Now that the NFL Draft is over, it is time to decide the fate of NY Jets star DE Mo Wilkerson. Mike Maccagnan, has stated that he will address the Mo Wilkerson contract negotiation, post draft. Now that we have drafted Leonard Williams, it seems more likely that we will hold off on the negotiation until next offseason, and use Williams as leverage against Mo. There have been reports that Mo Wilkerson and his agent are asking for upwards of a 40M guaranteed contract. If we were to cave in to his demands, we could potentially cripple the salary cap for years to come and lose out on resigning Sheldon Richardson. Keep in mind we already have Revis on a monstrous contract that will already cause cap problems in future offseason. Now it is time to ask ourselves. Is Mo Wilkerson potentially worth the risk of dishing out huge guaranteed money, just to get him to stay, when we have Leonard Williams ready to take over his role for chump change? I like Wilkerson but not for a King's Ransom. In my opinion, I would be open for trade talks if Wilkerson isn't willing to move off his astronomical money demands. Might as well try and get some assets for him before we loose him in FA for nothing. Is he in the same ballpark skill wise as J.J Watt and Suh? I tend to think not. Lets Discuss...
Pay him if the price is not. If not, I have no issue with giving this GM extra draft picks to work with! Or..... Can we trade him for Philip Rivers?
With the Williams pick we hold the leverage. We can live with or without Mo on defense. Now we have to look at how much it will cost to keep him vs what we could get in a trade. Mo will be just fine either way but we need to worry about what is best for the Jets.
I'm not necessarily opposed to any option on the poll because I like Wilkerson. He's a Jersey kid drafted by his hometown team -- what's not to like? That being said, I'd prefer to put off the decision until next off season. Right now, we're projecting his value based on Wilkerson's performance in Ryan's defense. By waiting, the FO would be able to see how Wilkerson would perform in Bowles' defense. By getting a more accurate read on his value to the NYJ, the FO can provide an offer that reflects his worth (or franchise and trade Wilkerson).
I voted to keep him only if the price is right, but if someone blows us away with a trade offer we have to at least listen. It's nice to be in a position of strength from a negotiation standpoint. I doubt Mo takes less than he believes he's worth in the open market but getting guaranteed money up front prior to putting yourself in harms way is probably very enticing.
He doesn't deserve a blank check. We all like Mo, some more than others, but I don't know of any Jet fan that doesn't like the guy. But let's face it, he isn't a "max contract" type of player. A team will most likely offer him more than the 10-11 mil per that he is worth. So in the end it will be up to him whether that's enough for him or not.
Can we for once keep our good players around? Every time we get a decent player when he's due for a pay day we never want to pay him.
How do we hold leverage? Because we got a unproven rookie? Sorry I don't call that leverage. Plus if Mo walks we lose another good player. How in hell are the Jets suppose to be good if they keep letting there good players walk because they won't pay them?
Mo lost all his leverage in contract negotiations with the Williams pick. Keep him on the roster while you can and try to negotiate a long term deal but don't break the bank for him IMO
We still don't know what he will look like in Bowles' defense, it could bite us if he explodes next year by taking another step forward
Let's not get carried away here, he has this year and we can franchise him next year so that's two years before we have to worry about it. Oh, and I see that was just mentioned two posts up..oops.
I think the aftermath of the Williams pick presents another distinct option, one that is a hybrid of some of the choices in the poll: Look to trade him next offseason, when you can package him with our own first to get to the very top of the draft for whichever QB separates himself to that extent. So it's not putting it off, it's actively targeting next offseason as the trade date. I think they have every intention to keep him, let him be his awesome self, and maybe even pay him. However, he will remain a fantastic foundation piece in any trade for a young QB along the way in case that crops up. I think that all the rumors about "multiple 1sts" and "we're not actively shopping him" were establishing the going rate for the future when it comes up again. I really believe that Mac has every intention of doing all that he can to leverage Mo into a potential franchise QB next offseason, with the nice fallback of having Wilkerson as a Jet longterm (or trading him for a solid, non-QB return) if it doesn't work out.
