Are you sure, if he just quits and walks away? Seems something like that happened about 10 years ago and I don't remember the outcome.
Actually I may be wrong on that, from what I am seeing from a couple of sites it may just be the signing bonus that gets accelerated. (10 million) As far as what happened 10 years ago, you'd be assuming that the rules for this CBA applied the same back then.
I agree completely with this. The annual salary TB agreed to is assumed by his detractors to be the bottom line of what the Jets had to offer. But there were no guarantees, and other considerations made that a poor metric for guessing what he might have stayed with the Jets for. Now we see him happily sign with NE for 3/4's of that amount. Makes you wonder what offer would have kept him onthe Jets. But they never even tried to find out.
Ft I don't like Brad's racecar analogy. Unless your crew chief gets the car running and qualified in the race, your driver will not even have an opportunity to crash it. It won't have left the trailer.
Seriously, this is the actual deal. It's all about the cap. If you can't afford to pay stars in the middle of the field because you're paying stars on the edges, well just look at the teams that do that and where they finish overall. Last year the highest cap numbers on the edge went to: Darrelle Revis - Tampa Bay ($16M) Cortland Finnegan - St Louis ($15M) Johnathan Joseph - Houston ($11M) Andre Johnson - Houston ($10.7M) Larry Fitzgerald - Arizona ($10.25M) Roddy White - Atlanta ($9.125M) Joe Haden - Cleveland ($9.086M) It isn't that easy to sort the numbers for 2013 because of new contracts for many free agents on the edge but I believe that is the list of all WR's and CB's who were compensated at $9M+ last season. It's not a list that inspires confidence in the decision to spend money on the edge, despite the fact that there are undeniably great players on it. Edit: it is important to understand that paying a huge amount for anybody compromises your ability to field a good team. It's very possible that there are no positions aside from QB where it will ever pay off to pay huge money to a player. It's also possible that even QB is not exempt from the competitive disadvantage that large contracts cause in a capped environment.
Yes, but an average crew chief can do that. An average driver can't win the Indy 500. That's why the crew chiefs were paid $12K on average last year and the drivers were paid $100K.
Why do you assume the guys who run a multimillion dollar operation "never even tried to find out" just because they didn't hold a press conference to announce it? It's already clearly been established that Idzik does most things under the radar as it is. It' just simple minded to assume they didn't have very in depth talks and explore many avenues.
I decided to use http://overthecap.com/offensebreakdown.php?Year=2013 and break down the top 10 for each position and see how many playoff teams we have for money spent on each position. This is mostly to see if we can see a trend or anything like that. Now this won't be perfect since it's overall position, not individual players. So for example, the Seahawks are ahead of Cardinals on the WR list and things like that which may seem wrong at first. IF YOU HAVE NO INTEREST IN RANKINGS, SKIP TO END Top 10 teams with money at the QB position: 4 playoff teams (3 of those 4 are P. Manning, Brees, and Brady) Top 10 teams with money at the RB position: 5 playoff teams Top 10 teams with money at the WR position: 3 playoff teams Top 10 teams with money at the TE position: 5 playoff teams Top 10 teams with money at the OL position: 5 playoff teams Top 10 teams with money on the offense: 5 playoff teams Top 10 teams with money at the DE position: 4 playoff teams Top 10 teams with money at the DT position: 2 playoff teams Top 10 teams with money at the LB position: 4 playoff teams Top 10 teams with money at the CB position: 4 playoff teams Top 10 teams with money at the S position: 5 playoff teams Top 10 teams with money spent on the defense: 4 playoff teams As expected, nothing to really pull from this thought. You can spend heavy on one position as long as you produce. If you spend heavy on the QB position, you better hope your QB is one of the really really good ones. But what happens if we narrow it down to top 3? Maybe some of these top 10 teams are in the bottom of the section of the top 10. Top 3 teams with money at the QB position: 1 playoff team (Broncos) Top 3 teams with money at the RB position: 0 playoff teams (Panthers #5) Top 3 teams with money at the WR position: 1 playoff team (Eagles) Top 3 teams with money at the TE position: 3 playoff teams (Seahawks, Packers, 49ers) Top 3 teams with money at the OL position: 2 playoff teams (Seahawks, Eagles) Top 3 teams with money on the offense: 2 playoff teams (Eagles, Seahawks) Top 3 teams with money at the DE position: 2 playoff teams (Seahawks, Bengals) Top 3 teams with money at the DT position: 0 playoff teams (just of this case, Pats and Bengals 4/5 by <$1million from #3) Top 3 teams with money at the LB position: 1 playoff teams (Chiefs) Top 3 teams with money at the CB position: 1 playoff team (Broncos) Top 3 teams with money at the S position: 2 playoff teams (Chiefs, Colts) Top 3 teams with money on the defense: 2 playoff teams (Bengals, Chiefs) START READING AGAIN What does this all mean? I think it just confirms the basic thought, if you spend heavy on a position a) you better hope it produces big time b) you still need production from your cheaper players c) if you make mistake you are going to have a bad bad time. So the time I spent looking at these figures really just backed up a thought process. Nothing groundbreaking, but hey it's good to figure out when the cap numbers match what you believe teams do.
Ok, so now look at the really big cap numbers overall and rank where the teams that paid them finished. The biggest deals don't wind up on the field at the end. Other than QB they generally don't wind up in the playoffs at the end. The other thing that is important is to look at the positions themselves. TE is a cheap position to top out at. Paying a TE at the top of the field hurts you less against the cap than paying a WR at the top of the field. Same thing for safety and CB. The Seahawks were the dominant team at the end last year. You could argue this happened because their QB and CB's played like All-Pros while being paid like rookies on 3rd to 6th round contracts. In fact, I'd argue that was the case, since they had the money to carry Percy Harvin all year on IR and to pay Marshawn Lynch well and to pay their offensive line more than anybody else in football in 2013. If you cost-adjusted the QB and the #1 CB to the salaries that NFL teams pay on the open market the Seahawks are a much worse team because $25M goes out of the rest of the team to keep two players happy
We've all seen a starting QB play a series or two with the 2nd unit in pre-season, and the production drops off fast when compared to the starting QB playing with the 1st unit (especially when playing against the other team's 1st unit defense). And the same applies to the regular season. A $30M/yr QB is almost certainly playing with the 2nd unit (talent wise) the entire regular season. What? If that same QB was getting $15M, that would give the GM and extra $1.5M per player to attract and keep better lineman, better RBs, better TEs, and better WRs. Essentially, a 1st unit talent wise. Flacco and the Ravens are an easy target for this analysis. The moment Flacco won the SB, the Ravens were doomed. Flacco would get his $, but he is just not good enough to dominate surrounded by 2nd unit players. And the exact thing plays out for any position, on both sides of the ball.
Yeah the Seahawks are a really interesting situation because you see them top out in the OL, TE, and DE. And if I showed the bottom 5 rankings, they end up there for a couple categories. Their big success as you stated came from the bottom 5 or 10 money spent positions playing like all pros. And you also touched upon why it will be very interested to see how the Seahawks go forward. The Seahawks get a couple more years where these players are on their first contract, then the fun begins. How do they distribute the money? What positions suffer because of it? The only way this success continues is if you hit on draft picks going forward. I think a good comparison for the Seahawks (unless Wilson becomes a top 4 QB) is the Steelers under Big Ben. You have your QB. Your QB will need to get paid, but the Steelers kept on cycling good young players to have a pretty successful 6 year run. Granted now, the other side of the coin has caught up to them, but I think that's the most similar recent team that the Seahawks can emulate. But it will be fun to see if the Seahawks fall into the trap I guess almost every team has fallen into, spending too much money on your QB which in turn limits the money you can spend elsewhere. Also, the list shows you things about running backs. If you pay running backs because they are so good, at that point they are right at their prime or on their way downhill. They have short careers and paying large money for them usually comes back to haunt you. I think it is important to keep in mind the Packers, Broncos, Patriots, and Saints get to operate differently than the other 28 teams in the league. Paying a QB big money doesn't hurt them like it would the other 28 teams because their QBs can cover weaknesses to consistently make the playoffs.
There were reports that Idzik tried to counter the Giants at the last minute and actually offered DRC more money but not sure this is true. I hope it isn't. I think he made the right decision. And with Walls and Patterson could get effective production out of that second corner spot. Plus he'll probably draft another corner. So we can develop our own guy instead of signing a guy whose been inconsistent his entire career. The big question mark is still Milliner. Is he going to improve or again have problems. Like Geno he played well the last quarter of the season. But both of them are still ?s.
you initially said CB's matter as little as Punters in terms of winning a championship. i don't think you even believe that statement, so i'll move on from it.. we may have discussed the middle of field positions previously, as i feel some deja vu. imo the most important positions in today's game are QB, OT, interior DL, edge DL, and CB. I'm not sure what middle of field positions you are referencing, but it can't be C, G, FB, HB, ILB, or S. maybe many years ago, but no longer do these positions impact the game quite like the others i've referenced. if the main basis of your argument is to be careful on overspending on any one guy due to the cap, i can agree with that. if you routinely let guys go at important positions though, be prepared to continuously draft at those positions. We've been experiencing some of that at CB, and i expect Wilson will walk at season's end. So i fully expect the Jets to draft more CB's in the coming future. I think the key is spending on the right guys, and within reason/market value. It's tough to try to marginalize an equation based solely on a position spend approach.
I think tall athletic Safeties are becoming very important. Antonio Allen comes to mind as he did real well against Gronk in one of our games against the Pats.
I don't think it's height, although height never hurts. I think it's the guys who have the athletic ability to move around in the secondary and be in places the QB doesn't think they can be in at a given point. I think speed is more important than height in that equation. I'd rather have a 5'10" guy with real speed than a 6'3" guy with average speed. Edit: just realized that my post doesn't really address yours, since you're talking about strong safeties. If you look at the best safeties in the NFL, the guys who show up in the middle of the best defenses, they're generally playing free safety. What the Jets have been missing for quite a while is a really good free safety. The closest we've come was Kerry Rhodes and he was run out of town because he couldn't effectively play the strong safety #2 role that Rex wants out of his free safety on a lot of downs.
Yea I heard this story to,who knows what's true and isn't.Apprently DRC said he made his mind up already at the point when they offered him the 11th hour contract.It would have been a nice signing but DRC has had such an up and down carrer.I much rather of had our Cromartie back over DRC especially when you look at the contract Arizona gave him
As for not re-signing Cro you have to give the Jets coaching staff some leverage on this because they knew the D coverage calls so they can better evaluate his effectiveness last season. So if they didn't want to re-sign Cro there is a reason. I'll accept that decision.
