Take a step back and really think about this . . .
Sometimes people can’t see the forest for the trees.
Some fans are getting hysterical about the Jets missing out on Derek Carr.
I don’t get it.
Carr has started 142 games and has a 63-79 record in nine seasons. He has only led the Raiders to a winning record two times in nine years and only played in one playoff game.
There are 15 quarterbacks in NFL history who have started more than 130 games and Carr is the only one who hasn’t gone to the Super Bowl and hasn’t won the MVP.
Not a bad player, but Bill Parcells always said, “You are what your record says it is.”
So while some Jets fans are bummed about the announcement from Ian Rapoport and Mike Garafolo, perhaps, as the old saying goes, “Sometimes the best moves are the ones you don’t make.”
The Jets dodged one here in my humble opinion.
In a salary-cap sport, I just don’t subscribe to giving a QB with a 63-79 record as a starter a deal for $37.5 million a year.
Look, I’m not blaming Carr’s starting record with the Raiders all on him.
Patrick Mahomes just won a Super Bowl after the Kansas City Chiefs traded Tyreek Hill before the season, and with four rookie defensive backs playing key roles on the team.
Cincinnati’s Joe Burrow had major offensive line issues the last two years, and he almost won a Super Bowl one year, and then almost got to another one the next.
The point is, that when you pay huge money to a QB, he needs to be able to help the team overcome shortcomings, and win games, you probably shouldn’t win.
A great QB is like a strong deodorant it covers up the smell of parts of your team that stink.
Carr is a solid QB, but he doesn’t seem to be that kind of guy.
Hat-tip to Robert Saleh for his brutal honesty about Carr’s skill set on Friday.
“If you can just get him to a place that can surround him with all the pieces to allow him to just play quarterback 10-15 times a game, it would be pretty cool,” Saleh said.
I love the blunt talk right there, and it’s spot-on. This is a QB who needs to be managed and needs a strong supporting cast – good running game, defense, special teams and so forth.
But with that being said, if you are going to pay QB a deal worth an average of $37.5 million a year, not sure you want a guy “to just play quarterback 10-15 times a game.”
Now I get the fact that he didn’t get into the absolute upper tier of NFL QB contracts, like Mahomes, Josh Allen, Deshaun Watson, and guys like that.
But still, $37.5 million a year is still great money and kind of pricy for a player with Carr’s resume.
And credit to Joe Douglas, for once again, drawing a line in the sand on the contract front, and not overpaying, like previous regimes, to buy a free agent’s love, to get him to come to Florham Park.
If Douglas had offered $40 million a year, perhaps Carr is a Jet, like when the former Jets GM paid C.J Mosley $4 million more a year than the Baltimore Ravens were offering.
Douglas didn’t do that.
None of us as a crystal ball, but my gut tells me history is going to view the Jets not overpaying Carr in a positive light.
As far as I’m concerned, the only veteran QB the Jets should pay big money to, if they can get him, is Aaron Rodgers, who they reportedly talked to on Tuesday, after being granted permission by the Packers.
March 7, 2023
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