Following the Money - Position Importance

[Jetsfan80]

Per overthecap.com, below are the median salaries among the top 10 at each position.  I chose the median in order to cut out extreme outliers:

 

1.  QB:  $26 million 

2.  EDGE:  $17 million

3.  WR:  $16 million

4.  4-3 DT:  $14 million

5.  CB:  $13.5 million

6.  LT:  $13 million 

7.  3-4 DE:  $12 million

8.  RG:  $10 million 

Safety:  $10 million

10.  Non pass-rushing 4-3 OLB:  $9.25 million

11.  Center:  $9 million

ILB:  $9 million

13.  TE:  $8.5 million

14.  LG:  $8 million 

RB:  $8 million

16.  RT:  $7.5 million

17.  K:  $4 million

18.  3-4 DT:  $3.5 million

19.  P:  $3 million

20.  FB:  $1.8 million

21.  LS:  $1.1 million

 

Assuming the Jets switch to a front that has preference to 4-3 types of players, the above positions are "set" for the Jets:  QB (Darnold); RG (Winters); S (Adams, Maye); Non pass-rushing OLB and ILB (Darron Lee, Avery Williamson); K (Myers); P (Edwards); LS (Hennessy).

That leaves these as the Jets' most pressing needs:

 

1.  EDGE:  $17 million

2.  WR1:  $16 million

3.  4-3 DT:  $14 million

4.  CB1:  $13.5 million

5.  LT:  $13 million 

6.  Center:  $9 million

7.  LG:  $8 million 

RB:  $8 million

9.  RT:  $7.5 million

 

You can see, thus, how much the league values EDGE, a true WR1, a pass-rushing DT, a CB1, and a LT over the other needs that we have.  It may come as a surprise to learn that 3 of our top 5 biggest needs are on defense, despite all the resources devoted to the position in the past. 

The big question that could adjust this needs list would be whether Leonard Williams can become the player we drafted him to be as an interior pass-rusher.  Since that remains to be decided, its still worth considering whether we need to invest more resources into the position.  Keep in mind the impact a player like Aaron Donald has had for the Rams:

http://www.espn.com/nfl/insider/story/_/id/25310605/numbers-pass-rush-dominance-aaron-donald-los-angeles-rams-2018-nfl

Quote

 

One way we can better measure Donald's pass-rushing ability is through pass rush win rate (PRWR), which objectively identifies the percentage of plays a defender beats his blocker within 2.5 seconds of a snap, with the help of NFL Next Gen Stats.

Donald leads the NFL with a 43 percent PRWR. That's four percentage points better than the next-best defender, his former teammate Robert Quinn, who was traded to the Miami Dolphins in the offseason. The next-best defensive tackle after Donald? Mike Daniels of the Green Bay Packers, who's at 33 percent.

 

And when Donald wins those battles?  Opposing QB's have the lowest QB rating in the NFL.  When he doesn't?  They have the highest QB Rating.  Thus, you could make an argument that acquiring a Donald-level pass rusher at the DT position is the most franchise-changing move a team can make on the defensive side of the ball. 

Overall, what I'm trying to argue here is that those who wish the Jets to ignore defense at the top of the draft board need to take a serious look at how NFL teams spend their money and follow that line of logic.  While Offensive Line as a unit is more important than any one of those positions, no "impact player" at the top of the board is more valuable than an EDGE rusher or a pass-rushing DT.  Even a # 1 Corner is just as valuable as LT.  And, as luck would have it, this year's draft board is heavy on defense at the top. 

So, when given the choice between a stud EDGE (like Bosa or Josh Allen), a pass-rushing DT (like Quinnen Williams) or a franchise LT (if there is one on this draft), the numbers suggest you take the defensive player every single time. 

[Beerfish]

Good thing mac has prioritized safety, ilb and punter during his tenure here.

[Scoop24]

If we can sign Lawrence or Clowney and draft Quinnen Put him inside with Leo . I think dline would be special 

 

jordan Jenkins is so screwed with this switch I wonder what they can get for him ? 

[joewilly12]

1 minute ago, Scoop24 said:

If we can sign Lawrence or Clowney and draft Quinnen Put him inside with Leo . I think dline would be special 

Been there done that Richardson-Wilkerson-Williams if we go that route hoping for the best. 

[ZachEY]

This is a lot of words to say Adams was a bad value at 6 and who cares what any of us want, we're taking an interior defensive lineman at 3.

[kdels62]

And PFF says that CB should be more valuable than EDGE. 

[#27TheDominator]

4 minutes ago, TeddEY said:

This is a lot of words to say Adams was a bad value at 6 and who cares what any of us want, we're taking an interior defensive lineman at 3.

@Jetsfan80 was so incensed at Adams positional value that he couldn't even type the "9."

[ZachEY]

1 minute ago, #27TheDominator said:

@Jetsfan80 was so incensed at Adams positional value that he couldn't even type the "9."

And his rage continued to the 12 and the 15!

[Scoop24]

6 minutes ago, TeddEY said:

This is a lot of words to say Adams was a bad value at 6 and who cares what any of us want, we're taking an interior defensive lineman at 3.

Even if the jets didn’t take Jamal they weren’t taking a QB . They spent 2 years scouting that 2018 QB class for a reason . 

[Jetsfan80]

1 minute ago, kdels62 said:

And PFF says that CB should be more valuable than EDGE. 

With the way the rules have gone I can't agree there. 

The 2 schools of thought tend to be EITHER:  1) Generate a pass rush to take the pressure off your corners, OR 2) Get quality corners and blitz the hell out of your opponents.  Rarely can a team get BOTH of those things because of salary cap restraints and the lack of quality EDGE rushers and # 1-caliber corners out there. 

The problem is, there's just no such thing as a "shutdown CB" anymore.  And the best QB's out there know how to handle the various blitz packages.  So the only way to beat the best QB's in the playoffs is by giving him less than the 2.5 seconds to throw. 

Against Brady in particular, you need to get a pass-rush up the middle.  So if Aaron Donald can get past all the Patriot linemen getting away with holding, he'll have an enormous impact on the Super Bowl result. 

[Jetsfan80]

14 minutes ago, Scoop24 said:

If we can sign Lawrence or Clowney and draft Quinnen Put him inside with Leo . I think dline would be special

jordan Jenkins is so screwed with this switch I wonder what they can get for him ? 

My guess is we'd try to put him at DE whenever we're in a 4-3 look?  I doubt his trade value is anything substantial.

[ZachEY]

Just now, Scoop24 said:

Even if the jets didn’t take Jamal they weren’t taking a QB . They spent 2 years scouting that 2018 QB class for a reason . 

And yet, still, the reason we all may have any hope for the future is because of Dave Gettleman.

[#27TheDominator]

8 minutes ago, kdels62 said:

And PFF says that CB should be more valuable than EDGE. 

To be fair, median salaries also relate to the available players and how recently the best players signed their contracts.  The supply heavily influences this.  If a Revis level CB emerges in this market, he might be that much more valuable.

[ZachEY]

9 minutes ago, Jetsfan80 said:

With the way the rules have gone I can't agree there. 

The 2 schools of thought tend to be EITHER:  1) Generate a pass rush to take the pressure off your corners, OR 2) Get quality corners and blitz the hell out of your opponents.  Rarely can a team get BOTH of those things because of salary cap restraints and the lack of quality EDGE rushers and # 1-caliber corners out there. 

The problem is, there's just no such thing as a "shutdown CB" anymore.  And the best QB's out there know how to handle the various blitz packages.  So the only way to beat the best QB's in the playoffs is by giving him less than the 2.5 seconds to throw. 

 Against Brady in particular, you need to get a pass-rush up the middle.  So if Aaron Donald can get past all the Patriot linemen getting away with holding, he'll have an enormous impact on the Super Bowl result. 

With the Pats, CBs are irrelevant, because the WRs just aren't special, but there's a lot of them who can run routes and catch the ball.  You need to disrupt his ability to get the ball out of his hands.

I'll always take a guy who disrupts a throw earlier than later.

I've said this many times, I love Nick Mangold, but trading away Abraham for the pick that landed him was a huge mistake.  14 years later, we're still looking for his replacement.

[genot]

11 minutes ago, TeddEY said:

This is a lot of words to say Adams was a bad value at 6 and who cares what any of us want, we're taking an interior defensive lineman at 3.

If we can't trade down, it's Rashan Gary. I hope.

[#27TheDominator]

9 minutes ago, TeddEY said:

And his rage continued to the 12 and the 15!

Darron Lee and Isiah Crowell are enough to enrage anybody!

[#27TheDominator]

3 minutes ago, TeddEY said:

With the Pats, CBs are irrelevant, because the WRs just aren't special.  You need to disrupt his ability to get the ball out of his hands.

I'll always take a guy who disrupts a throw earlier than later.

I've said this many times, I love Nick Mangold, but trading away Abraham for the pick that landed him was a huge mistake.  14 years later, we're still looking for his replacement.

I'm not the only one? 

We are very lucky that Dorian Boose made us forget Hugh Green so quickly.

[bla bla bla]

11 minutes ago, Jetsfan80 said:

With the way the rules have gone I can't agree there. 

The 2 schools of thought tend to be EITHER:  1) Generate a pass rush to take the pressure off your corners, OR 2) Get quality corners and blitz the hell out of your opponents.  Rarely can a team get BOTH of those things because of salary cap restraints and the lack of quality EDGE rushers and # 1-caliber corners out there. 

The problem is, there's just no such thing as a "shutdown CB" anymore.  And the best QB's out there know how to handle the various blitz packages.  So the only way to beat the best QB's in the playoffs is by giving him less than the 2.5 seconds to throw. 

Against Brady in particular, you need to get a pass-rush up the middle.  So if Aaron Donald can get past all the Patriot linemen getting away with holding, he'll have an enormous impact on the Super Bowl result. 

This is spot on, the rule changes and the way the game is played make it significantly harder to play CB. We need to make the opposing QBs think more. Having a lock down CB is nice but having 3 #2 CBs is probably better because it forces the QB to think about who is going to be open.

This is sort of why I don't mind the Adams pick, granted #6 is high for the results we gotten so far. Adams can line up as S, CB, or LB - I think his wildcard ability is valuable in adding time to the QBs thought process when dropping back.

Pressure is the name of the game now so I expect us to heavily recruit Fowler/Ray/Barr/Ansah as well as looking at Bosa/Allen/Williams. If a trade down can be had, I'm all for that route but if we sit at #3 we need to make it a priority to get after the QB. We need to add 2 pass rushers to this team this off-season IMO.

[New York Mick]

******* punters average $3 million a year?

[Jetsfan80]

29 minutes ago, New York Mick said:

******* punters average $3 million a year?

No.  The median salary of the top 10 highest paid Punters is $3 million. 

Basically this list is showing approximately what you'd have to pay an elite player at every position.

[New York Mick]

2 minutes ago, Jetsfan80 said:

No.  The median salary of the top 10 highest paid Punters is $3 million. 

Basically this list is showing approximately what you'd have to pay an elite player at every position.

Oh. Got ya. I was driving so I half ass read it. 

[UntouchableCrew]

1 hour ago, TeddEY said:

And yet, still, the reason we all may have any hope for the future is because of Dave Gettleman.

I didn't agree with this at the time... But a year later after seeing how poorly Rosen played, this really is true. We are extremely lucky Gettleman understands positional value as poorly as Big Mac.

[Jetsfan80]

1 hour ago, Scoop24 said:

Even if the jets didn’t take Jamal they weren’t taking a QB . They spent 2 years scouting that 2018 QB class for a reason . 

Why did we mess around with Josh McCown then?  We could have saved ourselves three 2nd rounders had we just tanked properly.

Are you also trying to suggest we started looking at the 2018 QB's the moment after we drafted Christian Hackenberg in the 2nd round in '16?

More accurately, Maccagnan felt Hackenberg was the guy in 2016, and maintained that belief prior to the 2017 season, when we drafted Jamal Adams in the 1st over both Mahomes and DeShaun Watson.

[TokyoJetsFan]

1 hour ago, TeddEY said:

And yet, still, the reason we all may have any hope for the future is because of Dave Gettleman.

No sh*t.  The arguments of if the Giants should have taken a RB or QB can be extended to this average salary info.  In year 3 of both Darnold and Barkley’s contracts I believe the will both have $8.5mn cap hits, but the median QB salary of top 10 QB is $28 mn (which is a huge savings) vs median salary for a top 10 RB is 8mn (which is no savings).

[UntouchableCrew]

I mean, based on positional value and the supposed strengths of this draft it's a slam dunk no-brainier to take an edge rusher... Hopefully Bosa or Allen. Would suck if they went 1-2 and we had to take Williams, Gary, Ferrell, etc. 

But I'd still roll with trading down and taking offense if that option presented itself... More picks are needed and regardless of what people think of our defense investing in offense is just more important right now.

[ZachEY]

4 minutes ago, UntouchableCrew said:

I didn't agree with this at the time... But a year later after seeing how poorly Rosen played, this really is true. We are extremely lucky Gettleman understands positional value as poorly as Big Mac.

I liked Rosen, and I'm not gonna label him a bust yet.  But, our outlook on 1/29/19 is very different because we got Darnold and not Rosen, or Allen, for that matter.

Also, it's possible Gettleman believed he could sneak out a Super Bowl with Eli Manning, Barkley, and OBJ.  Regardless, we're fortunate.

[Scoop24]

1 minute ago, Jetsfan80 said:

Why did we mess around with Josh McCown then?  We could have saved ourselves three 2nd rounders had we just tanked properly.

Look at Josh McCown career record 

[Jetsfan80]

Just now, UntouchableCrew said:

I mean, based on positional value and the supposed strengths of this draft it's a slam dunk no-brainier to take an edge rusher... Hopefully Bosa or Allen. Would suck if they went 1-2 and we had to take Williams, Gary, Ferrell, etc. 

But I'd still roll with trading down and taking offense if that option presented itself... More picks are needed and regardless of what people think of our defense investing in offense is just more important right now. 

Yet you still have posters on this board saying "NEVER!!!" to the idea of drafting defense in the 1st again.  As if safeties, tiny linebackers and interior D-Linemen are the same thing as a true elite EDGE rusher, something we haven't had since 2005.

[Jetsfan80]

Just now, Scoop24 said:

Look at Josh McCown career record  

Look at Bryce Petty and Hackenberg's career records.

[CrazyCarl40]

Just now, Jetsfan80 said:

Look at Bryce Petty and Hackenberg's career records.

Christian Blaize Hackenberg was undefeated. That’s just facts, sir. 

[Scoop24]

5 minutes ago, Jetsfan80 said:

Why did we mess around with Josh McCown then?  We could have saved ourselves three 2nd rounders had we just tanked properly.

Are you also trying to suggest we started looking at the 2018 QB's the moment after we drafted Christian Hackenberg in the 2nd round in '16?

More accurately, Maccagnan felt Hackenberg was the guy in 2016, and maintained that belief prior to the 2017 season, when we drafted Jamal Adams in the 1st over both Mahomes and DeShaun Watson.

I’m not suggesting I know this for a fact . It was in the Road to Sam Darnold podcast and article . 

[ZachEY]

Just now, CrazyCarl40 said:

Christian Blaize Hackenberg was undefeated. That’s just facts, sir. 

The dude has NEVER thrown an INT!

[Jetsfan80]

Just now, CrazyCarl40 said:

Christian Blaize Hackenberg was undefeated. That’s just facts, sir. 

AND un-tied.  Much like UNCW Football. 

[Jetsfan80]

1 minute ago, Scoop24 said:

I’m not suggesting I know this for a fact . It was in the Road to Sam Darnold podcast and article . 

Sure, but since none of it makes any sense based on the actual decisions that were made, I think we can chalk that up as false. 

[genot]

4 minutes ago, UntouchableCrew said:

I mean, based on positional value and the supposed strengths of this draft it's a slam dunk no-brainier to take an edge rusher... Hopefully Bosa or Allen. Would suck if they went 1-2 and we had to take Williams, Gary, Ferrell, etc. 

But I'd still roll with trading down and taking offense if that option presented itself... More picks are needed and regardless of what people think of our defense investing in offense is just more important right now.

Bosa scares me. Gets hurt alot. Like his brother