I don't think there's any danger of JD not drafting a TE, even if he signs Schultz. Kroft is a FA and shouldn't be re-signed. Griffin sucks and should be cut for the cap space. Wesco is a marginal NFL player and should only be kept if they just can't see a way to add 3 new TEs. Yeboah can be the 4th. I would love to see a TE corps of Schultz or Njoku, Ruckert, either Otton, Turner, Dulcich, Ferguson, Lively, Kolar, or maybe even Jelani Woods, and Yeboah as the #4. That would give us a quality TE corps.
Yeah, I saw that damnit! I wanted Njoku. I don't even know why the Browns would do that. Is he even their full-time starter. He only started 11 games this past season, but appeared in 16. It looks like he may have had some injury issues for the two seasons before that. 2018 was the only other season in his career where he started the majority of their games. Well, that means we're going to be looking at Maxx Williams, Robert Tonyan, CJ Uzomah, Tyler Conklin, Mo Alie-Cox, OJ Howard, maybe Ricky Seals-Jones, and the like at TE in FA. I hope that Ertz, Everett and Ebron aren't even considerations.
Why are there so few TE’s? Are they just poor fits for the O line or too good at catching to waste in o line?
That also means that TEs become hotter commodities in the draft forcing teams to reach if they want one.
Don’t care about Gesicki at all but losing Schultz and Njoku is a huge blow. Njoku was already a distant second option behind schultz. Looks like we are going to have to rely heavily on a rookie tight end and maybe try to get some moisture out of a rock with OJ Howard.
I read somewhere JD was interested in Max Williams….that wouldn’t be a bad signing provided McBride or Ruckert is drafted also.
Like with all valuable commodities, the only sure path is to draft your own. Counting on signing a guy who can make a big impact - on either side of the ball - tends to be fool's gold...there's always a reason their current team doesn't want them badly enough to keep them. Sure in some cases it's because their current team doesn't have the cap space, but those teams usually are playoff teams, and players don't usually want to leave a playoff caliber team to go to a perennial loser like the Jets unless they get way overpaid. I'm hoping JD has a couple of mid-level TEs targeted who would at least improve what we have, and then goes for his stud TE in the draft.
The best way to get a good one is identifying one in the draft. Kittle, Kelce, Andrews, Freiermuth, Waller, and Gronk were taken on day 2 or later. Sign a FA who can contribute this year while the rookie adjusts to the NFL. If the draft pick makes an impact in year 1, we're in a great situation.
In order, my preferences for signing aTE in FA are as follows: 1.Tyler Conklin 2. Robert Tonyan 3. Maxx Williams 4. CJ Uzomah 5. Mo Alie-Cox 6. Ricky Seals-Jones 7. Durham Smythe* 8. OJ Howard * A potential darkhorse signing. In case you don't know who Durham Smythe is (I had never heard of him until I looked at the Spotrac FA TE list), he plays for Miami. He played collegiately at Notre Dame. Last season with the Dolphins, even with Gesicki, he appeared in all 17 games, played 716 snaps, had 34 receptions, for 357 yards, an average of 10.5 per catch. He's only 26, and has only missed two games in his 4-year career. He is 6'6" & 246 lbs., so could be a weapon in the Red Zone. His numbers have improved every year, so he's an ascending player. He's probably not a starting caliber TE, but maybe a solid #2 or #3 TE. @FJF and others who live in Florida, and those who follow Notre Dame, is he worth signing? Can he block? Does he drop many passes?
Wasn't a fan of schulz, njoku or gesicki anyway. I'd sign 2....uzomah, Alie-Cox or Howard and see if something pops. all 3 are athletic outliers.
Agreed with signing 2 and then adding one in the draft. Alie-Cox is intriguing, but haven't heard his name mentioned much.
I would be ok with a combo of Gerald Everett or Maxx Williams in FA and Trey McBride in the draft. I'd even be ok with re-signing Kroft on the cheap to be TE3 behind 2 of the guys listed above.
It's hard to feel like this TE situation isn't just same old Jets, even if we couldn't help it. We're going to end up bargain bin shopping. I mean Uzomah? Allie-Cox? Howard? Maxx Williams? We're pretending that the Jets of all teams are going to be able to unlock some potential that much better teams haven't been able to. Unfortunately we have no choice and we're going to have to hope we land a stud TE in the draft.
It feels like a third of the teams in the league have managed to snag a good to very good TE in the mid rounds and here we are acting like the position doesn't exist for the last few years. How has nobody in the building realized modern TE's are basically big WR's who can also help protect your QB? They're crazy valuable.
