oh i would much rather keep him and get him signed asap. if it doesn't happen i don't think it would be the end of the world though. if he is asking for way too much money i can't really blame tanny for holding strong. it would be mutually beneficial if they could reach a deal soon, and i think leon will eventually come down from whatever money he is asking for in time for TC.
You must not be familiar with how restricted free agency works. He can't "fuck with the Jets in contract negotiations". As a RFA, he's only going to get what the market commands for him, and ultimately WE have the final say as to whether or not he remains a Jet. I've been doing a lot of thinking about this, and the cold hard reality is that Leon and his agent are in a flat out SHITTY negotiating position right now. They have no leverage. What's he going to do, sit out the whole season? He'll mutilate his market value. For arguments sake and ease of math, I'm going to use a contract of 4 years worth $20M for the following scenarios. Let's say right now Leon and Keels are demanding said contract. Tanny tells them to go pound salt. Leon goes out and has a year similar to the one he had last year. So now it is the offseason, and Leon is a RFA. Now, any offer sheets extended to the Jets for Leon must, by NFL rules, include a 1st and 3rd round pick package. Let's say the Patriots extend an offer sheet of the 4 years @ $20M. The Jets match the offer sheet and Leon remains a Jet, free and clear. Now let's say the Raiders (or insert any non AFC East team of your choice here) extend the same offer sheet. The Jets decline to match and recieve the 1st and 3rd round compensation in what is shaping up to be the draft of the decade. As you can see, the Jets have absolutely nothing to lose by telling Leon to get lost right now. The worst case scenario is that the FO has to match an offer sheet similar to what Leon is demanding right now. Only he is going to determine his market value next year, so he has every incentive to go out and play equally as hard as he has done every other year. Tanny is no dummy, and simply put, he has Leon by the balls.
your underestimating the idiot gm factor. a team like the raiders wouldn't offer market value. they would over pay for leon and the jets wouldn't be able to match. sure they would get the first and third, but i'm sure they would rather keep leon. not that losing him for a first and third would be an awful thing as i already said, but i think everyone would rather have a proven playmaker.
But I'd rather not deal with him being an RFA due to fact that the Jets have to match offer sheets. Even with him being restricted next year, there is a good chance he's being paid less over the course of the contract if he gets an extension now, then if we are matching an offer sheet from a team like the redskins. And no one is paying a 1st and 3rd for him unless he runs for 1400 yards and 12TDs. Ryan will implement a 3 RB system, so no one is touching those kind of stats. And i'm fully aware of how it works. The part about knowing how it works is knowing how to use it. That plan doesn't work when other GMs are just as qualified and intelligent Mr. Tannenbaum.
If he has a career yr and he's schedule to make $4 mil in 2010, he might want to get a new contract saying he out played his current contract. If we save those $4mil and not give him a new contract, we can potentially retain him for 2 more years until hes 29 for a max of about $2.5mil over that span, saving the Jets roughly $7-9 mil over two yrs. If Shonn Greene works out, we are in good shape. I love Leon, but business side comes first in the NFL. If he is willing to take a 5 yr $20 mil deal with $10mil signing bonus or 4 yr equivalent money, I wouldn't mind.
This is exactly why Keels is advising Leon to go back to the OTAs. Jets are in a good position. Leon has no leverage at all. Its a tool given to all the NFL teams and is excercised every yr by various teams.
...it's really not as big a deal as you're making it out to be. This wouldn't be the first time it's been done. Therein is the beauty of restricted free agency. If a team like the Redskins wants him that bad, let him go! Take the picks, run, and never look back! You are vastly underestimating the value of picks in next years' draft. I wouldn't be so sure about that. Leon is a proven commodity. As Kenny said, you are also underestimating the idiot GM factor.
How obvious does it have to be? If u're saying that what happens if Leon has a career yr etc....Lemme ask u this. What happens if we give him a huge contract and he flat out sux next yr since he got his big fat check? He would have no motivation to do anything. The only reason why he is asking for a new contract is because he knows his situation and is trying his luck.
will that not be the case the year after when he gets the big contract in 2010?? So we are postponing the inevitable.
You still have yet to prove why this would be a negative thing for the Jets. If no one wanted to give up the picks, that puts the Jets in an even BETTER negotiating position with Leon as it would be a good indication that his market value is not as high as he and his agent seem to think it is. As I said above, the absolute worst that could come of this is that the Jets end up giving Leon the contract he is demanding now, next offseason.
So whatever happened to the RFA rules? We offer him a tender of about $2mil. He signs or quits football, or another team offers him a huge contract, in which case we take the first and third...I would be glad if we are offered those picks.
RFA opens up the options of Franchise tenders, teams having availability to him, and if he has another career year - he wants more money. Nip it in the ass now. No one is going to pay a 1st and a 3rd for a RB/ST guy who is RB 1b or 1a. He would have to be the lone feature back for that kind of money. An objective GM to this deal would laugh at it. You are overestimating the idiot GM factor, because its so rare for this kind of deal to happen. This isn't one of those baiting deals where 9 GMs are waiting to take the bait and get fucked over. Its just a not very realistic scenario. Too much is being put on a dopey GM who is waiting for your scenario to play out so that the Jets can be the offseason winners again. I just don't find it an easy as pie situation thats bound to happen.
You've yet to prove why another team would even think of making this a positive move for them. It has to be a fair trade.
If no one wants to give up the picks and extend an offer, that is his only other option if he doesn't like the deal the Jets want to give him.
It doesn't matter one bit if another team wants to make this move. As I said, it's even better if they don't. It gives the Jets even more leverage.
Since we don't actually know what Leon is demanding, the above statement is problematic at best and specious at worst. Furthermore, whatever he is asking for/believes he is worth now will logically be significantly higher next year even if he maintains his same stat numbers from last year.
