We've had a bunch of individual threads about Cromartie, FAs which the Jets may be considering, etc., but I thought it would be good to create a thread where we can submit our own offseason plan and track the actual moves that the Jets make. I will start it off with a post from Gang Green Nation by an Andrew from PFF and will post my own plan later. http://www.ganggreennation.com/2016/3/1/11137974/jets-offseason-moves-some-suggestions
Following are my comments on his plan. Easy Moves I would cut Brick's salary, not restructure. He says that converting $8 million of his salary into a signing bonus wouldn't hamstring the Jets' cap in the future. I disagree. I believe that would result in a $4 million dead money cap hit each of the next two seasons, and if the Jets cut Brick following this season, it would lead to an $8 million dead money hit next season. IMO that would be stupid. Tanny did that frequently and it always hurt the Jets cap. Some people just don't learn from history or others' mistakes. With an older player whose play is declining, particularly seriously, you don't restructure their contracts. In addition to cutting Cro, Giacomini, Cumberland and Winters, I'd cut Kerley, Bohannon and perhaps some other players. He was right about one thing...the Jets need every "ounce" of cap space they can get. Decisions, Decisions I think his ideas on Fitz' contract are nuts. $24 million is WAY too much to guarantee for Fitz, particularly when the 2016 season will probably be his last as the Jets starter. Again, Fitz is older, more injury-prone, and his arm isn't going to get any stronger. His contract should be incentive-laden with many of the incentives being classified as difficult to reach so that they would hit next season's cap when he probably will be the backup. He's wrong about the cap number for the franchise tag for Mo. It isn't $14 million, it's $15.7 million. Powell should definitely be kept, if possible, over Ivory. Colon actually played pretty well until injury forced him to shut it down. Winters does need to be upgraded. Free Agency I think Dwayne Allen is an excellent suggestion. Ladarius Green would be another option. If neither of those options worked out, then as a 1-year stop gap, Marcedes Lewis or Ben Watson might be options. Alex Boone sounds like a good suggestion. Kelechi Osemele may be cost prohibitive, but would be the best suggestion at either RG or RT. There are quite a few 26 and 27 year-old FA OGs available. Most of them surely must be better than Winters. I think Mitchell Schwartz would be a better option than Barksdale. Tyler Polumbus backed up both OT positions in Denver this past season. He might be a good possibility, as we would also need someone to back up Brick. Again, most of the FA OTs are in their mid-20's and someone has to be comparable or probably better than Giacomini. Washington may be a consideration at ILB, but I'd be surprised. Danny Trevathan is probably a pipe dream. It would be nice to add another ILB for depth behind Harris and Henderson, perhaps they could re-sign Joe Mays, but the Jets may just have to be content with Taiwan Jones and either one of the LBs from last season's PS, a draft pick, a UDFA, or a camp cut to be a backup ILB
From what I saw Barksdale was horrible. Mitchell Schwartz seems like the hot commodity at right tackle. Granted the Browns had a seemingly good line with All-Pro Joe Thomas, up and coming guard Joel Bitonio, veteran Alex Mack and Mitchell Schwartz and their running game was terribly average so that's some thing to think about. A bad passing game hurts that, but they ranked 22 in rushing yards and 16th in yards per game. Not horrible, but that seems like an offensive line that would yield better results. Boone, Washington, and Allen would all be great signings as they're all complete players. Wilk and Brick have to go if we wanted to make that happen though IMO.
Nice thread! DBH is gonna be pissed!!! Tagging and attempting to trade Mo is smart move. Being reported Snacks could take a friendly deal to stay so that's a plus. Definitely would like to cut Cumberland and restructure Brick.
I don't know anything about Barksdale, but the fact that he gave up 46 hurries/pressures compared to Giacomini's 54 wasn't exactly a plus in his favor. LOL You may be right about Schwartz, but I know that he has been decent in the NFL, and I think is certainly better than Giacomini. Do you think that Mac or Bowles would seriously Washington? I'd be really surprised if they did. I agree that Mo would have to be traded for those signings to happen. I'm not certain that Brick would, however. If they were convinced that Osemele could play LT, I'd have no problems with their cutting Brick loose. I'm really hoping that they can get either Spriggs or Clarke int he draft.
I came up with two possible offseason scenarios. First will be the worst case scenario. WORST CASE SCENARIO Definite Cuts Antonio Cromartie Jeff Cumberland Breno Giacomini Jeremy Kerley Tommy Bohannon Zac Stacy Brian Winters Cap Savings $18,572,000 Previous Cap Space $4,050,000 Cut D'Brickashaw Ferguson's Salary by $5 million Cap Space Roughly $27,622,000 Jets FAs to re-sign Mo Wilkerson $15.7 million Bilal Powell $2.75 million base, with incentives could get to $4 million Leger Douzable $1.5 million Kenbrell Thompkins $625k Total Cap Cost $20,575,000 Remaining Cap Space $7,047,000 Cap space used to sign rookies $4,225,000 Remaining Cap Space $2,822,000 Any additional cap space for signing cap cuts or for emergency use during the season would have to come from cutting some of the players signed to futures contracts and other camp cuts. In this scenario, Geno and Petty would battle it out for the starting job in TC and if the Jets failed to draft a QB, they would have to go with 2 QBs. Deon Simon would be the new starting NT.
Alternate Scenario #1 I think most of us would find this scenario more pleasing. In terms of FA salaries, they may be low. They are guesstimations. The salary for Alex Boone, however was Spotrac's value assigned to Boone. If the salary for Lamar Miller is too low, perhaps Matt Forte could be signed for that amount, or Joique Bell could be signed for less than that. The salary I'm most concerned about is Kelechi Osemele's. Hopefully the Ravens trying to deal with Flacco's high cap figure would prevent their being able to re-sign him. Definite Cuts Antonio Cromartie Jeff Cumberland Breno Giacomini Jeremy Kerley Tommy Bohannon Zac Stacy Brian Winters Cap Savings $18,572,000 Trade Mo Wilkerson to the Cleveland Browns for their 2nd and 4th round picks Cap Savings $15.7 million Cut D’Brickashaw Ferguson’s salary by $5 million Cap Savings $5,000,000 Previous Cap Space $4,050,000 Total Cap Space $43,322,000 Jets FAs to re-sign Ryan Fitzpatrick $8.5 million base, with incentives could rise to $11 million Snacks Harrison $5.5 million base, with incentives could rise to $6.5 million Bilal Powell $2.75 million base, with incentives could rise to $4 million Leger Douzable $1.5 million Kenbrell Thompkins $625k Total Cap Cost (with Incentives) $22,625,000* *$1.5 million of Fitz’s incentives for making the playoffs would be classified as not likely to be reached and would go on next year’s cap, and the $1 million incentive for Snacks would be for making the Pro Bowl and achieving a certain number of QB hurries and sacks would go on next year’s cap Available Cap Space $20,697,000 Amount used to sign rookies $4,225,000 Available Cap Space $16,472,000 FAs to Sign Lamar Miller, RB $3.25 million base, with incentives could reach $4 million Dwayne Allen, TE $2.5 million base, with incentives could reach $3.25 million Kelechi Osemele, RT $3.5 million Alex Boone, RG $2.5 million Travis Benjamin, WR/KR $1,500,000 Cap space used $14,750,000 Available Cap Space $1,722,000 Additional Cap space for signing any camp cuts and for emergency cash during the season would come from cutting the players signed to futures contracts once TC is over, plus some additional players
Osemele will not come cheap. Even if we somehow keep Brick, Osemele would be our starting left tackle.
Whichever makes more cap sense with Brick Id be for. Gotta restructure or cut him and if we can get a 1st rounder for Wilk, then you draft his replacement with one of our two first rounders. Resign Snacks and Fitz , which would be a lot more feasible in this situation.
True, cutting Brick only saves $9-10 mil due to the dead money. People need to understand that the dead money was already given to Brick when he re-worked his contract. That $5 mil has already been spent and can not be considered part of Brick's compensation for 2016.
Any chance we could change thread title to "Suggested Jets Offseason Moves" or something similar? The title suggests that these moves are happening, but it's just another speculation thread about what OP thinks could happen. Not that there's anything wrong with doing that, it's just not accurate and I came in expecting to see some news.
He didn't suggest cutting Brick, or restructuring Brick, he just wants to pay Brick 5 mil less. It sounds nice, but it doesn't work that way.
If I'm not mistaken, this past season is the first time Osemele played LT. The reports I've read said that he did well, but indicated that wasn't his best position and that he was just an "adequate" LT. If the Jets do sign Osemele (which is doubtful), unless Brick refuses to take a pay cut or gets injured, I would think Osemele would play either RT or RG. If Brick refuses to take a pay cut, then the Jets possibly would cut him and have Osemele play LT, but otherwise, I think he'd play on the right side and give Brick one more year. They certainly aren't going to pay Brick over $14 million to ride the bench, and I think he'd be even less successful at RT. The pass protection aspects might be easier, but the run blocking responsibilities would be greater and he would struggle there. In addition, opposing teams could just move their best pass rusher over to that side to take advantage of Brick.
No one pays an offensive lineman more than $10 mil per year to play any position other than LT. Baltimore plans to cut their starting left tackle so they can keep Osemele so he could be better than just average.
You're not being a dick by asking a legitimate question. Why not? I think it's been done before. They basically tell the player that he has to take a pay cut, and they tear up the old contract and do a new one. I think it is possible, or at least it used to be. They don't have to be "restructures." A "restructure" means you reward the player for redoing his contract and that and other money are kicked down the road to a future season's cap. That's the last thing we want with Brick. This should be his last season as a starter, and in an ideal world, last season would have been his last as a starter.
