We are in such bad cap shape right now. We have about $15-16 million in cap space. We basically can’t use any of that because we need it for draft picks and minimal cap flexibility you generally need to keep throughout the summer and season. If we cut Uzomah, Tomlinson and Mosley, we will have about $25 million in cap space. We still then need to add two tackles, a guard and an inside linebacker let alone trying to upgrade receiver. Not to mention attempting to resigning Huff and filling in a spot for Whitehead and all of the depth players that are free agents.
Other teams go all in with a good hand in a pot that's worth winning. The Jets go all in with 10 6 suited hoping to fill in a flush in a pot with only the antes in it.
This wasn't the 1994 New York Rangers and Aaron Rodgers ain't Mark Messier and never was. It wasn't at all hard to see that pre-debacle. Jets are gonna Jet no matter how much the FO tries to convince themselves they're not Jetting. I've said this before: Woody Johnson is the new Al Davis. I'm waiting for him to start looking like a zombie and mumble nonsense with band-aids stuck to his head. On the bright side, that shit was the cure for the insomnia for the sleepless amongst us, so we at least have that much to look forward to . . . hmm, although I gotta say I have been doing pretty good with that watching the Jets this season, anyway.
For the task of rebuilding the Jets, I think the team of Saleh and JD have done a pretty good job. The defense has talented players and is top 10, and would probably be top 5 if the Jets had anything of an offense. The offense has talented players too, but is missing the key ingredient QB and it is here where the dynamic duo has failed miserably. After acknowledging their #2 pick was a miss, they tried to take a short cut to victory by signing a 40 y.o. albeit HOF QB, figuring if it worked for Tampa it could work for them. They doubled down on their stupidity by failing to provide adequate backup and hence falling back on the very draft choice failure whose dreadful play led them to go for the HOF guy in the first place. Sadly, a comedy of errors reminiscent of the Keystone Cops. And it isn't over yet folks, we still have a year (at least) to go of the HOFer who is not likely to win a SB in 2024 and even less likely, at age 42, after that. The best we can hope for is a team that wins a majority of their games and maybe a playoff appearance, but little else.
That's the only thing the Jets are good at doing. If they stopped insulting the fanbase, then they wouldn't be good at a single thing.
I used to worry about the cap…not so much anymore…just feels like when a team needs to make room, they figure it out. No team loses a guy they REALLY want to keep because of cap…they lose fringe guys sure, but it just feels like the cap is more an excuse to low-play contract offers than anything else. As needed, they may try to restructure guys to make room, some guys flat out took pay cuts (like Lawson did last year)…to me Tomlinson is a perfect pay cut opportunity…he’s making huge bucks and has not lived up to his deal anywhere close…now he may not agree, but something will most likely happen with him and I’d bet on a restructure instead of outright cutting him. Mosley is another guy who they will probably approach with a restructure…he’s played well and is a key part of our D so I’m sure they’d like to keep him, but he’s going to cost too much…I have a feeling he’ll be approached on something as well. Who knows…certainly it’s not the same as we had a couple years ago with plenty of room, but shit, this is where JD has to earn his money and figure shit out…because he hasn’t done that on the OL after 4 years of trying…
I agree and maybe they can restructure some guys down but who? I mean the three I tossed out there are the only real candidates. And let’s say we restructure to free up say $17 million instead of $25. We still have nothing to make any meaningful FA impact unfortunately.
10 6 suited, though convincing Woody we have pocket Aces. They lied to ownership and the fanbase in an effort to keep their jobs. We need 3 lineman, a WR, a TE, and soon a MLB as well, and we don’t have the room to sign them. Thats why I’m saying this team should be left exactly as it is. They made this bed, they told us this is a championship roster. Well, here ya go. Woody should close up his wallet right now and tell them either they win a SB this year or they’re all packing and gone.
I agree completely that it should be left as is, if only to attempt to finish the job because blowing everything up and still having Aaron Rodgers would not give us any opportunity to hire anyone decent. But what I don't understand is this idea that the fans and Woody Johnson live in a cave and couldn't come to their own conclusions, but were convinced by the evil manipulative Douglas and Saleh? No way. Fans, the media, everybody was screaming about us only needing a quarterback to compete for a championship last year after we overachieved. The smart people were saying that we could compete for a playoff spot, but there were a TON of people who believe that that and it did not come from Jets management.
I agree with the point you are making. They gotta try to get better though. 'They made their bed so lay in it" is just another wasted season and I'm getting old
Let’s face it, Woody is an idiot. You’re talking about a guy who hired a firm to hire his GM/Coach once. For that matter the fans are too. This defense we have is stupid. It’s full of great players that will all cost an arm and a leg. Of course it’s good right now. There isn’t an ounce of intelligence in the scheme. It’s draft and sign great players at the expense of offense. JD and Saleh look the part, and that was enough to fool Woody and a good portion of the fanbase.
Again, agree completely that Woody is an absolute moron with no clue. Disagree that they took him for a ride. I think they all bought the headlines, and then Woody told them to go and get the best and most famous guy available.
The cap is what it is. It can be manipulated but only so far without giving away the future. We're close to the so far. The Packers lost Adams to the Raiders when Rodgers demanded a new long term contract. His QBR dropped 20 points without him and they finished below .500. Right now Jordan Love's QBR is 31 points higher than Rodgers was with basically the same roster. (Maybe better wideouts since they took a 2nd round guy and dumped Lazard on us). I'm not sure now many players will be willing to restructure this year. We already did the large scale restructuring last offseason which is why our cap is so thin this year. Plus Rodgers cap hit is 50 million in 25, so if we push more money into that season its going to be really hard to build - or at that stage, full rebuild, as our blue chips will want 2nd contracts. IMO we still have enough decent players to build around and create a winning team now. We just have to abandon our current course and pivot back to building out and get better coaches.
We're not even winning in the short term... And I heard that Saleh intends to bring back the entire coaching staff. Our major problem IS bad coaching...
We kicked a lot of money down the road thinking we had a solid roster that would be intact and ready to go for two years. What I don’t get is why they assumed receiver and tackle would be good to go for this year? Even if we had a good year and maybe got a Becton back on mid-sized deal if he didn’t suck that bad, Davis would’ve been a cut candidate (or maybe he was a FA anyways?) and we’d have a gaping hole at probably two tackle spots. Uzomah is an all-time bad contract. So is Tomlinson’s. And the frustrating part is that we kicked money down the road to this year in order to add guys like Dalvin Cook, Amos, Lazard, Cobb, Turner, etc. All of which who won’t be on the roster or any meaningful contributor next year.
Agreed. And we let Fant and Moses walk for ancient Duane Brown and proven unreliable Becton. Plus they knew we had issues with Mims and Moore, and the solution was a big contract for Lazard? I don't understand the logic, which makes the last draft doubly confusing taking an edge over OL or WR. No matter how you twist the logic, it was idiotic.
I'm gen X so its more like an unreleased Michael Jackson song, the one about how the QB isn't really his, because MJ doesn't play football.
