I have heard about all of the other team going ape-shit signing players to fill their needs......What am I missing here? No offensive line help? Where's our big time safety signing....I'm not hearing a peep from anywhere. Drew Stanton???WTF I'm a little disappointed but I'm sure I will get a dressing down about 30 seconds after I post this. I know we weren't supposed to make any huge splashes but give us something to at least talk about here!
The Jets have no cap space to make a splash. They have a bit to grab a few bargains when things die down some. If they had signed Carl Nicks, as an example, they'd be completely out of funds to do anything but sign their draft choices and keep a couple of million around for emergencies in camp. If they restructured a few more contracts to make space this year it would put them in hell for 2013 and maybe 2014. They really don't have much cap space. $15 million becomes a bit over 10 after the rookies and that's like one big free agent now plus the reserve fund. In a couple of weeks they'll have some sniping opportunities at the mid-range talent. In June they'll get Braylon pretty cheap if he is still out there.
They're not working with alot of money. Besides that, they got burned last year going all in with Holmes and the Burris fiasco. My guess is Woody, Tanny and Rex all sat down, looked at the numbers, and decided to stay under the radar this offseason and go with the "quiet" signings instead of making a splash.
there have only been a handful of moves worth looking at that were not teams re-signing their own players and those handful of moves involved about 5 or 6 teams.
Some of these teams have over $50 million in cap space because of the new carryover stuff. It's difficult to compete in a market like that. Usually you overpay in free agency, this year you REALLY overpay or you don't get your guy. Sometimes the best move is no move.
Tampa and Washington have been the only big players in FA so far. Detroit resigned one of their own, as did New Orleans, Indianapolis. There really hasn't been a lot of teams talked about. Im sure tanny has been working the phones non stop. Players have to want to come here for us to sign them.
Imagine going to an auction and knowing there are a handful of guys with 4x as much as you in there pocket. Not only that, but they KNOW they have 4x as much as you. They have the power seat and if you do decide to bid you're at their mercy. They could bid you up and drop any unit on you they wanted. Wait for them to spend there money or at least prove they aren't interested in what you want before you get involved.
The thing to remember about the Jets this year is that to fix what went wrong last year they don't need to get great players, just good ones. Replacing Wayne Hunter with an average RT will be a huge upgrade. Getting a fast WR to play opposite Holmes and take his side deep regularly will be a huge upgrade. Getting a TE who can block and catch 30-40 balls will be a huge upgrade over Mulligan. The only place the Jets could use stars at this point is ROLB and S and I don't see either of those in free agency. They're going to have to use the draft to get the LB and maybe live with subpar safety play again for a year.
While I completely agree with your first paragraph, the third needs clarification. Imo the ROLB position is one where a high draft pick is the better option to upgrade. Bringing back B. Thomas does not conflict with that objective, although I am guessing this might mean we've seen the last of Westerman. I never thought going FA for this position, whether or not Thomas came back, was the way to go. Safety, though, imo is a different matter. They can afford to groom a rookie at OLB. At one of the starting safety positions, not so much. Given Leonhard's missing the end of two seasons in a row now, I would have thought there was at least some good chance that the Jets would let him go. They still might. But if they do, the situation is very different than LB. They need someone at safety to start on Opening Day. A vet is the way to go there.
wait a minute! I thought that the Jets were going to sign a veteran in free agency to push Sanchez? I hope that the extension does not mean that We go into the season again with no viable option as a backup QB. Orton is signed to Dallas, Campbell is signed to da Bears. Unless someone else (maybe Hasselbeck) Gets released later in the sping/summer, it would appear that those were the two best options. I would hope that the backup gets signed to the team early enough to actually learn alongside Sanchez , so that we can see an apples to apples comparison.
FA is not like last year, this is normal FA. Signings get dragged out for weeks. The whole day 1 thing yesterday was a result of the day 1 crap from last year where FA was much shorter. I think teams and players are now under the impression they have to sign day 1. The 2011 Free Agency has clearly started a new trend.
Jets fans mock the Redskins every year about "winning" free agency but then cry when the Jets aren't doing the same. the hypocrisy is just astounding.
