I think he'll be back - he won't get a big contract though. He should be paid like a #2 corner, because that's what he is.
best first post i ever seen. bottom line is franchising any of our key FA's is gonna burn a big portion of $. i dont think we need to franchise harris, and i dont see how he could ask for 9mil a year. he should settle for 6-7mil a year. he isnt a all around dominate player..especially when it comes to coverage.
If he's a #2 corner, he might just be the best #2 in the league. I think #1 corner money would be needed to get a deal done. It shouldn't be more than top 20 though.. I haven't heard anything on how much he's looking for yet. That may determine what we do with him..
Jonathan Joseph might set the bar - he's the #2 corner opposite Leon Hall in Cincy. He's probably going to get franchised though.
I know it sounds madden, but I was being serious. I don't even know if it's realistic. Holmes is a very good WR but I don't think we need two top end receivers on offense. We do need to rebuild the front seven on defense. If we could pickup an early pick and a slot receiver (who knows the system) for Holmes I'd be all for it - especially if it means more money to resign other FA's. Edwards, Cotch and Stuckey would be a fine 1/2/3 WR set IMO. Nacho should be able to work with that in year three.
You're assuming there will be a franchise tag. The players don't like it and it's certainly going to be one of the negotiation points for the new CBA. If there is one, it would be Holmes for me. He's the player that keeps opposition DBs awake at night.
It will be interesting to see what Tannenbaum does. I think with a salary cap that giving out two big contract to Holmes/Edwards is insane. Both of these guys have major red flags. I think they are both elite talents but Edwards has only had 2 really good seasons in 6 years. Holmes off the field issues will be a huge issue for any team offering him a large signing bonus. Imagine St. Louis offers him 50 million and he fails a drug test or gets arrested again? Both of these guys can be top of the line #1 WR's but they also can be trouble. I would not give Santonio Holmes a contract extension. The only way he should be on this team is if he is franchised. I respect that he's a great player but it's just too much risk. I also believe that Santonio will chase every dollar rather then go to a place to win. Braylon I feel would never go to a bad situation for more money after his time in Cleveland. I think he loves New York, he loves Rex and they won't have to overpay to keep him here. I would let Cromatie go and test the market and see what is offered. If a team is really willing to give him #1 cornerback money then let him leave. They cannot have him and Revis taking up an estimated 20% of the salary cap. Considering that Cromatie is a penalty machine and doesn't like tackling, giving him a big contract would be a mistake. We all know that Rex is a defensive coach first and that stopping the run is always the priority. If you can't stop the run your not going to beat anyone. Rex will kidnap David Harris before he ever leaves. I believe he will be franchised to make sure that they have zero chance of losing him. I expect that they will then sign him to a long term extension. I believe that Harris and Braylon will be back and the other two will chase whatever money they can get.
Trading Holmes for Stuckey and a pick would set the offense back. The drop off of talent is too big - this team has to be build around Mark Sanchez. Why wouldn't we want two top tier receivers on this team? If we can find a way to retain both of them, it makes sense. It doesn't make sense to downgrade the position. I know a lot you guys like Jerricho Cotchery, but he was the weak link of the WR class this season. He was very good in the playoffs, but we saw a lot of uncharacteristic drops from him. A slot receiver isn't THAT important, especially with the way Schottenheimer uses Dustin Keller.
I know it's a big drop off in talent, but it's time for Nacho to start making receivers look better than they are. I also believe part of Cotch's problems dropping the ball this year could have been because he wasn't in the game as often being the #3 guy. It was very uncharacteristic of him. While WR #3 doesn't play a big role in this offense, you still have to have an NFL caliber #3 WR. I think Stuck is good enough for #3 and is pretty much a prototype slot guy. The early pick and more cap money is mostly why I'd want to make the move. We have to take a hit somewhere IMO. I'd rather see it be on offense where we've spent the majority of our picks and would still have a lot of solid young talent.
This is a team that's being built around it's quarterback - I don't understand why we'd downgrade at receiver. It's time for Mark Sanchez to put up bigger numbers. We need keep this offense intact if possible. The best quarterbacks in the game have very good weapons: Manning's had Reggie Wayne, Marvin Harrison, Marshall Faulk, and Dallas Clark Roethlisberger's had Plaxico Burress, Hines Ward, Heath Miller, Mike Wallace, and Santonio Holmes Rodgers' had Greg Jennings, Jermichael Finley, Donald Driver, and James Jones Brady's had Randy Moss, Wes Welker, Rob Gronkowski/Aaron Hernandez, and Deion Branch (Brady's certainly done the most with less, but his numbers weren't HUGE until Moss arrived) Mark Sanchez is THE franchise. Ryan even said after the season that this team will be built around him. Rex Ryan takes pride in building his defenses out of lesser-knowns. I have feeling the majority of our draft picks will be spent on defensive players, so that's how we'll upgrade. That and by bringing in rotational role players through FA.
If you can get one of the WR's to come back on the cheap then you bring both back. You can't have all that money at WR especially when keller is a year away from being an unrestricted free agent. You just can't afford to have so many players with big contracts especially when they need to begin rebuilding the front 7 on defense. Now that Sanchez is good the front office should focus on drafting WR's in the the mid rounds and letting them develop.
Hopefully we can sign Holmes and Harris to long term extensions... franchise who has the most trade value between Edwards and Cromartie and let the other one test the FA market with the possibility of us re-signing him too... It would be GREAT to re-sign Edwards to a reasonable amount (around 5-6 mill per year) but he thinks he's worth more than that so...
To add to that, Look at how the Clots suffered with Injuried to thier key offensive players. Manning can not do everything. Brady lit it up in the regular season, but rex figured out a way to shut down is underwhelming receiving core. Big Ben still has big weapons, Mendenhal and Mike Williams are huge parts of that offense with Miller and Ward providing the security blanket underneath and inside. Aaron Rodgers has a great core of weapons in Gennings, Driver, Jordy Nelson and James Jones. He's still doing it while missing on of the best TE's in the game. The Ravens attempted to surround thier young QB with big time weapons. Not sure what backfired more, the QB or the Weapons in the palyoffs.Throws were missed and passes were dropped in thier loss. Good, even great QB's, need tools to work with. Mark needs these receivers as much as Rex needs corners.
I don't want to downgrade at WR. I'd love to have them both back, but not at the cost of neglecting the defense where we seem to be really lacking young talent in my eyes. I don't know much about our younger guys who haven't seen the field though. What do we have 1,3,4,5,6 this year for picks? I guess we could rely on the 1st and 3rd rounders to be solid starters but after that you're usually looking at depth/special teams type guys unless you find a gem - no? Even the 3rd round guys I don't expect to really be starters. Rex is good but he can't turn water into wine.
I agree that something has to give, and i think that something will be at WR. We'll never be the Saints, or Colts, or Chargers. We are a win ugly team, which requires great D. This means having good interior Dline play, 2 good CB's, and dangerous pass rushing OLB's. I'm not sure if Holmes or Braylon would warrant a 3rd round pick, but that would require franchising one of them.. My preference would be to franchise and trade a WR, sign Cro or equivalent, sign Harris, sign the other WR, rework Jenkins contract. Exception would be if we could land a Woodley, might be worth franchise and trading Harris instead, and let the other WR walk.
I have a feeling that Rex is very high on Gilbert and still sees Pitoitua as a potential depth guy. We have a lot of young d line around. NOt a lot of highly touted guys, but ones that May be able to fill in for some time. We don't have a lot of picks, and I would love to see them spent on the front seven, but if they are not I would look to some of the UDFA's we have already added to play bigger than expected roles.
You'll notice that the skill players on the Steelers were all drafted by the Steelers and Williams and Mendenhall don't cost anything right now. Were any of the skill players on the Packers drafted by another team? The Colts just year after year draft players that fit into what Manning needs to be good. Some of this skill players may not be good in other offenses but for what Manning wants they are good. Since 2000 the majority of the skill players around Brady were home grown cheap players. Welker for a 2nd and 7th round pick was a steal. Moss was amazing for them for about 2.5 years and then they realized they needed to go back to drafting and developing guys that could fit into their system. The Ravens WR's are all on their 2nd or 3rd teams. It's one are of the field where they have little success in the draft. My point is that if we have sanchez who is well on his way to being a top 10 qb and we have an offensive line that is in the top 10 as well, the Jets should use the draft to put young cheap skill players around Sanchez as opposed to giving out large contracts to Holmes, Braylon and then next year Keller. You re-sign one of the wr's and then you start focusing on drafting skill players that fit into what Sanchez does well.
That's what it sounds like to me. You said we have to take a "hit" somewhere and you think we should drop the receivers over a middle linebacker. You make it sound like our defense sucks. We haven't neglected the defense in free agency and through trades - the front office spent a ton of cash on Bart Scott, Jimmy Leonhard, and Calvin Pace. We traded a high pick for our #2 corner. The defense hasn't been neglected, we just need to fill a few key spots with better talent and depth. It's going to be tough to completely rebuild our front seven over one off-season, but we can definitely upgrade it without breaking the bank. Thomas and Taylor need to be replaced. We need to find a replacement for Ellis too. So that's a situational pass rusher, a starting OLB, and a starting end - we plenty of draft picks to upgrade our front seven and we can also pick up some role players in free agency. We have some in-house talent that people seem to be forgetting about: Marcus Dixon, Jarron Gilbert, Martin Teveseu, and Ropati Pitoitua could turn into solid rotational guys - I like our chances that one at least one of them will contribute in a big way down the road. He had a success starting Drew Coleman and Eric Smith in the playoffs - I'd say he can pull off some crazy shit with less talented players.
The Jets don't have enough draft picks to upgrade the front seven. If you think you can get a good starting DE and a good starting LB with the first and third round picks the Jets have, you're just being wildly optimistic.
