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Cimini: How the Jets spent their money


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How the Jets spent their money

 

 

July, 1, 2013

 

Jul 1

 

 

12:25

 

 

PM ET

 

 

By  Rich Cimini | ESPNNewYork.com

 

 

 

 

 

Tanner Purdum Al Pereira/New York Jets/Getty ImagesTanner Purdum signed a two-year contract with the Jets in March. He's been the team's' steady long snapper since 2010.

 

Under new GM John Idzik, the Jets took an NBC approach in the offseason -- no big contracts.

 

 

They made little or no effort to re-sign any of their own big-ticket free agents. In fact, Tanner Purdum -- the long snapper, for crying out loud -- was the only veteran to receive a multiyear contract to re-sign. What does that tell you?

 

 

The Jets spent modestly in free agency, doling out several one-year deals. Even the multi-year deals were relatively small, allowing them to flexibility to cut players after one year with no serious cap ramifications. By 2014, their salary-cap house should be in order. The only difficult-to-cut contracts in '14 will be C Nick Mangold and LT D'Brickashaw Ferguson, neither of whom should be in jeopardy, anyway.

 

 

A breakdown of how they spent this offseason:

 

 

FREE AGENTS RE-SIGNED

 

 

 

 

 

POS

 

 

PLAYER

 

 

CONTRACT

 

 

 

RT Austin Howard 1 year/$2.03 million

 

TE Jeff Cumberland 1 year/$1.32 million

 

LS Tanner Purdum 2 years/$1.49 million

 

LB Calvin Pace 1 year/$1.05 million

 

PK Nick Folk 1 year/$780,000

 

FB Lex Hilliard  1 year/$780,000

 

LB Josh Mauga 1 year/$630,000

 

 

Total amount of contracts: $8.08 million

 

Total amount of guaranteed money: $310,000

 

 

 

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

 

TRADES

 

 

 

 

 

POS

 

 

PLAYER

 

 

CONTRACT

 

 

 

RB Chris Ivory 3 years/$6.0 million

 

 

Total amount of contracts: $6.0 million

 

Total amount of guaranteed money: $2.25 million

 

 

 

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

 

FREE AGENTS SIGNED

 

 

 

 

 

POS

 

 

PLAYER

 

 

CONTRACT

 

 

 

RB Mike Goodson 3 years/$6.9 million

 

LB Antwan Barnes 3 years/$4.05 million

 

S Dawan Landry 2 years/$3.0 million

 

G Willie Colon 1 year/$1.16 million

 

QB David Garrard 1 year/$1.1 million (retired)

 

G Stephen Peterman 1 year/$905,000

 

DT Antonio Garay 1 year/$905,000

 

TE Kellen Winslow 1 year/$840,000

 

WR Ben Obonamu 1 year/$715,000

 

 

Total amount of contracts: $19.58 million

 

Total amount of guaranteed money: $2.94 million

 

 

 

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

 

DRAFT PICKS

 

 

 

 

 

POS

 

 

PLAYER

 

 

 

 

CB Dee Miller (1a) 4 years/$12.66 million*

 

DT Sheldon Richardson (1b) 4 years/$10.05 million*

 

QB Geno Smith (2) 4 years/$5.02 million*

 

G Brian Winters (3) 4 years/$2.90 million

 

OT Oday Aboushi (5) 4 years/$2.36 million

 

G William Campbell (6) 4 years/$2.27 million

 

FB Tommy Bohanon (7) 4 years/$2.22 million

 

  *Unsigned. Projected contract

 

 

Total amount of contracts: $37.48 million

 

Total amount of guaranteed money: $26.21 million

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No wild spending because of cap situation so he had no choice.

 

He did have the choice instead of 6 crappy players he could have gotten 1 great player.  But that was the Tanny model. There's always a choice. I wonder if this is just a one year thing (fine) or a habit of dumpster diving. It could get old fast.

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He did have the choice instead of 6 crappy players he could have gotten 1 great player.  But that was the Tanny model. There's always a choice. I wonder if this is just a one year thing (fine) or a habit of dumpster diving. It could get old fast.

Got to agree.  Idzik did what had to be done this year.

 

How this draft works out, and what he does with all the cleared cap space next year is what he'll be judged by in the long run

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He did have the choice instead of 6 crappy players he could have gotten 1 great player.  But that was the Tanny model. There's always a choice. I wonder if this is just a one year thing (fine) or a habit of dumpster diving. It could get old fast.

 

Was that one great player gonna play 6 different positions?  Barring that, he'd have had 5 street UDFAs playing the other 5 positions, because that's about all they would have been able to afford.  He didn't really have a choice.

 

Your criticisms are really ridiculous.  It's way too early to judge anything.  If Idzik's draft picks this year and next don't pan out, if none or most of the FAs he signed this year don't produce, if he doesn't address the glaring needs next offseason, and if he doesn't make wise use of the cap space he'll have next year, fine, then we'll all probably be joining you in criticizing Idzik, but for now, we ought to give the guy a chance and see how things play out.

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Your criticisms are really ridiculous.  It's way too early to judge anything.  

 

Garrard already retired. Goodson got arrested. It's not too early to judge those signings, the jets first 2 of the offseason. 

 

We could start a pool, what is the next cheap Jets vet to get hurt? my guess is Winslow, altho don't count out Colon, he's always hurt.

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Garrard already retired. Goodson got arrested. It's not too early to judge those signings, the jets first 2 of the offseason. 

 

We could start a pool, what is the next cheap Jets vet to get hurt? my guess is Winslow, altho don't count out Colon, he's always hurt.

 

I think it's fair to say nobody really gives a flying **** about Goodson's arrest at this point.  A drunken pothead is spit in the bucket when compared to a multiple murderer.  As long as he doesn't end up with any sort of significant prison sentence, he'll remain a Jet.

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How dare you.  Dearth couldn't hold Purdum's jock.

LOL, I'll always remember how James Dearth would have his whole family eating all of the Jets food during Jeanne's in the hallway of the LR Post Game interviews

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Garrard already retired. Goodson got arrested. It's not too early to judge those signings, the jets first 2 of the offseason. 

 

We could start a pool, what is the next cheap Jets vet to get hurt? my guess is Winslow, altho don't count out Colon, he's always hurt.

 

Hang on.  You mean cheap players aren't sure things like expensive ones & that's why they're cheaper? Wow, I didn't know that.  Boy is my face red.

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He did have the choice instead of 6 crappy players he could have gotten 1 great player.  But that was the Tanny model. There's always a choice. I wonder if this is just a one year thing (fine) or a habit of dumpster diving. It could get old fast.

 

You don't start a rebuilding process with free agents and then move onto your drafts and pigeon-hole yourself into drafting for need (which almost always leads to reaching or trading up; sound familiar?).

 

I'd think you of all people would be a fan of building the team through the draft & then the last missing parts you fill through free agency.  Building the core - and the depth - through the draft should leave plenty of cap room for doing just that.

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You don't start a rebuilding process with free agents and then move onto your drafts and pigeon-hole yourself into drafting for need (which almost always leads to reaching or trading up; sound familiar?).

 

I'd think you of all people would be a fan of building the team through the draft & then the last missing parts you fill through free agency.  Building the core - and the depth - through the draft should leave plenty of cap room for doing just that.

 

The problem is the "missing parts" might not be healthy enough to actually play. Obviously cheap and great is the best combo but if they all get hurt then cheap is useless. Winslow, Colon etc these guys might not really be healthy enough to help. 

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The problem is the "missing parts" might not be healthy enough to actually play. Obviously cheap and great is the best combo but if they all get hurt then cheap is useless. Winslow, Colon etc these guys might not really be healthy enough to help. 

What's the downside? The Jets will be very bad this year? And they weren't going to be anyway?

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The problem is the "missing parts" might not be healthy enough to actually play. Obviously cheap and great is the best combo but if they all get hurt then cheap is useless. Winslow, Colon etc these guys might not really be healthy enough to help. 

 

The Jets had zero chance of winning a SB this year no matter what they did.  Seems folly to screw future seasons in which there will be a legitimate shot, so we could theoretically win an extra game or two in what will be a forgettable season no matter what.

 

The great part about this offseason, if you want to find a silver lining, IS that we had no chance.  So there is no need to thing of second-guessing non-moves made in March.  There will be no, "If we'd only signed or re-signed ____ then we'd have won a superbowl."  We were not 1 player away.  We were not 2 players away.  We were not 3 players away.  So signing 1-3 expensive players, and using up 1 year of their deals on a pre-destined non-winner season, is not a smart way of rebuilding.

 

This is NOT like other rebuilds, no matter what people say about other 1-year turnarounds.  Other teams weren't pressed up as much against the cap with starting holes at >10 positions and poor depth on top of that.  This team had a handful of quality starters locked up plus a lot of old and/or overpaid guys who weren't worth bringing back for big dollars.  This was going to be a minimum 2-year rebuild (and giving credit to Idzik, I think it will be only 2 years for 90% of the team).  QB is anyone's guess; Sanchez isn't the guy, and Geno isn't ready yet (if he ever will be).  Seems like a worthwhile try with him, but if he doesn't pan out it's not like there were 5 far better options with bright futures that we stupidly passed up on.

 

This will be a year where moral victories will actually be worth more than real victories.  Should be fun to watch, on some levels.  Particularly after Sanchez is off the field.  And re-signing the better Landry and/or Keller wouldn't make a damn bit of difference for the better; they just would have eaten up more space that will (or should) be used on true difference-makers with a long future here.

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The problem is the "missing parts" might not be healthy enough to actually play. Obviously cheap and great is the best combo but if they all get hurt then cheap is useless. Winslow, Colon etc these guys might not really be healthy enough to help.

bit, they had so many holes to fill, and not much money to fill them with. The only way you can do that is with cheap contracts. The only players worth anything who will take cheap contracts are guys with off field issues, or a history of injuries.

Idzik did what he had to. If these guys can stay healthy we can be decent this year. If not we'll be competing for a high draft pick. It sucks, but those are the cards he was dealt.

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pretty much what was expected this off-season. no one expected a splash. the big surprise was geno falling to us in the 2nd. if he flops, no one can blame idzik for taking a shot there.

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Garrard already retired. Goodson got arrested. It's not too early to judge those signings, the jets first 2 of the offseason. 

 

We could start a pool, what is the next cheap Jets vet to get hurt? my guess is Winslow, altho don't count out Colon, he's always hurt.

 

So what?  Perhaps we can find fault with the Goodson signing, but the Jets have had some other poor character risks on the team over the last couple of years and for the most part, they have worked out.  That is one thing that perhaps Rex has done well is working with those types, although they're part of the reason he has lost the locker room the last two seasons.

 

Both were low risk and cheap signings, and perhaps high return potential players.  If Garrard had worked out, then there would have been no question that Smith could have sat and learned and not felt pressure to start immediately, or even if Smith beat Garrard out that would perhaps allow the Jets to get rid of Sanchez.

 

Tanny left a ton of holes, little depth and no cap space to work with.  Idzik did about as well as could be expected under the circumstances.  An accurate, clear and rational picture on what kind of GM Idzik is won't be available until the end of the 2014 season at the earliest.  We'll get a good idea of what he does with all the available cap space in FA next offseason and we'll perhaps have a good read on what his draft picks from this year are looking like, but to make any kind of fair and accurate assessment before 2015 or 2016 is really not possible unless every one of the draft picks this year are clear busts on the order of Gholston, he totally screws the pooch on his FA signings next offseason and his 2014 draft picks all bust.

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The problem is the "missing parts" might not be healthy enough to actually play. Obviously cheap and great is the best combo but if they all get hurt then cheap is useless. Winslow, Colon etc these guys might not really be healthy enough to help. 

 

So?  What's the huge loss if they aren't able to play?  We knew that this was going to be a rebuilding season anyway.  If the older guys aren't able to play or aren't effective, then the Jets will just have to push some of the younger players out on the field sooner.  If the offense sucks as a result, it won't be like it's the first time that has happened.  Even if those guys stay healthy and play well, the offense may still suck, so again, it's not the big deal you're trying to make it out to be.

 

Either the guys play well or they don't.  Even if they play well, some of the rookies may play better and replace them.  If the offense sucks, the team may lose 2-3 more games than they would have.  It may be frustrating for us fans, but could actually wind up helping the team in the long run as it would improve their draft position.

 

And again, the cheap isn't useless.  It was the only realistic option he had to try to cover as many holes as he could.  He was placed in almost a no-win situation, yet you're just doing everything you can to find fault with him.  Did he schtoop your wife or is Tanny your brother in law or something?

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I have no complaints about a series of one year deals for hit or miss veterans. This is a two year rebuild. This year is the tear down, next year the actual building gets done. All of those one year deals will be off the books (with the possibility of 2015 comp picks), and the Jets will be flush with cap room for Idzik to build the team in his image.

If I was gonna complain about anything, it would be the money spent on veteran RBs. But it's pretty obvious (to me, at least) that Idzik wants a strong running game knowing that he won't have a passing game. And that nothing he could've possibly done would've given the Jets a passing game.

Garrard didn't work out. Okay, that sucks, but what other options did they have? Ditto with Colon and Winslow. Any of these guys work out, it's huge. If they don't, it's no surprise.

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