Chad Pennington's future with the Jets will begin to take shape Saturday when his agent's long-anticipated meeting with general manager Mike Tannenbaum takes place in Indianapolis. Tom Condon, with clear marching orders from Pennington to do everything possible to keep him with the team, will sit down with Tannenbaum at the NFL scouting combine, according to a person with knowledge of the situation If the Jets cannot get Pennington to agree to a substantial pay cut, the team appears prepared to release him before Friday, even though such a move would leave a $12-million hit on the salary cap. If the Jets continue to take a hard-line approach, it would be a clear sign that they are ready to move on without Pennington, who is three years and two shoulder operations removed from his most successful season, 2002. Pennington's value on the free-agent market would be limited because of his recent history of injury. While rehabbing in Florida, Pennington recently told Condon that he wants a chance to reclaim his starting job and lead the Jets back to the playoffs. Though nothing is expected to be completed Saturday, Pennington will know very soon whether that will be possible http://www.newsday.com/sports/football/jets/ny-spjets0225,0,4043868.story?coll=ny-sports-headlines
They will get a deal done. My best guess is that Chad will sign for a salary in 2006 of $2 to $3 million which will save $6 to $7 million in cap space. Chad is a team player and believes he can come back and he knows NOBODY else will risk a DIME on him until he is healthy.
I think the #1 key is for the Jets to get Pennington to postpone or drop the roster bonus on 3/3. If that happens, we save 3M on the cap right there, and may be able to buy time on making the decision if he's healthy or not. That may be all that comes of this first negotiation. I think the Jets are going to give Pennington 3M in a "signing bonus" to accept 1M this year. That'll be the deal. He'd then count 4.75M on the cap this year instead of 12, saving 7.25M. (I know there are reports of 15, but even if it is 15, it's an incentive, and they'd have to negotiate it out. If they left it in, 7.25M would be the savings. If they can eliminate it, 10.25M)
My Chad jersey was my favorite, but come on, two major problems with the guys throwing shoulder, lack of an arm to begin with, this guy is toast, he is not worth the "millions". Take the hit and start fresh from the QB, remember, live for "tomarro" and "tomarro never dies".
I understand that but if you give Chad $3 million salary and it saves you $6 million of cap space you do it.
