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Are we in for another ugly contract summer? It certainly looks that way.
Let me start off throwing this out there – It was reported in the New York Post that the Jets have 17,000 PSL-seats unsold.
If this is true, do you think that Woody Johnson is going to be in the mood to sign CB Darrelle Revis, C Nick Mangold, LT D’Brickashaw Ferguson and LB David Harris long-term large money deals right now?
I tend to doubt that.
Remember, they are all under contract, so theoretically the Jets don’t have to do a thing right now.
And the problem is if they do one deal, they create a domino effect, and the other three guys will be angered.
17,000 unsold PSL-seats. That is a lot of money, or lack of money in the Jets coffers.
Now I’m not crying poverty for the Jets and their owner, just dealing with reality. Do you think an owner with this kind of unsold seat revenue is going to throw money around in the next few months?
A lot has been made of the Jets active off-season, but if you really look at their moves, while they created quite a splash, they really didn’t spend a lot of money.
The acquired CB Antonio Cromartie and WR Santonio Holmes in trades, and both players are in the last year of their rookie deals, and don’t make a lot of money. LB Jason Taylor signed basically a one-year deal for $1.75 million. RB LaDainian Tomlinson signed a two-year, $5.1 deal, much less money than he was making the last few years in San Diego. S Brodney Pool signed a one-year deal for $1.3 million. And they got rid of RB Leon Washington and his $1.7 million tender, and saved over $2 million by releasing Alan Faneca (though I believe this was a performance move, not really a financial decision).
You have to give Mike Tannenbaum some credit. He went on an NFL shopping spree at T.J. Maxx.
So with that kind of economical off-season approach, why does anyone think Tannenbaum and Johnson are now going to start doling out massive dough to those four aforementioned players?
Now it’s possible they might take care of one or two of them, but it’s not a given.
And with Revis questioning the integrity of the Jets management on Thursday, you wonder if that hurts his case a little, no matter how great a player he is.
Revis claims that the Jets told him they would give him a new contract after last season. I can’t verify this. I wasn’t there. But the fact that this is the third time in recent memory that agent Neil Schwartz’s firm has used this tact, you have to wonder a little bit.
“That’s their word. That’s what they said,” Revis told ESPN New York. “If you go back on your word, it’s a problem. I guess we’ll figure it out when July 31 comes. As of right now, we have a bunch of months to get things done. We’ll see. I trust those guys. But I also know this is a business as well. [But] we believe them at their word. If you go back on your word, in general, in world society, when you go back on your word, it’s a problem. It’s just a problem.”
I don’t know about this world society stuff. The world is real messed up right now.
Revis usually travels on the high road, but he didn’t with this quote.
Does he think it’s a great strategy to question the honesty of your GM in the media when you want a new deal?
Also, this concept that his camp is throwing out that he’s making just a $1 million this year is a little misleading. He made $15 million the first three years of his deal, so the average of the first four is $4 million per season.
Of course, by NFL standards, he deserves more than $4 million per season. That’s a no-brainer.
But this oft-used Schwartz strategy of implying that Tannenbaum is a liar might not be the best way to go.
Will the Jets take care of these four players? I don’t know.
But it’s not a slam dunk.
The economy stinks.
PSL sales stink.
The climate isn’t great for mega-deals right now.
Plus they are all under contract.