Jets can provide stability. Something Fitzpatrick hasn't had in a long time. Why do you think Fitz will command a shit-ton of money? Even so, you can allocate 2M extra to his contract. He's not getting 10M per season. Gailey, Decker, Marshall are the reasons for his success. My calculations still have us under the cap. Wilkerson, the key is guaranteed money and years. 16M a year? I just can't see it being true for Wilkerson, I hope that's not the case otherwise we get as much "value" as possible. Lamar Miller is a 3 down back, but he's very unlikely. Rather get a player via draft.
Or both Wilk and Sheldon move inside and they run more 4 man fronts. Leonard you got on the right side and you got Mauldin on the left end with young fast players developing behind on the depth chart. Jets find a way to get more rangy linebackers to cover side-line to side-line. Is there a scenario where the Jets can keep both Mo and Sheldon 2 years down the line? You can't rule it out. Even so, Wilk's contract will be close to expiring around the same time Leonard Williams rookie deal is gone and you can extend Leonard, Wilk leaves. The only decision is wondering how much money is worth it to retain Snacks? Under 4M changes the plans a lot down the road, but I heard he already rejected that offer.
I know you love to blame the prior regime for everything wrong in this world but Mac share just as much responsibility for this "situation", if that's what you want to cal it, as they do. He had the means to sign Mo last year and elected not to. That was his decision NOT Rex's. You should remember that I was a proponent for trading Mo way back when before it was in vogue. Maybe Mac came to that same conclusion last year after assessing the roster.
Up and coming teams w/ cap space like the Raiders, Jags, Bucs would certainly be interested. The Jets can also find and take advantage of those 1 or 2 teams each off season interested in making a "splash".
Not saying I would want them to but I don't think it would be the end of the world if they sacrificed a few spots in the rush defense rankings in lieu of a ranking surge in another category.
While Mo is the better and more versatile player, Vilma was more valuable to Herm's 4-3 defense than Mo has been to any of the defensive schemes he's been under. Vilma's value to the team plummeted once Mangini took over.
Possible Homes for Mo: New York Giants - 10th pick, 32nd overall NFL defense New Orleans Saints - 12th pick, 31st overall NFL defense Philadelphia Eagles - 13th pick, 3oth overall NFL defense SF 49ers - 7th pick, 29th overall NFL defense Washington Redskins - 21st pick, 28th overall NFL defense Cleveland Browns (AFC) - 1st pick, 27th overall NFL defense Indianapolis Colts (AFC) - 18th pick, 26th overall NFL defense San Diego Chargers (AFC) - 3rd pick, 20th overall NFL defense The other five teams (in terms of worst defense) are teams I would not trade Mo to: Dolphins, Jaguars, Rams, Raiders, Steelers
Just a question: Let' say we give MO a franchise tag, which means in our situation that won't have so much money. So, this 15M would be freed up if we wont tag him or trade asap (if we'd trade him on draft day a lot of money would be carried over to next year)? :/
If we do not tag Mo he becomes a UFA and does not count against the cap unless we resign him after he has tested the market. If we tag him and trade him on draft day we can still sign free agents during the rest of the off-season.
Say, we have 18M and after we tag him, we will have 18-15M = 3M to sign FA's (so hish 15M tag will count against the cap) and we can't go above to cap. If we trade him on draft day this 15M will be freed up. Am I correct?
I agree with most of it, but I wouldn't really consider Arizona's linebacking core to be "weak" even if it is the weaker link on the team. With Mathieu healthy they at times would play 4 safeties on the field with him, Tony Jefferson, Rashad Johnson and Deone Buchanon at ILB who is still a safety at heart despite his alignment, and not get destroyed in the running game. Buchanon is the key in making the defense tick because most if not every 220 lbs inside linebacker in a 3-4 alignment means that a team is going to get destroyed in the run game. We need that type of player. He's one of a kind and we won't find that, but we need to pair Harris with a linebacker who can get to the edge and make tackles. DD has every single quality needed to fulfill that except for the fact that he can't tackle and takes horrible angles. We obviously want a linebacker who is an ace in coverage but that's a tall order. We at least need one that isn't a 0 in pass coverage because as good as Harris is in early downs he needs to be taken off the field if he's not blitzing in obvious passing situations. Without an edge rusher we'll get destroyed inside the hashes by tightends, backs and slot receivers. So pick your poison. I think the ILB issue will be a lot easier to solve in the draft than edge rusher since edge rushers generally seem to be hit or miss in the draft (and need to be drafted in the first round especially in this draft) while you will have a much higher probability in finding at least a decent middle linebacker in the draft. I'm starting to think that scheme fit is becoming less and less important in an NFL defense if the player is good in terms of the draft. Scheme fit becomes much more important in free agency because you're dealing with players who are conditioned to play in a certain scheme. David Harris would be horrible in the 4-3 at this point in his career and even 4 or 5 seasons in.
I'm thinking that Mac did make the decision to trade Mo last season. So, I guess you're right in that posters who want Mo to stay can blame Mac for not re-signing him and trading him. I was referring to the situation of having too much top talent on the DL and not enough at the LB positions. They were the ones who drafted DL in something like 2-3 straight seasons or 2 of 3, and ignored the OLB position.
You're correct that they would get the cap space back, but I don't think they could head into the draft with only $3 million in cap space. That wouldn't be enough to sign their draft picks. They need to have at least $8-$9 million in cap space to sign the draft picks, and then an additional mount to carry into the season in case they need to sign camp cuts or emergency replacements.
They have more flexibility than you may think. If they were planning to cut Cro / Brick, etc. they could do it after the draft to make rook for the rookies.
They can? I may be mistaken, but I thought that they had to have enough money to sign the rookies heading into the draft.
That is actually a good question. When do we need to clear room for the rookies? 1. From the start of free agency 2. On draft day 3. After the draft has been completed 4. Not until we actually sign them to a contract Hopefully someone can chime in because I am not sure which is the correct answer.
