The Revis deal was great. So they paid more to keep him under contract for six years. Imagine in 3 years how much it would have cost to resign one of the top 3 cornerbacks in the NFL? Vilma has a degenerative knee issue. The bottom line is that Tannenbaum had to get rid of Vilma and was coming off of a bad injury. If he could have gotten more then I'm sure he would have. A 4th round pick last year and swapping from a 4th to a 3rd for a middle linebacker with knee problems is fine with me. The Revis contract was brilliant. We have one of the best cornerbacks in the NFL under contract for 4 more seasons.
The Revis deal gives the Jets the option, not the player. It gives the Jets 2 extra years to restructure or re-sign him or just keep it status-quo. It is actually a pretty good deal for the team made to look better if Revis continues improving and or plateau's as one of the top corners in the entire NFL. Edit: Regarding Vilma: You can not compare Vilma to Ray Lewis, not in anyway. Lewis is about 100 times the player Vilma was or ever will be. It is not even close. You are comparing an all time LB to a JAG. Give me a break. Vilma is not a difference maker at all. The only thing that even makes him remotely useful in this defense is his coverage abilities. As far as tackling and lack of big play ability in a ILB, you can pick up almost anyone to make tackles 6 yards behind the line, the Jets already have Barton for that. Further Edit: As it stands right now the Jets are getting a 3rd for Vilma. The Jets have to give back the 4th they got last year and in return they get the Saints 3rd this year.
You can't judge the Revis signing based on now, when hes one of the best corners in the league. At the time, he had done nothing, he was supposed to get paid based on draft slotting like everybody else. He was an unknown and they overpaid him by a pretty fair margin. By that logic overpaying for any rookie in any round is a good idea, if they turn out to be good... its hindsight, its worthless. They insisted on a six year deal, and because they wouldn't budge they did a bad deal. The whole voids to four/option for six thing is what my real point was though. Basically, who cares? Why not do a good five year deal, instead of this complicated deal that results in you overpaying? Why all the conditionals on Robertson and Vilma, instead of just doing a solid trade. I dont know, I just feel like theyre doing a lot of funky shit, but not doing a lot of good deals.
They wanted to have Revis under control for 6 seasons. They had to pay a premium in order for that to happen. They obviously felt pretty confident in what they had so it made sense. I'm sure they will try and give him a new long term deal after four seasons but they don't have too. By the time his contract is over no one will be complaining about overpaying him. He is one of the best all around corners in the NFL. Not only is he a shutdown corner but he also can blitz and he's a great tackler in space. Conditional trades usually happen when the player is an unknown quantity due to injury. Robertson failed multiple physicals so why would any team give up a guaranteed pick for him? For Vilma we got a guaranteed 4th last year and a conditional pick this year. I really don't see what your complaining about. We were never getting anything from Robertson and Vilma is nothing special.
Yes, and the big picture is we got rid of their cap hits. If we still had Vilma, we probably wouldn't have been able to sign, say Pace - and, in turn, would have Thomas and Bowens/Gholston starting on the outside. Dramatic downgrade from a Pace/Thomas combo.
Thats the problem, Im sure every GM is confident in their guy on draft day, but everybody whos ever heard of the sport knows that some guys dont work out, even guys who get the big bucks at the very top of the draft. Thats why you pay based on draft slot, onot on how much you like yyour player.
I think that the biggest tragedy to come of all of this is that we don't have a 4th round pick. Can we trade our incoming 3rd back for a 4th?
We could have cut Robertson or vilma and their cap hits would have been the same as trading them. Vilma has no role in any type of 3-4 defense and at this point he is nothing special in a 4-3. Robertson was a huge bust. Tannenbaum had to get rid of both and he got the best that he could.
I think he is talking about a LB playing well in a 3-4 that is not big without having a stud NT in front of him to keep the blockers off of him.
Is this a topic of discussion if Gholston showed up this year? Probably not. I liked Vilma a lot. There was a point where he was the heart of the defense. I blame Mangini. He took our most dynamic player and instead of building a system around him, he changed the system and made him ineffective. However, if I am not mistaken he still led the team in tackles in his first year under 3-4. One of the posters called him a JAG (whatever that means) but vilma does not deserve that at all. I hope he is ultimately successful and is appreciated for whatever team he plays for...
