It'd be irresponsible to take an offensive player for the sake of taking one. But then again..whatever has been our strategy over the last several drafts has landed us w. defensive player after defensive player in round 1.Pure BPA? Maybe in some cases but not in the case of 2014(Pryor) 2016(Lee). I'm not creating a conspiracy theory but at points it's seemed as if we've been taking defensive players for the sake of taking defensive players.Additionally, w. both leo & Adams we came across perceived defensive difference makers that forced our hand. The results have been mixed in my estimation. Those defensive players drop for a reason in many cases: Other teams recognize it's a scoring league & took offensive talent instead. At some point we have to break the cycle. It's one of the very reasons why the roster is as awful as it currently is. There has to be some sort of balance. There simply hasn't been up to this point. Defense still rules the day & it hasn't really brought us any type of return whatsoever. So while it'd be short sighted to shun an entire side of the football...the offense has to be the priority. Short of of a complete no brainer defensive talent w. no other options staring at us or the like...the only way to reinforce even an ounce of organizational balance to this team...offense needs to rule draft day.
Compensating players beyond their level of production always finds a way of doing franchises in. Now..in FA you are always going to have to overpay to a certain extent to entice said player to sign..but if you're drastically overpaying someone & aren't getting a comparable return it usually ends w. a nasty divorce, dead money & a host of other issues that come along w. the NY market. Let's assume Cousins does sign here for the type of deal we're all assuming will transpire. Everybody thinks all of a sudden we're a contender...wel let's assume i'm right & this team isn't even CLOSE to contending w. or without Cousins/rest of FA & draft..You don't think folks will be calling for Cousins head after year 1?? W. the deal he's gonna sign & the hype associated he damn well be the scapegoat. Well guess what? We're stuck w. him at that point. Cause if we dump him the cap ramifications will be paralyzing. There's no wiggle room at all w. Cousins...he signs here we're stuck w. him for better or worse for at least 3 years. & even after that they'll be massive cap issues. Other thing is...I disagree about 30 being young for a QB. I believe the Rivers/Roethlisberger/Brady types are a dying breed. More & more players are walking away from the game as soon as they get their 2nd contract & sustain an inevitable moderate level injury. Cousins tears his shoulder or snaps the ACL is he a sure bet to return to football?"I'm not so sure. Signing Cousins is essentially signing the next 5 years away. Is that something we wanna do for a guy w. a significant number of prohibitive flags that cause pause. If we were already in a window for success & it was a "do or die" 2-3 year deal...I'd say go for it. But thats not what we're talking about. We're talking about this guy being the face of the team regardless of performance over the next several years w. little regard for many of the facts presented. And this is what folks are pegging as the "SAFE" move.
You're going to have to overpay for a QB, whether they are yours, or whether they hit the market. Also, Cousins doesn't automatically make us contenders. What he does do is he solves the biggest problem on the team and something that has been the biggest hole on the jets for decades. What has to happen after he's signed will either screw the jets or take them to the next level. How does Macc draft? Do we address the o-line? How about Edge? These are all moves that need to be made in order to make a move for Cousins actually work. Ultimately, Football is one of the most team dominant sports and requires many things to work, not just 1 main component. Cousins could turn out to be otherwordly and solve the QB question, but what about the o-line, the secondary, EDGE, return/kicking game? To your age/injury point - You can walk away from the game but if under contract you will not be able to collect your money. Injury clauses/retirement would likely mean anyone willing to retire due to injury would mean he cannot collect the remaining money on the deal. I would rather sign a guy like Cousins over say Teddy Bridgewater, who although younger, is a bad hit away from likely never playing football again. Again, Cousins is not the Jets savior. What he can be though is an important piece to an incredibly complex puzzle. Like I mentioned in a previous post. Brees was lighting it up every year and what happened? Nothing. Why? Because the surrounding pieces were gone and look what happens. They draft 4 starters, immediate and high talent guys and they make the playoffs and were very close to going to the champ game. Jets could be the same with the right moves in the draft and free agency. Now, if you want to discuss whether Macc is capable of drafting 4 starters in a single draft, well that's a whole different subject. But I would be more worried about that, versus Cousins being able to solve the QB issue this team has been plagued by.
To further your point - signing him allows us to use those picks in different ways. We don’t have to hope that 6th overall lands us our qb. It allows that 6th pick or both 2nd rounders to have a year to develop and maybe become impact players by year 2. By year 2 of that cousins deal we can have those 4 impact players like you said. It gives us more flexibility and the cap doesn’t even impact us this year or down the road when we would have to resign guys like Adams, Maye or Williams.
That's a major key to all of this as well and it results in a question Would you rather overpay for a QB for 4-5 years or blow a first round pick or more, have the QB flunk, or even worse, have to select a QB you never really wanted because no one fell to you. The jets are not in the top 5. Hell, there's 3 teams in front of them that can go QB. Cousins allows for Jets to address the holes around the QB and we have a bunch of them
Of the Jets sign Cousins to some crazy deal it won’t kill us because of the financials but because it guarantees Mac doesn’t know what he is doing.
good article here https://overthecap.com/jets-prepared-pay-kirk-cousins-60m-2018 he would only cost against the cap 24mil in 2019 and 2020. by 2021 he'd cost only 26 mil against the cap and by then it wouldn't even make him a top 5 paid QB if even top 10.
And this is what I have a major major problem with. It's like we aren't willing to do the hard right to solve the QB position. We'd rather go out of our way to rationalize signing Cousins for the sole purpose of moving on to another position in the draft. Flexibility in the draft is great...but at what cost? Glancing over the most important position on the field that's plagued us for decades solely to move on to a different position? Drafting a QB in the draft is not the be all end all...but for my money I'll take getting a difference making talent at that position over any other position this team has a need at...which is pretty much the whole roster. No other position offers the type of yield a QB does.Finding a franchise QB in the draft is the ultimate draft destination. After 50 years of this crap...why are we so quick to move on to another position? Can't we make sure we actually get this right for once? I have a hard time believing Cousins offers more upside than any of the QBs that will be at the top of this draft. I know some disagree w. that..but look at the number of red flags people are disregarding & rationalizing JUST so we can pick a different position in the draft.. Many consider this the best QB class since 05....you mean to tell me not one of these guys has the upside of a top 15 QB who hasn't accomplished anything? I know that opinion is out there...but I wonder if that opinion is guided by what I just said above: Fans still wanna build a team on paper & get caught up in the notion of moving onto another position in the draft. Well how bout this? We tae that $ allocated to Cousins & sign 2-3 other positional players giving us a different kind of flexibility heading into the draft: A few less needs which would allow us to hone in on a QB at 6 or in a trade uop w. less pause b.c we've filled additional needs in FA we wouldn't have normally been able to had we paid Cousins his asking price.
We pretty much haven't drafted a successful QB since Namath. After 50 years, presented with the opportunity to sign a 30 TD to low teen INT QB, who passed for 4000 yards annually, I rather sign the QB and focus my draft on other positions. JMO
This is from overthecap.com and highlights how the 60 million in the first year would look financially - explained https://overthecap.com/jets-prepared-pay-kirk-cousins-60m-2018
I completely get what you're saying Kurt, and share the same desire, BUT...it ain't gonna happen with Macc & Bowles in charge. You know this which I think is why you're saying "...in two years Bowles will be gone and an offensive-minded coach will be there". But for that to happen, the Jets are going to have to suck, or at least not make the playoffs, and more importantly, for that to happen Macc & Bowles would have to sign on to this plan that will ultimately lead to their dismissal. That's just not going to happen. Macc & Bowles know they have to start delivering NOW, regardless of their new extension - that's just an illusion. If they don't make this team able to compete to the end for the playoffs AT LEAST, they may well be fired at the end of this next season. So Macc is going to go hard after Cousins because he's much more of a sure thing than even Rosen or Darnold are. Now, if h doesn't get Cousins, he may well try to get one of the "lesser" FAs because again, they're a proven commodity vs. a unproven draftee. Finally, if he can't get any FAs. he'll look to the draft, and then MAYBE your desired outcome has a chance of coming into play. I fear that what you and I both ultimately want - an overall blueprint that gives the Jets the identity they've been lacking for almost 50 years - isn't going to happen with this team, at least not unless and until they're sold to someone who understands this necessity. So we have a choice to make: do we continue to root for them, despite knowing in our hearts it's futile; or do we finally say "Enough!" and walk away? For me, I'm going to wait until after the draft which by then will tell us if there's any hope left.
1st round QB's really haven't been a disaster for us at all. It's been when we keep trying to find a QB later in the draft so that we can hone in on other positions which is precisely what I'm opposed to,lol Richard Todd- Didn't live up to the billing but was at least productive & led us to the playoffs KOB- Yeah he wasn't marino but he had some great seasons & again we made the playoffs with him Pennington- Started many years, put up a decent numbers..a true Jet through & through...Playoffs Sanchez- Came out w. a bang. Started alot of big games for us. Had his moments...ended poorly. Again playoffs. VS. Browning Nagle Glenn Foley Jeff Blake Chuckie Clements Brooks Bollinger Erik Ainge Geno Smith Bryce Petty Christian Hackenburg Kevin O'connel(Traded for while young for a late round pick) Kliff Kingsbury(UDFA) Anthony Thomas(UDFA) Tony Woodbury(UDFA) VS. Boomer Esiasion Neil O'donnell Vinny Testaverde Rick Mirer Ryan Fitzpatrick Michael Vick Josh Mcown I let you come to your own conclussions..but if history means anything the jets have had their best luck taking a QB in round 1. We havent quite hit a home run but it's provided stability, an identity & reasonable postseason success..we haven't really had the colossal bust in round 1 despite the conventional wisdom that we have. All those misses have been in round 2 or later(Nagle/Geno/Hack)
My issue with all of this is what happens if we're at 6, it costs us 3 first rounders to get to 3 and we select a QB and he flames out. Does that hurt us more long term than say spending the cap, meanwhile we have 100 million and will continue to have a bunch given how young the roster is. or another nightmare scenario would be Rosen, Darnold and Mayfield go top 5, while the Jets end up with a sub 60% completion percentage QB like Allen and it turns into the hack scenario as the Jets brass claims "he's learning". I'm personally tired of seeing retreads like Fitz and McCown man the fort while we're grooming someone.
3 1st rounders to go up 3 spots is unlikely. Its also unlikely 3 qbs go before the 6th pick also Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk
There's no easy solution. I'm not gonna pretend there aren't risks associated w. drafting a QB early...especially in a trade up. But this is essentially the cost of doing business in today's NFL..unless you're fortunate enough to be picking top 3 at the right time/right class...or somehow strike gold in the later rounds(We've tried that over & over again) you're gonna have to trade up for your guys just as the Rams,Eagles & Bears have all done as of late. The difference between missing on a Qb in the draft vs. free agency is the FA can cause ramifications long after they leave the building due to the finances.If the guy is a bad apple...addition by subtraction may not be an option... W. a failed draft pick & associated surrendered picks to move up...it's just water down the drain;You can cut the guy..or bury him on the depth chart w. little financial haste.. You are always gonna have more picks alloted to you the following year. And if you traded some of those picks away...you can always trade back to recoup. At that point you go right back to the drawing board or drafting the next one. If it's an FA you may not have the flexibility to move on or fix the problem until contractual haste if off the books.
