The other option would have been to let his contract expire - and not resign him and extend him. No disrespect to Martin and his play and effort. Just business...
First off, you don't pay attention to my posts here if you think I am a slave to stats. I use them to help in discussions, but they don't always tell the whole story. (Lynn Swann- one of the top dozen WRs of all time. However, look at his stats. They are not eye-opening at all. Tatum Bell has a career 5.3 ypc number, but I don't really like him. Go see the Bell thread in this forum.) Holmes put up big stats his first two years in KC and threatened to holdout if he was not given an extension. Stats were certainly very important there. If he had two great years with the Jets, I'm sure he would have threatened to hold out on the Jets in summer 2003, just like he did in KC. His 2001 deal was $10 million over five years. Then, right before the 2003 season started he signed a 4-year extension worth $5 million per year with a $10 million signing bonus. The Jets had more team success with Martin since 2001 than the Chiefs had success with Holmes. Martin played 15 more regular season games (and also more playoff games).
& now the end of the story where did that get us? Who knows maybe a power back vs a glider (CM) may have gotten us further in the end. Also you may just want to check out CMs fumble ratio in clutch situations. It was not pretty. It was published in one of the NY newspapers a few days back. It brought back to mind all those pretty Marino stats in the POs.
I could probably research when the fumbles occurred, but I haven't the time right now. If somebody could find that on the internet, kindly post it here. Martin does have the lowest fumble rate all-time of any runner with 1500 or more carries, so far as I can tell. (I've researched many of the 1500+ carry guys and Martin's the lowest I've seen.) The only one that jumps out is the one in the 1998 AFC Championship Game. You know, Martin did lead the league in rushing in 2004. It's difficult to get rid of a guy the season after he does such a thing.
Surely I U know I know all U posted. It was published some days ago about the fumbles I think by Cimini
At the time I thought the Martin extension was a horrible mistake. I had my eyes on Garrison Hearst instead of Holmes though.
Chrebet should have been cut a long time ago. He was kept because he was a fan favorite. He would not have been a number three on most teams in the Nfl the last three or four years.
i'll concede to your numbers. the bottom line is it was a lousy return for the money. to say nothing of the guys who we had to let walk due to the cap. mangini himself answered a recent question by stating if he had to win one game he would choose namath. hardly a ringing endorsement of checkbook chad.:breakdance:
That is ridiculous statement to make that he's dissing Chad by saying he'd take Namath. Namath is a legendary hall of famer, and Chad if lucky, is halfway through his career. If you asked Chad the same question I would not be surprised to hear him say Namath either.
I've always said that of Boobway's many blunders, two of his biggest were the Martin and Chrebet's contracts in summer of 2002. Both were pushing 30, and had stars Jordan and Coles behind them. Boobway alienated both Coles and Jordan by giving Martin an EIGHT year deal thru the END of 2009 and Wayne (no pro bowls) Chrebet a SEVEN year deal thru the END of 2008. Coles and Jordan got pissed and jumped ship. THEN Boobway trades Moss to recoup Coles who he never should have lost. Boobway was worse than Kotite on personnel, yet he AMAZINGLY held the GM job 5 years. Go figure.
Holmes has been better but would he have had the same production here? and Holmes edged out Curtis for the rudh title in '01 and Curtis won it in '04. It's not like we didn't get production from Curtis. Curtis is a team leader and a greta player so yes we made the right call. They drafted Lamont thinking Lamont may take over in '02 or '03 but after he carried our O in '01 the FOI made the clal-the correct one- to rework his deal. His deal isn't killing us now, sure we'd have Lamont but Lamont didn't exactly light it up in his 1st chance as a staretr last year and he's never proven he can be a big time feature back like Curtis was.
I agree on the Chrebet deal, he was in decline and nothing more than a #2 WR. That money we could have kept Coles the 1st time but wjat has Jordan done to show he deserved to be here more than Curtis did?
I appreciate your thoughts on the Chrebet contract. And you are right that Martin's contract was not nearly the error Chrebet's was. I thought and still think that Jordan was ready to start for the jets in 2002. He averaged 8 yards per carry as a rookie (I know...not that many carries). While Martin had good years in 02 and 04, he stunk in 03 and 05. And, as I have posted I can't believe they signed him for so long, giving us a huge cap hit in pro-rated signing bonus once he quits/gets cut. Martin is a hall of famer but I wouldn't sign Barry Sanders in his prime to an eight year deal at age 29-30 either. My opinion only.
Jordan's averages were better simply b/c he got alot of his carries in garbage time. he had his 1st crack last year and his year was eeirly similiar to Curtis' if Curtis up until Curtis' year was done. The facts are Lamont has never shown he could be a big time back while Curtis had a down year in '02(due to early injuries but he picked it up late and still averaged 4.2 YPC), he was decent in '03(4.0 YPC) and led the league in 2004. It's hard to complain about the extension when he did all that for us and was coming off a year where he barely missed out on the rushing title.
Certainly when we made the deal with CMoney the Jets were considered SB contenders. Flash forward to losing all of our QBs and it becomes a different story. The BIG BIG BIG mistake was keeping Abraham and letting Jordan go. Jordan could have been unhappy last year like Abe was, but after the season was a bust, Jordan would have seen more playing time. Now we have no Abe AND no LaMont
