Mike Holmgren believes he made a critical error in letting Steve Hutchinson go two years ago. He's made that admission to numerous sources off the record in the intervening time. He thinks he took a potential super bowl contender over a period of 5 years and turned them into just a playoff team instead. I would expect the Seahawks to make every effort to rectify that initial mistake and Faneca qualifies. They'll offer him the 49 million dollar deal they would not give Hutchinson.
I understand what Faneca brings to the table in terms of grit, technique, and leadership, but I just don't think any of that is worth what it's going to cost to get him. Faneca will likely be looking for a contract in the neighborhood of what was signed last off season by lesser players and I just think he's a little too old for a contract like that. I think Bell is the better option. Stacey Andrews is a guy I'd love to bring in. Max Starks? He lost his starting job to a Hofstra guy who was atrocious this year. That doesn't say much about him. Both Dansby and Pace are excellent options. I can't see the Cards letting Dansby walk in free agency, and it seems like he actually is trying to work something out. He's by far their best defensive player. Calvin Pace would be an upgrade over Bryan Thomas, but we'd have to be careful bringing in a guy like that- we can't use him as a solution because he's more of a complementary type. Still, he had nearly as many sacks as the overrated Terrell Suggs. -X-
Do we have to wait till after the superbowl to start making moves? or can we do something right now???
Faneca is an all-pro Left Guard, not just a gritty leader with strong technique. He's probably one of the top 3 Left Guards in the business right now. He'll slip a bit, but he's definitely worth the contract for the first couple of years. The question is whether or not he'd come here given other good alternatives and I'm guessing the answer is no.
Plus , they are a team that will probably go back to the play-offs next year. With time not on his side , hes looking for another ring
Faneca would be priority #1 for me. Suggs if he hits the market is #2. Faneca is going to get big $$ from someone but he is exactly what the Jets need. An all pro guard with plenty of size skill and experince for the two younger guys next to him to lean on and learn from. Yes it will be a big hit to our cap, but we have no bigger need than our offensive line. We need to be front runners in that race.
$27 Million is what we have, but many other teams have lots of money as well. I'm going to guess we'll be lucky to get one good player. We can afford to focus on one player and not any more, otherwise, we'll lose them all.
The 27 million in cap space probably means two quality free agents and a significant contract extension for Rhodes if the Jets want to go all-out. Cap figures on a 40 to 50 million dollar five year deal would normally be about 9 to 10 million in the first year. That can get tweaked a bit, with a lower or higher salary in year one of the deal but that's ballpark. Assuming they were available and willing and that we chose to go all-out we could sign Faneca, Suggs and Rhodes and still come in under the cap by quite a bit in the end.
About the only thing we can do right now since the FA market opens on March 1st is cut JMac, Clement, and Clarke.
He would be a tremendous signing, but there is a good chance the Colts will resign him or/and RG Scott
Faneca had his ass handed to him by your all-time favorite Jet, Dewayne Robertson. All players have weaknesses, but I was not impressed by what I saw of him in the few times I saw him this season. It's one thing to bring in a veteran to stopgap your line problems, but you are suggesting they do exactly what they were doing while Bradway was GM, overpay for an overrated veteran.
The only Bradway signing that is similar to Faneca is Ty Law, and the Jets never intended to keep him for more than a season or two at most. What signing Faneca would do would be to break with the practices of the Jets recent regimes and sign an uninjured all-pro to a significant contract. I don't know that the Jets have EVER done this since free agency arrived.
I'm surprised that no one is talking about Gross,he's generally considered one of the top right tackles in the league.
If we are going to sign a guard in free agency we should look at how his team faired this past year. Pittsburgh racked up a ton of rushing yards but had difficulty making third down conversions and making touchdowns by running the football. Tennessee on the other hand ran over everybody this year. For this reason 9as well as age and asking price) I would target Jacob Bell and pay him whatever it takes to make him our starting left tackle. If we were going to sign an aging vet like Faneca, why didn't we just keep Pete Kendall?
I guess he wasn't originally supposed to be a FA this season but he met a clause in his contract that allows him to be a FA now. That's probably why not a lot of people mention him.
That's kind of like saying: if we were going to sign an aging vet like Vinny Testaverde why didn't we just keep Neil O'Donnell? There's a difference between a very good player and a decent one, and Faneca is and always has been a very good player, whereas Pete Kendall was just a decent one. Where the Jets fell short last year was in trying to replace a decent Left Guard with a hole.
Exactly, he would be a much better signing then the other O-lineman everyone is soiling themselves over............... Gross and Scott would be a younger, better combo than Faneca and <insert any other cheap option fot RT because the jets broke the bank at LG> Also I agree with Abyzmul 100%. Faneca was much less than impressive whenever I saw him this year. Why would anyone want to break the bank for that guy for 2-3 years is beyond me. Especially when there are much younger options available. The most successful Free agents the Jets ever had were younger players just coming into their own <cough><cough> Mawae, CMart<cough><Cough>, not aging vets close to the downside, if not there already............................... I really do not have to bring up examples of Kimo or some other bust do I?
