the question becomes whether we can replace his production with the 9 million we'd save by cutting him.
wilk>trevethan and we are not rebuilding. 10-6 teams don't rebuild, they tweak. that's what we will be doing after we lock up mo,fitz,snacks and powell. add couple of jags at cb,te,lb. to see if they can upgrade what is already in place or to replace cro and d.davis. a few of the young o lineman will get long looks in otas at rt and rg and that will be the 2016 team. we are in good shape(or as good a shape you can be in without an elite qb)
Wilk is better than Trevathan alone, but he's not better than 2 or 3 players (Trevathan, a TE - either Dwayne Allen, Jared Cook, or Ladarius Green, and a new starting RG or RT, or Travis Benjamin).
maybe but 1. we are not guaranteed to get any let alone of all those. 2. this is free agency, getting all of that is liable to cost us more than wilk and we still have to replace mo's 12 sacks. all while the locker room grumbles about outside guys getting paid while the guys that develope here are shown the door. bad look for the team. have to pay your talent.
True. Well, I would trust Mac not to spend more than that and to spend only what we could afford. Just because Mo got 12 sacks this year against a easier schedule doesn't mean he would get that many this year against tougher teams. I think he's being greedy and looking for too much money, more than he deserves. If he wasn't, I'd want to re-sign him, but I truly believe he's looking for $16 million per season or more, and imo he just isn't worth that. The Steelers don't worry about that (paying talent more than they're worth), and it hasn't seemed to hurt them too much. The same goes for the Pats. If we want this team to become a true contender, we have to get over this fan loyalty to players. We have to want what's best for the team.
It's a risky proposition to get rid of Wilkerson, but did anyone really look at him and his 12 sacks and say wow we have a dynamic pass rush. I would bet for a guy with double digit sacks he did not rank that high in quarterback pressures. I'm not saying he's not a very good player, but I'd say the 12 sacks is a lot more replaceable than one would think. Do we get 2 or 3 players with that $15 million and add a ton of team speed to our defense, or do we save him and pray his production stays at double digit sacks and not bounce up and down from 10.5 to 6 to 12 like it has so far? It's going to be interesting.
If it comes down to keeping brick or snacks, which probably is the situation, who do you keep? The best run-stopping NT in the league or a over-the-hill, bottom 10 LT?
Good question. There's no doubt that Snacks is by far the superior player, but Brick plays the more important position. Finding a replacement for Brick would be harder than finding a replacement for Snacks, and the OL is in much worse shape than the DL.
That's fair. There are no easy, straight-forward solutions. There are positives and negatives to almost every move. Mac is in a tough spot. Someone is going to be unhappy with him no matter what he does. We're going to wind up losing some players that we want to keep or aren't going to be able to address any holes/needs except possibly in the middle and lower rounds of the draft.
Now if Mo can play DE and LT like they did in the old days I would be cool with paying him $15.5 mil.
Pay him at the cost of losing another player who will earn that money? I'm not so sure. Going BPA might include a top prospect at linebacker, which we all know the Jets could really use, or even a Qb if a good one dropped to the Jets (unlikely, but still). But maybe they go OT in the first round. I disagree they have no choice.
We all know Fitzpatrick's limitations. But I agree with you - in the locker room and on the field he is a leader, and he helps set the tone. His enthusiasm and optimism is catching, and is one of the reasons Marshall, one of the two or three best players on the team, is so comfortable and productive with the Jets. Continuing a winning approach and attitude would be disrupted if Fitz is not brought back.
Again I think you make a fair point here, especially the one about the state of the roster comparing the OL with the DL. Also about the importance of your LT. But I am not totally on board that Ferguson would be so difficult to replace.
Yeah, I gotta say entering the off season I thought it was no question that the Jets would bring him back, but if there's any question about it, I have to think doing so is a more important and necessary move for them over any other, including what to do about Wilkerson. Wilkerson is the better player, for sure, but the Jets need Fitz more.
Again we are on the same page . Fitz brings more to the table then just being a signal caller , he's a respected leader and makes guys want to "run through walls" for him as people like to say. We need Fitz Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I meant that they have no good choices. Their only other choices, as I see them, are to pay whatever Cleveland wants for Joe Thomas, sign one of the FA LTs and pray he works out, find a trading partner in the top 5 and pay them whatever they want to get a chance to draft Stanley (Tunsil's going #1), reach for another OT in the 1st round, or try to trade down and hope they can get Spriggs and have to start him. You don't want to be over a barrel and have the player have all the leverage, but that's where the Jets are imo. IMO you don't want to start a rookie at LT if you can absolutely help it unless he's the consensus best LT in the draft, and even then there are no guarantees. You also don't want to enter the draft having to draft a player at that position. You want to try to go with the BPA. You seek to fill holes/address need in FA.
You're probably right, but based on the average per year there are 5 RBs making 8m or higher per year. Is Ivory top 5? Maybe if he stayed healthy, but he never does, so yeah I'll concede that he'll probably get less, somewhere in the range of 6-7m. But he's not going to get 4m, he's much better than that and still in his prime. But who knows? If the Jets had a better oline, he might not get so banged up every year. I don't remember people laughing at Buffalo. I remember the analysts saying it was a great pickup for Buffalo.
I don't disagree with anything you say here. But I will add that while teams signing FA's can be said in general to overpay somewhat, on average, we know that performing Ferguson's current contract will definitely mean overpaying him. And while I agree using the draft, using a rookie at LT, is risky, we can't rule out as I said having the Jets go OL in the first round, anyway. Sure there are other issues with the OL than Ferguson's contract, and that concededly is also leverage in his favor. But other measures remain open to the Jets to fix the OL. Most likely what will happen is the Jets and Ferguson will redo his contract. But if they don't and he says pay me or cut me, I predict they will cut him rather than pay what is due under the current contract.
