Spot on man, if I’m Jets I try and trade him and get some value in return where I can probably draft another QB, CB or just sign a FA.
This year will be the deciding factor as to whether he can really command that giant salary, though. They limited him with zone coverage the past 2 seasons and he got picked on a lot by the better receivers because they knew where he would be. They gameplanned it. If he really travels this season then I see a couple of possibilities: 1) He locks down most top receivers he covers and puts together a headline season. His price tag is somewhere on the moon. 2) He struggles for part or most of the season and his price tag becomes more realistic, although he turns out to be not quite the killer we had hoped. Neither is ideal but the Jets can't be dumb and cave like they did with Revis if Sauce is the real deal.
Cool little write up on Sauce, and his future with the Jets...give it a click! Sauce Gardner Sounds off on Long-Term Future With the Jets (msn.com) Sauce Gardner made his stance very clear on his preferred future with the New York Jets. Gardner took to social media to say, “I wanna be a New York Jet for the rest of my career.” It’s unclear what prompted this response. Gardner, 23, is entering his third professional season in 2024. After this upcoming year, Gardner will become eligible to speak with the Jets about a long-term deal for the first time in his Gardner Is Set to Receive a Historic Extension The Jets made Gardner the No. 4 overall pick in the first round of the 2022 NFL draft. Rookie deals are slotted in the big leagues so there was no negotiation required for his first contract. Gardner signed a four-year deal for $33.4 million and the Jets will have a fifth-year option to make on his contract next offseason. If they accept it, he will be under team control for at least the next two seasons through 2026. If they decline it, Gardner would become a free agent after the 2025 campaign. How much that fifth-year option is worth depends on playing time, one Pro Bowl, or multiple Pro Bowls. Gardner through two seasons has already punched in two Pro Bowls and two first-team All-Pro campaigns. The fifth-year option for 2021 first-round cornerbacks that have achieved the maximum amount of variables is $19.8 million. Pro Football Focus graded Gardner as the No. 1 cornerback in the NFL following the 2023 season. Gardner with that ranking and other accolades could make a strong case that he should be the highest paid at his position. According to Over The Cap, Green Bay Packers star Jaire Alexander holds the title with a $21 million per year average. Alexander is in the midst of a four-year deal for $84 million. That could be the starting point for the negotiations next offseason to lock in Gardner on a multi-year deal.
Exactlt why you don’t extend him. Let some other team pay that money. When Rodgers leaves we have no QB, Wilson/Corley/Brownlee/Gipson will be the WR’s (we must sign GW long term), and 3 of our current OL starters will be gone. We will be so far from contention that it’s gonna be a complete restart. Having 100-200m tied into a CB when we’ll be rebuilding is a total disaster. Tag and trade him when the time comes
I understand your reasoning for this, and that may have to happen, but I hope that it doesn't. I would only do that as a last resort. Doing that sends a terrible message to the rest of the team, to FAs, and to potential draftees, and that message is "Do really well, and we're going to trade you as we're not going pay you big money. It doesn't matter if you want to play for the Jets and spend your whole career here, you're not going to unless you are willing to play for way below your value or aren't very good." Mosely will be gone when Rodgers is gone. Conklin will be gone. IMO the young players who right now are the core of this team and going forward should continue to be are Sauce, G. Wilson, JJ, Breece, AVT, Q, and Quincy. Hopefully, Fashanu, Corley, and maybe Allen join that list. Until the Jets get a CS who is able to develop a young QB, they're not going to win anything anyway, but at least Sauce and the others (if they want to stay, which is a big IF at this point) will at least keep the team competitive and somewhat entertaining. If the Jets start trading off their best players. There will be no reason to follow this joke of a franchise any more.
Name me one elite CB in the past 2 decades that played on one team. They don’t exist. The reason they don’t exist is because the only way you can pay a CB elite money is if they’re one of the final pieces to the puzzle. Giving him a massive long term deal takes money from other crucial positions we’re going to need desperately to rebuild this team.
sorry guys I totally disagree. To me, we tend to overthink things and get convoluted in all this future cap mgmt stuff. Yes that’s critical and yes it’s important. But to me, a team doesn’t get better by letting good players go. It’s not that hard. When you get good players, KEEP THEM. ESPECIALLY when you drafted them. The key is not to wait until they are due. So we have Sauce, GW, and JJ, and also Breece…all coming up at about the same time. That’s tough no doubt. But that’s what a good GM is supposed to manage. We have 5th year options on the first 3 guys as they were first rounders. But I wouldn’t rely on that. If it were my call, I’d extend as many of those guys as I could like now. This year. Don’t let it get to a standoff year because thats when you lose them. I would honestly extend all four of those guys. What seems expensive now will be a bargain in 2 years. It just always is because the cap keeps going up and salaries follow that trend. Letting these guys go would be stupid and hurt us more than help us. Lord knows we’ve drafted more duds than studs…now that we have a few studs, gotta keep them. Those are all premium positions, not like we’re talking a safety or LB or something. CB, WR, pass rusher…all critical to success. Breece as a RB isn’t so much that the position is premium, but he’s one of the few backs who makes it so, especially for our team. With a better line and AR behind center so that the defense will not be able to stack the box as much, Breece will probably ball out this year. Gonna be fun, but letting them go will hurt us not help us.
Name one Elite CB that stayed on one team. Name one SB team that had an elite CB they drafted and gave a huge 2nd contract.
Who cares? Teams with the best players win. Letting the best player at his position walk is inarguably a bad idea.
Teams with the best QB and team win. Teams that can’t put a good team around a young QB because 20% of the cap is invested in a CB don’t win. Just imagine if Sauce was under his second contract 2 years ago, how bad a shape we’d be in right now. Think about that. No Rodgers, stuck with Zach, no FA’s on the OL, only GW and the young guys. We’re already heavily invested in QW. When Rodgers is gone so is Mike Williams, Trent Smith, Simpson, Lazard (good riddance)…. On top of that our guys like McGovern/AVT/Solomon Thomas/DJ Reed/Safeties anre gonna be gone. Our cupboard will be bare, and we’ll be paying GW top dollar to stay. We ain’t winning shit with that, meanwhile a talent like Sauce could net us 2 1st round picks or more.
I don't follow CBs or other teams that closely to know who, if any, have done that. The Jets are different from other teams in that other teams have a down year and then bounce back, they go out and get another QB or have a good one to begin with, and paying their QB and perhap their #1 WR is why they can't afford to pay the CB. The Jets won't be burdened with that once Rodgers retires. They're either going to have to draft and develop a rookie, who would give them 4 years pretty cheaply, or they're gonna have older JAG QBs who aren't very expensive for several years until they do draft and develop a starting QB. With the CB position being arguably the 4th or 5th most important position on a team, if a team has a great one, they should do everything possible to hold onto him, until they absolutely cannot afford him any more. Once Rodgers is gone, I don't think the Jets will have any problems being able to pay Sauce and their other players as the cap goes up. If they do have problems, if I were the GM I'd get rid of two players at other positions who are not as important and easier to replace, than getting rid of Sauce. Unless he became a greedy shit like Revis and was holding out, and doing crap like that, it would only be a last resort that I would get rid of Sauce. I'd get rid of Breece first. RBs are easier to replace, rookies can come in start, and play at a high level, and there's no sense in paying a RB huge money.
When I look at teams that win Super Bowls, I see teams like the Chiefs and Patriots. Both teams seem to be defined first by good coaching, stelar QB play, and a well rounded team. Lots of solid players, but not many superstars beyond their QB. Chiefs had Tyreek, but now he's gone and they still win. Only other star would be Travis Kelce. Mahomes and Kelce. Sort of like Brady and Gronk. If teams that win SBs have a 'star', he seems to be on defense, usually the DLine. The one year the Pats had Moss, they set records but then lost the SB to the Giants. Having a superstar didn't help them. So to me, to build a team the wins and continues to win, you need: 1- really good coaching 2- really good QB 3- solid Oline at all 5 positions 4- solid Dline that keeps the game under control 5- solid roster with no glaring holes Beyond that, maybe a handful (2 or 3) of above avg players on both sides of the ball. They don't have to be superstars, but in the top 10 at their positions. When I look at our roster, I see a really good QB, solid Oline at all 5 spots, and a really solid Dline that will keep the game under control. We also have a solid roster top to bottom, and sprinkle in 4 or 5 superstars still on their rookie deals.....Jermaine Johnson, Sauce, Garrett, Breece, and I'll include Quinnen, although he's gotten paid. We have everything we need to win a SB. The only wildcard for us is coaching. Robert Saleh. He's the wildcard. And, of course, injuries, which can submarine any roster. Gotta have luck in the injury dept. Having a top roster, how will Saleh due holding up his end?
Great post! I totally agree. We've had very few great players over the years, and a number of those we did draft wound up getting traded away because of the coaching carousel and constant change of schemes. This cannot happen any more.
Great post! I agree that we have the roster to win. If everyone can stay healthy, we have a chance, if Saleh and Hackett don't submarine us. I have little, if any confidence, in either.
"The Dynasty That Never Was", hopefully Aaron Rodgers sues his local supermarket for a slip and fall instead of the Jets and gets the fck out of here.
I can’t believe you guys are actually saying to trade sauce or let him go just because he will be expensive lmao. Yeah, that’s what happens when you have a great player, you give them a big contract and you are happy to do it. You guys have been abused so long as jets fans that you don’t even know how to act when you have a great player. Come on. Also, on the question of when to pay him, the answer is you pay him right away. The longer it goes on, the more expensive it will be. See what the Vikings are doing right now with Jefferson.
but he wasn't a 1st rd pick, so the "rules of engagement" differ quite a bit. Rodgers should be gone once these dudes are up for their payday, so Sauce & Co. will get their $ to help cover the deficiency they'll have with the next young QB
Wow, I didn't know that. How does it work with Breece, who is a 2nd round pick? Won't they still have to pay him big bucks if he continues to shine?
