This post kind of proves my point. It's basically guaranteed they're gonna be relying on unproven young players to play the majority of snaps at quite a few positions. That's not something Super Bowl caliber teams usually do, it's something rebuilding teams do. As for free agency, I'm not talking about going after Mario Williams or Carl Nicks. But when you are handing out, on average, 800K in guaranteed money, you're not gonna attract the quality veterans that could give you good depth to build your roster with.
What positions exactly are we relying on unprovens. O line is all pretty veteran, QB, RB, WR we have a rookie and a 2nd year to go with our vet number 1. Keller has been here for a while. On defense we have a couple young guys on the D Line to go with veterans no problem there. Our LBs are old as balls opposite of being unproven but aging is a separate issue. We do have some young LBs with Davis and Maybin to go with Harris in his prime. DBs we have CBs young or in their prime and aging safeties. I think age is a bigger issue for this team than unproven players.
I was talking about in 2013, when guys like Keller, Moore, Slauson, Greene, and Devito become UFAs. First of all, I don't see how the Patriots have anything to do with this discussion. But if you insist on bringing them into the discussion, you make a fair point. But I think they can get away with it because the rest of their talent is so good. Specifically, Brady throwing to Welker, Lloyd, Gaffney, Hernandez, and Gronkowski is gonna be good enough to cover up for a lot of other problems that they might have.
Bingo! Managing the cap doesn't mean we are set. The inability to sign any big name free agents to long term deals is what we call cap limitations. When u have to release a player to two to create cap room, thats called cap hell. Where as I don't see the Jets in cap hell, I do see us having cap limitations, restricting us from signing any major FA without having to release a few players.
The acquiring of players also has to take into account talent evaluation and the draft. 2 out of the last 3 drafts the Jets had low first round picks. These picks usually don't come in and have an immediate impact on the game. Also, if the free agents you sign or the players you draft are not as talented as expected it creates holes. Add in the fact that if you overestimate the depth of one position (Ex: OL) or overestimate the talent at one position (S) you end up with holes that are not directly created by the salary cap. I would say more of the holes the Jets have now are talent evaluation issues more than cap issues. We thought Plax could fill in for Braylon and Mason for Cotch and etc.
This is well stated. The Jets haven't been in cap hell, but they have been severely limited in their ability to add quality talent and depth to their roster compared to the rest of the division. And it has negatively effected the team over the last 2 seasons, and will again next season. True the Jets can save a lot of cap room by releasing Pace and Scott, but you then have to replace them on the roster....with QUALITY players. Don't forget, that while they both are highly overpaid, they aren't bad football players. As to the Pats handling of the cap, they by and large have done a decent job of minimizing the losses due the cap. Pat's FA's come at a premium because the team as a whole has had so much success, so a player's market value might be higher to the rest of the league than they are to the Pats, so they will lose a certain percentage of their players. BJGE and Mark Anderson are 2 examples of players who were paid a premium partly because of the team they came from. Starting in 2009 the Pats made a conscious effort to redo their roster and get younger and faster. In the next few years that group will start to reach FA and the Pats are going to lose some of them. The Rookie Salary cap is a great thing for every team, but on consequence will be that when that group finally DOES reach FA, they are going to want to be PAID!.
The salary cap divides out to about $2M per player, per year. For every player making more than $2M/yr (take Revis at ~$10M/yr), you GOT TO HAVE multiple players making far less than $2M/yr. That's why it's SOOOOO important to stock your team with TALENTED draft pics willing to play for PEANUTS while you pay the Revis/Cro/Harris/Brick/Scott/Mark's of the world 90% of your cap.
The problem wasnt signing good players, the problem is and was frivilously trading away draft picks without regard to depth. Thats why this year and next years drafts will be so important.
