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New Jersey – As most of you know by now, Jets star defensive end Mo Wilkerson sounded off in the New York Post about his contract situation.
“It’s shocking. It’s frustrating,” Wilkerson told the New York Post. “Because I feel like I’ve earned it and I deserve it. It would be different if I was just a mediocre player. I feel like each and every week I’m dominating and it’s showing. The stats speak for themselves. Basically, what more do I need to do? You know what I mean?
“Do I feel that they want me back? As of right now, no. I don’t feel like they want me,” Wilkerson said. “I’m a talented guy. Everybody knows that. I feel like they’re going to get the best they can out of me and just let me go. That’s how I feel. Do I like that feeling? No. I’m a New Jersey guy, born and raised and would love to raise my family here.”
I have a few thoughts on this.
How can you give Wilkerson $63 million guaranteed like Fletcher Cox or Mr. Suh, when the Jets defensive end is still rehabbing a broken leg?
I’m sorry, it makes no sense. It’s not his fault he got hurt, but he got hurt, suffered a very serious injury.
What team in their right mind would give up $63 million guaranteed to a player still in rehab and not 100 percent yet?
And remember, the type of tag the Jets put on Wilkerson was non-restrictive, so other teams could have signed him and given the Jets compensation, and nobody did.
You know why?
If you are the GM of a team, and you give a player rehabbing a broken leg a mega-deal, and he hurts that leg again, you are probably going to get fired.
I think if Wilkerson was healthy, and the Jets put that non-restrictive tag on him, he might be on another team by now, and the Jets would have a bunch of draft picks and/or players.
So nobody touched him with this injury, and the Jets don’t want to give him more than the one-year tender (which isn’t bad money at $15.7 million).
I understand Mo’s frustration. As far as I’m concerned, the money should have gone to Wilkerson last off-season, and not to an aging cornerback, in part for PR reasons. That was bad business.
But now with the leg injury, and the 31-year-old cornerback making $17 million this year, and some kind of Ryan Fitzpatrick contract on the horizon (this will get done at some point), the chances of Wilkerson getting the kind of long-term deal he wants now is a major long-shot.
And it should be.
It’s bad business to give a long-term deal worth over $60 million guaranteed to a player currently rehabbing a serious leg injury.
The Jets are doing the thing right now.
They didn’t do the right thing last off-season, but they are doing the right thing now.
June 16, 2016
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