I highlighted what Mac said about the OL because so many here think it's a bigger problem than it is: http://www.newyorkjets.com/news/art...cy-Board/214cedc8-1449-4baa-8fcf-837518774b71 Just down the hall here on the second floor of the Atlantic Health Jets Training Center, the Jets pro personnel staff continues to prepare for free agency. After improving their win total by 6 games in 2015, the Green & White would like to take the next step in 2016 by earning a playoff berth and competing for a championship. “We’re still a work in progress. In a perfect world, we’d like to keep all our players moving forward,” GMMike Maccagnan told season ticket holders last week. “But now we’re in the evaluation process. We’ve sort of done our internal self-scout. Now we’re putting our board together for pro free agency and we actually include our own players in those stacks. We grade every player by position that is a pro free agent from top to bottom. We build a pro free agency board just like we build our draft board. And then we sit down and try to figure out fair market value for our players and you figure out an area you’d like to get the contract done at.” Some of the prominent Jets who have expiring contracts include QB Ryan Fitzpatrick, RBsChris Ivory & Bilal Powell, DE Muhammad Wilkerson & NT Damon “Snacks” Harrison. The 2016 League Year and Free Agency period begin at 4o p.m. NY time on March 15. “You actually have to set a limit on how high you will go with that contract because again you try to put all these pieces together like a puzzle to give you the best opportunity to be successful on the field,” Maccagnan said. “Our goal - in a very general way right now - is to kind of figure out our offseason free agency strategy. We have a good idea of what we’re doing. We’re still finalizing it, but it’s really knowing what we want to achieve which is keep as many as our free agents on the team as possible. But we always have to be prepared if they go elsewhere in free agency because other teams will pay them more than we would pay them per se. But the key is obviously trying to make sure we make decisions to help us to go to the next level going forward.” Echoing head coach Todd Bowles, Maccagnan expressed his desire to increase the speed on the Jets’ roster. “In terms of team needs, pass rusher would be one,” he said. “Maybe a speed edge, finesse-type pass rusher that can really challenge the corner… And then on the offensive side, we obviously want to make the tight end position more competitive. We always could use more speed on the outside. We have a good offensive line. At the end of the day, we just want to continue to add some young players in the draft to kind of stockpile that position for the future. And there are various ways the Jets can approach their roster tinkering in the offseason. Last year, Maccagnan was aggressive on the trade and free agency fronts while acquiring the likes ofBrandon Marshall and Ryan Fitzpatrick in swaps while using the open market to rebuild his secondary and also re-signing key vets like David Harris and Powell. Fitzpatrick, who set a career-high with 3,905 passing yards along with establishing a franchise record with 31 TDs, has stated his desire to remain with New York’s AFC representative. “We’re going to try to approach this thing to hopefully make ourselves a better team by keeping most of our own players, maybe augmenting some of that in free agency if the opportunity arises and we have the ability to do that, and then in the long term really through the draft,” Maccagnan said. “I think the draft is the key to long-term sustainability of building a team that is competitive and can sustain it over time.” In addition to winning more in 2016, Maccagnan wants to add youth to the program while maintaining a solid locker room. “It’s a bit tricky quite frankly. It’s not an easy thing to do, but we’re trying to balance out winning now with our veteran group of players but also sort of instill a culture and chemistry of our team so that the young players kind of grow up in that,” he said. “And then at some point of time when the veterans step aside – the younger players are ready to take their spots and not only perform ability wise at a high level but also from an intangible standpoint continue on hopefully the good chemistry we kind of built that our team experienced at the end of this season.”
Silly question. Can we sign our own free agents to be in advance of March 15? I'm thinking they are not yet free agents as they are still under contract, albeit expiring, but still. _
The guy is organized and ready to deal. Considering the Jets recent history of GMs there has been no one close to his caliber
I like what he says near the end about building thru the draft and about the vets sorta instilling a culture and chemistry to the younger players. So far I'm thinking Mac might be just the man for the job.
I listened to his press conference with season ticket holders where he spoke about this and his board. It's pretty amazing listening to him and how well he seems to have a grasp on the position and the best way to build this team. I'm very very happy with Mac so far. Still got a lot to do but the signs are pointing very much in the right direction.
Yes. Players under contract can be extended or restructured at any time. In this case, it would be an extension.
I guess he can't come out and say "our offensive line sinks" but I'm a little worried that he doesn't think the o-line is as big of a problem as it really is.
I'm guessing he thinks other areas are a much higher priority and we can get one more season out of what we got while building it thru the draft. With Fitz and his faster release, our OL should be functional for now. If we don't re-up Fitz all bets are off IMHO because the OL is certainly not a strength.
I don't know why people are freaking out about our OLine. Our OLINE was excellent last year. We had a top 3 Oline in pass pro. Granted our run blocking ranks were lower, but I think it had more to do with our RB's not making the right reads. http://www.footballoutsiders.com/stats/ol
Fitzpatrick traditionally gets the ball out very quickly, sometimes too quickly, and can mask deficiencies in pass protection. I take those stats with a grain of salt, especially when you consider they performed worse in run blocking. This offensive line is AT BEST average IMO. and we all know how hard it is to play at your best all the time. Its also an aging group without a lot of depth.
Like 2-3 days before the official FA teams are designated to sign their own players in house. Then on the 15th the whole market opens.
This is subjective. The OLine ranked top 3 in pass pro. That is a fact. And if that's the case, then I still don't understand the panic. Fitz was not under duress and if the system predicates he gets the ball out quickly, even more reason not to panic. To say we need to upgrade our run block metrics is fair. But not a reason to freak out over the OLine. It's not a glaring weakness.
Just the opposite. Teams can negotiate exclusively with their own players only until the 12th . During the 3 day window, teams can enter into negotiations with certified representatives of pending Unrestricted Free Agents from other teams as well. No meeting with the players allowed, only negotiations with the representative. And any deal struck in that window cannot be executed until the 15th (meaning an agent can negotiate a deal with another team before the 15th, but his current team is free to match/overbid and sign the player before the 15th). A player who represents himself cannot conduct negotiations with any other team than his own until the 15th. The season is over but Jets have exclusivity to Jets UFA's until the 12th.
The problem isn't how the offensive line performed last year. But the offense was certainly tailored to Fitzpatrick getting the ball out quickly with limited play action to keep him upright. I think the run blocking was much better than given credit for. Ivory is a pretty poor vision runner. He's excellent once he's into the second level but if you go back and watch the All-22 versions of some games he routinely misses cutback lanes which is probably why we use more combo/power blocks up to the linebacker than zone stretches. The worry is the money tied up in the older Brick and Mangold, along with their age. When Mangold stops playing at an All-Pro level which is going to happen in the next couple years, the right side of the line is going to be a disaster. His excellent seal blocking and push off the ball makes it real easy for the right guard and right tackle to get to the second level.
Brick should be, but why would Mangold restructure his contract? As of last year he still played like one of the best centers in the league so why shouldn't he be paid like one? If I understand restructuring correctly it turns base salary into signing bonus and spreads the money out over the remaining years of the contract. Someone could correct me if I'm wrong, but if a player does that and gets cut before the remaining duration of the contract they lose money by doing that. Brick is a case where he'll be forced into it. We say we'll cut his salary from $14 mill to $8 mill and if you don't like that we'll cut you and dare you to try to get that on the open market for the next two years. On the opposite end Mangold says go ahead cut me and I'll make a fortune going to a team with a young quarterback looking for some offensive line stability and tons of cap space (think Bucs, Titans, Vikings, etc.)
Same reason any player does it. They do it to help the team, especially when they're older and want to win.
