The Jets can keep Wilkerson or sign Fitz, but not both. The only other option to signing Fitz would be to cut at least six player (some starters) and restructure Mangold's contract. This option is unlikely and harder to accomplish, let alone would hurt the team a lot more than just losing one good player. Even it Wilkerson had a Probowl year and got 100 tackles with 15 sacks, it would not help this team more than having Fitz under center. Having a competent QB is the most important thing to any team. If the Jets have to choose, it would have to be Fitz. Having Fitz at QB means a realistic shot at the playoffs, especially with Brady's suspension. Having Wilkerson on the DL might mean one extra win, but with Smith at QB there is no way we make the Playoffs. The Jets need to trade Wilkerson for the best pick combination they can get in the 2017 draft. This would help our future team and free up enough cap space to sign Fitz and put some in the bank for injuries that will come up. If you truly believe having Wilkerson on the DL is more important to this team than Fitz at QB, I would like to hear the justification.
In a perfect world, I'd take Mo and run with the 3 QB's on the roster. The world is not perfect when one player takes up that much cap space. Run with the 3 QB's we have on the roster, trade Mo.
In reality this question is flawed bc a. The trade market has shown us that Wilk will not be able to get us any quality picks b. We can afford both That being said, I would have loved to trade Wilk for some picks this year but that time has passed. It's not like we're talking about Rogers, we've seen Fitz's ceiling and it's not that high. We have not seen Smith's ceiling not have we seen anything from Petty or Hackenberg. So it seems like the real question is would you rather have Wilkerson in 2016 and a late third round pick in 2018 or would you rather just have a second round pick in 2017. Defense wins championships even with subpar qb play as its been proven many times in the last 16 years including the Broncos last year. Btw you're assuming that Smith has learned nothing from time being under an experienced qb and a qb coaching guru. I believe that is a shortsided and flawed assumption. In Mac I trust.
My take on Fitz: He provides us with the most realistic shot of making the playoffs this season, and his presence should help Hack develop (plus he's less likely to implode in the first few weeks and force Hack to start prematurely). If I had faith in Geno, I would be fine with letting Fitz go, but I don't. It's very rare that a QB as bad as Geno was becomes respectable. And the exceptions (Fitz, Alex Smith, Kurt Warner, Rich Gannon come to mind) are of the grinding type, which Geno is not. I don't think we should offer Fitz what he wants, but if it takes a little more than 8M, I think it's worth it. On Mo: If there were a reasonable chance we could extend him for 13-15M annually, I would do it because I'm not convinced Richardson will get his head on straight. But I don't think that will happen, and I don't want to sink 16-18M into a defensive lineman when we have so much talent in the front 7 already. An ideal trade would be something like Mo to the 49ers for Anthony Davis and a 2017 2nd or even 3rd rounder. If we can't trade Mo, I wouldn't pull the tag like the Panthers did with Norman, but I think the pros of trading Mo exceed the cons regardless of what happens with Fitz.
We have enough to keep both Sign Mo to a long term deal which lowers his cap hit Cut Breno Sign Fitz But it comes down to Fitz and Mo taking deals that work best for the team
Here is my thought... less than 50% of the interior dlinemen draft this year will be successful. We can franchise mo next year... have another year to evaluate Sheldon and Wilkerson. After that year we can pick which we want and sign them long term... then have the other to trade (hopefully Sheldon keeps clean and his value is high). Proven de will be higher value next year after team watch the rookies struggle. As for fitz we can cut geno and rework some contracts. Plus who says some of the people we signed will make the team. Some of them have very low to no guarantee.
We are at the cross roads with a really tough problem. 1- no reasonable trade for Mo is in the horizon 2- Fitz demands are beyond unrealistic 3- neither is budging one inch We might have to suboptimize with Geno and hope for a miracle. Hope for Mo to have a monster season and maximize his trade value in 2017
It definitely shouldn't be. Fitz doesn't have what it takes. I'll go ahead and ignore the haters now who just root for Jets players to fail, but I want to see what Geno can do with these weapons. Year 1 - 55.8% completions Year 2 - 59.7% completions Year 3 - 64.3% completions in one game Clearly improving each year. I'm not expecting a 68% completion rate this year, but he's clearly improved and I'd love to see what the improvement is with regular practice with the 1's. I mean, 64.3% with a group of receivers he never really practiced with? Solid. Plus he has legs and go throw the ball downfield which Fitz couldn't do to save his life. Given Geno has a higher ceiling, Fitz is replaceable. Especially considering how much each player costs.
I've got a good basic idea of how the cap works and some work-arounds but don't feel I'm qualified to boil it down to an A or B choice. I tend to believe that the front office knows they can make it work keeping both guys. If your scenario is correct, you must have too much time on your hands. And the Jets are fucked.
The Jets can't really afford to keep Mo and it is unlikely they'll be able to sign Fitzpatrick either so the point is moot. Mo is most likely going free agent after the year and the Jets will get a comp pick in 2018.
Long term - Mo Short term - Fitz But now the window to trade Mo is closed. Either he signs here long term or we lose him for nothing. 50-50 chance that either happens IMO. And when he does leave , which is what I see happening , all fans that didnt want to trade him this offseason will turn pretty quickly , either on him for leaving for a huge amount of money , or the team for not paying him. Either way it wont end well , if/when he leaves. For this year , the downgrade from Fitz to any other QB in our roster is monumental. Compare that to Mo where we have a 1st round replacement already here and ready to take the next step forward to eventually being a better player than him. Like it or not the writing on the wall for Mo leaving happened as soon as we drafted Leonard Williams.
Running backwards wasn't helping things, but he did it once in Oakland and suddenly everyone claims he does it all the time still.
The jets need $3M in cap to sign draft picks and another $3M at least to pay for injuries and replacement players. Then you have to add in $10-$11M for Fitz. I guess I do have too much free time, but here is one way to get Fitz signed other than trading or cutting Wilkerson, but you would be trimming a lot for one guy who might only be here one year and would cost $1M a game. Player Name = Money Saved Breno Giacomini = $4,375,000 Nick FolK = $2,156,666 Brian Winters = $1,671,000 Geno Smith = $1,089,491 Zac Stacy = $675,000 Ben Ijalana = $530,000 Jeremy Ross = $600,000 These cut would only free up $11M to sign Fitz. We would lose two starters on OL plus depth. A total of three starters, plus some average backups. This still give no cap room for moves or injuries, which means we would still have to redo Mangold's contract.
He did it back to back plays against the Raiders. It is still something you have to worry about every time he drops back.
This is what I have an issue with. For all intents and purposes , Fitz hit his ceiling last season. Even for someone that wants him back , I admit its not gonna get much better than the numbers he put up last season. But if that is his ceiling , to say Geno has a higher ceiling suggests that he could surpass those numbers with this offense around him. I mean I guess its possible , but its not likely. Geno just isnt a smart QB. Same as Sanchez. Fitz , for his lack of actual football skills , is very smart and atleast has proven to actually care about the game and more importantly , be able to overcome a mistake. Geno has never put together back to back strong games. Thats a problem. Look we can let Fitz go and roll with Geno and things could turn out great next year..but the chances of a complete dumpster fire of a season and "fire everyone" threads all over this board by early October , is muchhhh more likely with Smith starting from Week 1.
Fitz has had 11 years in the league and 8ish as a starter after sitting and learning for 3 years. Smith who's scouting report reads very well was thrown into a bad situation with bad coaching and a bad team. For all intents and purposes he should have sat for the first year ir two a la Wentz and Lynch. Did anyone look at the stats Luck put up last year with the shit show surrounding him? Now I'm not saying Smith is Luck but I am saying that playing with bad players and coaches breeds bad play. You can't teach decision making? Yeah ok, go watch your 22 yo self and see if you like the decisions he made. Do you make the same stupid decisions today? Of course not. Is Geno ready to lead the team? I don't know but neither do you. If the people that know aren't worried then neither am I. If they were worried then they would have gotten Hoyer for pennies. They want Fitz back to keep the chemistry and continuity the same but it's obviously not a high enough priority to pay him the going rate of a starting qb. Honestly, I hope Smith does get the nod bc I will hustle some nay sayer into giving up their seats on the cheap. Over/under with fitz 10-6 Over/under with geno 9-7 I'll take the over with anyone that feels like placing a bet. In Mac I trust.
If we were to win 9 games with Geno , it would be because our defense and run game turned into what it was in 2009. The defenses that we face next year would eat him alive if he were to be asked to do the things that Fitz was asked to do last season. If that's worth the $$ difference to some fans than that's fine. Just don't be miserable 5 weeks into the season if we're 1-4.
