Franchise Bryce Huff

Here's an article from Heavy on the Jets: https://heavy.com/sports/new-york-j...onitor&utm_term=Click+here+for+the+full+story

In the article, Jason Fitzgerald of Over the Cap.com says that he thinks that the Jets will sign Huff to an 11th hour deal, that will probably be in the $17-$18 million per season range.

 

Clearly the guy knows his CAP . 17-18 per is exactly what I am thinking a multi year deal will look like, smack in the middle between 15 and 20. I just think Huff may not accept this extension without checking out the market first. In that scenario I am proposing to use transition tag, so that we can match any offer he may receive. Suppose 49ers or Miami (insert any team here) will give him similar offer and he picks them over us. Transition tag would not allow that to happen, hence significantly increasing the likelihood of signing our extension.

Also, the Jets have 2 premium picks in the draft, and two 4th rounders plus #6, and likely 3 comp #7s. They can use some of these picks to move around the board a little bit, but I suspect 3 of the top 4 including top 2 will be for offense. Ideally Fashanu, a WR, and another OL. This is a deep OL class. Even with the 4th rounder, especially if they add a 7th or so to move up they may find a decent interior OL man. Then in FA market maybe we can get a bigger name or two OT/WR, and then guys like Fant, Eluemunor, and others I mentioned can help round out the roster. One thing I would not do though is grossly overpay players to come here.

It will not be easy, but it's all doable, and JD needs to step up and finally get it done this year. Maybe when he is on his own he will actually do better. I just feel like it can be done without giving up the only good pass rusher we have, whom we will need this year if we are to complete for play-offs and maybe more.

 

You usually have to “overpay” to get the top guys in free agency - I.e. offer them the most money and rather quickly as soon as it starts.

We have to sacrifice from defense for offense. Four of our top six players are on defense and the two offensive players in that mix are Rodgers and the legendary Laken Tomlinson. You want to make it 5/7 by adding Huff and really strap our cap situation for the beginning of free agency in the name of trying to get a draft pick back for a player we’ll likely lose if we don’t.

 

You usually have to “overpay” to get the top guys in free agency - I.e. offer them the most money and rather quickly as soon as it starts.

We have to sacrifice from defense for offense. Four of our top six players are on defense and the two offensive players in that mix are Rodgers and the legendary Laken Tomlinson. You want to make it 5/7 by adding Huff and really strap our cap situation for the beginning of free agency in the name of trying to get a draft pick back for a player we’ll likely lose if we don’t.

 

I am not trying to get a draft pick back, I am trying to keep our pass rush intact and not regress in key area on defense while still addressing needs on OL and another WR. Like I said it is possible to do both with the assets we have. We will need to agree to disagree on this.

 

We had 7 sacks that game. Huff got 2 of them. (Q got 2, WMD, JJ, and Holmes got 1). That was a pad the stats game against a team that quit.

Huff played 480 snaps (42%) and had 29 tackles, 10 of them sacks, and 21 QB hits.
WMD played 184 snaps (19%) and had 19 tackles, 3 of them sacks, and 5 QB hits.

WMD had a much better tackling percentage, and only slightly behind Huff in sack/hit percentage. And we have to factor in that WMD was in his rookie year and still learning. You could make the argument right now that he should be starting over Huff next year. When you factor in we used the 15 overall pick on him than he should definitely be starting next year. You don't take a DE 15th overall and than sit him multiple years on his rookie deal. He needs to develop.

IMO, if Huff wont accept 15 million a year the defense will still be fine, and we can find better ways to spend that money. Our roster requires a lot of management and any mistakes will hurt.

 

Pad the stats game or not, the guy leads the league in pressure % according to ESPN for all year, not one game. And like I said before it was same for others as well. I am not taking one game, I am taking all season, including the game where everyone else played too. You can't just ignore the fact QB rating is so much lower with Huff on the field as compared to other Edges. I understand it is not just him, but it is meaningful. I get your point about overestimating, but do not underestimate him either. He has big time ability to get to QB, while average/solid in running game. Plus still improving in his prime at 25. That has a lot of value.

Now, as far as McD, I have the pressure numbers from PFF. He had 12 total (sacks, hits, hurries) on 99 snaps, for 12.1 pressure rate. That is not anywhere near Huff. He is only one year younger too. Now, Saleh likes to rotate Edges, so McD, JJ, and Huff can all get a lot of snaps with JFM going inside or traded. This is assuming McD will be good. Just because he was drafted 15 doesn't mean anything. But if he is good, then he won't have to sit, we will have McD, Huff, JJ rotation for a lot of snaps each. And with Rodgers healthy and better OL, there SHOULD be more leads and more pass rushing snaps, where these guys will torment the QB. We cannot lose this edge. Especially if McD cannot improve his pressure rate.

 

No matter what you say, you’re still advocating to have $20 million less to spend on the offense when we already will be pretty low on the ladder of cap space comparatively to the rest of the teams in the league. And that statement factors in all of the restructuring we’re going to do to railroad our 2025 and 2026 cap numbers.

So when we need two new tackles, a WR2, realistically a better than average depth guard at the minimum (keeping AVT’s injury recovery in mind), and a backup QB, I’d say signing a situational pass rusher at $20 million AND filling all those gaps is going to be pretty difficult.

Tackle is also very limited in terms of quality free agents this year. So it’s going to be very competitive to get one of the top couple. Becton is like the 4th or 5th best listed tackle available. So your advocating to bargain hunt and end up with the same crap line we had this year.

 

If signing Huff for this season means borrowing 17 million from future years, I'm not all in on that. I didn't draft WMD but since we did we have to follow the direction the team is being built. Otherwise its just more slapdash JD cobbling.

 

I was livid with JD last year for how he built the line. Literally every single OT he was counting on (Duane, Max, Billy, Becton) played like absolute shit the year before and all had season ending injuries. Becton could not be counted on at all as we did not see him in two years. And as a 5th guy he got older rookie Carter Warren as 4th round trade down, who was also injury prone. I wanted guys like Broderick Jones, then Dawand Jones when he slid, and FAs who actually played well last year. I took a lot of heat when I was criticizing it the line JD assembled prior to the year even started.

So, what I would do now is try to bring in one of the high end OTs you are suggesting. But I am also advocating that some of these players will come from the draft. Ideally #10 overall (Fashanu) will take up one of the starting OT spot. Then guys like Eluemunor and Fant could round out the position, with Warren as #5 OT and Max on PS. 3d round pick could be a WR or a Guard, and same with 4th round picks. I do like Pittman also. We could also sign guys like Risner, Cleveland, etc to round out the roster. The point is that yes, there will be a couple of higher end signings without grossly overpaying, but we will also need to get solid bargain players as well good draft choices to succeed. Not every offensive player has to be massive overspend. And it will be a drastic improvement from last year, while keeping the best pass rusher we have, who is only 25. Back-up QB will be filled after trading Zach and freeing up his CAP space #, so should not impact the net.

 

In contrary, losing premier pass rusher who is also solid/average in running game at 25 years of age because we fucked up and drafted McD would be compounding on previous mistakes again and again, causing our demise. We need to stop this at some point, and this point is now. If needed get rid of JFM or move him inside. But JJ/Huff/McD needs to be the Edge rotation next year.

After that if McD is as good as Huff, we could consider trading one of them. Or keep both if they are wrecking opposing QBs. At least we will have an option. But right now there is only one premier pass rusher on the team, and we cannot get rid of him and compound on previous mistakes.

 

That’s the point though dude. You’re not bringing in a higher end tackle and giving Huff $20 million.

I also don’t think we have much of a choice but to take a tackle at 10. I think Tomlinson sucks, Tippman is relatively unproven and AVT can’t be relied on. So depth is important.

 

I think we can do both (20 mil will be initial tag, but then per annum # will be smaller, like 17-18), but I am not even sure we can bring a higher end tackle at all even if we want to. JD tried last year with Orlando Brown and he went elsewhere even though we offered more. Most likely what will happen if we do not tag Huff is that we lose him AND don't get a high end OT. No matter how you slice it, tagging Huff is a must. Then we can go from there.

But there is a huge difference between getting solid guys at OL who played well last year, but are not stars if we cannot get one, which is what we may end up doing, and also using 1st round pick for tackle, as compared what JD did last year, which is to get injury prone guys who sucked a year before, use 1st rounder elsewhere, and call it a day.

 

It's hard to commit that kind of money on Huff if you don't know that he can do the job for 3 downs. Saleh isn't gonna last forever with that rotation, and that is 3 downs money.

 

Huff is put in on obvious passing downs to do one thing. He’s our version of Carl Lawson before we brought Lawson here. Paying him top tier Edge money would be a disaster. We have plenty of money and talent stocked on D.

 

Let me preface this by saying we should be trading Rodgers, and probably one of our young stars, and get back to building a long term winning roster. Not this costly cobble that extends our misery for years. That said:

Lets look at this from a roster management standpoint. Lawson, Whitehead, and Browns restructure bonus' have kicked in. We now have 1.6 million to spend. Were here because we went all in already, pushing money back with restructures. Pick 10 will ding us about 4.5 million this year, and if we make all our picks, another 5 million. So we'll need around 10 million for draft picks alone.

Where are we going to make all this extra cap room to sign all the FA talent? We already did major restructuring last year. Do you think many will be interested in doing it again? How many years are we willing to throw away by borrowing from them?

Some expensive blood is going to have to hit the deck which means needing more FAs. We likely will cut Tomilson and maybe JFM, but they would require replacements, and all of their money would need to go to signing Huff. We'll end up sacrificing way to much and struggle to build an o-line, or get a decent WR, or backup QB, etc. And quality depth - forget it. Our depth is one of the worst in the league at most positions.

We have used two first rounders on DE. That's how JD has built us, and like it or not, we have to follow the logic of his build. We cant keep dumping future resources into DL with all our other holes. Its the same pattern that hamstrings us every year. Accept when we did it last time we had a 90 million in cap space, and 5 top 50 picks. Now we're at 1.6 million and one top 50 pick. We cant have our pie and eat it to. Its to late to go back now without a soft rebuild. Losing Bryce Huff isn't the end of the world because we're not a SB roster, and on our current path wont be for years.

 

he is on a 4-13 team

 

Huff is gone. When Joe Idiot Douglas wasted our top 15 pick last year on McDonald, he gave up all leverage the jets may have had on Huff. Every other NFL team knows the jets can't keep Huff AND McDonald, they are both part-time edge rushers. The jets would not get squat in a tag and tarde. Huff will walk thanks to Joe Idiot.

 

Yes and yes!!

Huff is a luxury this team simply can't afford if it requires the tag. The team has other pass rushers coming into their own and the team has so many more holes that need addressed. As you implied there, you just "feel" they are going to make the wrong stupid decision(s) everywhere they possibly can. They will do whatever they "feel" gives them the best chance to win today. Which, no matter what they do, will result in, as I predict, fewer wins than last year. We all know the o-line is the key here, no matter who is under center. The long term failure of JD will not, cannot be fixed in one off season and they do not have the proven coaching in place to attack the equation from that angle. They are aware but have no clue, concept or imagination on how to solve that singular piece so they'll make decision after decision to throw whatever they can at the problem. The result, as you state, will be long term purgatory that will have us another decade without a playoff win as we dig out from under this self-created exile because Wood-rough is too stupid to move on now.

Rodgers really is the gift that keeps on "giving."