CJ Mosley... can we keep him

[k-met57]

i mean makes no sense to keep him on this team....he has actual talent on production to show for his career....he is a terrible fit.

[HawkeyeJet]

3 hours ago, TuscanyTile2 said:

CJ is badly overpaid but I'm glad he at least seems to have a good attitude and seems like a leader on the defense.  Hopefully he can help get the defense turned around before we end up cutting him (in another 1-2 years I would think).

Is he though?  Over paid, yes.  Badly?  Debatable.

He’s the 4th highest paid non pass rush LB in the NFL.  There are 16 such players that made 10 million plus this year.  He was 4th in tackles this year in the NFL.  While he’s probably not worth 17 million a year, He’s probably still worth around 12 based on performance, add in the leadership qualities etc and I personally don’t think it’s the albatross of a contract some make it out to be.

[Jet2020]

Of course we are keeping him. We have far too many holes to fill and creating an additional one without gaining anything on the cap side is stupendous. I guess that means there is a chance we cut him outright cuz…Jets. 

[varjet]

The Mosley, Trumaine and Bell contracts were some of the worst in modern NFL history.   When combined with bad drafting, you have a former GM who will never hold another NFL job. 

Mosley will be decently next year.   If a 3-4 defense wants to trade for him and absorb some salary, super.  If not enjoy his presence on the team and move on in 2023.  

[David Harris]

5 hours ago, bla bla bla said:

CJ won't be cut purely based on his contract for this season. I am alright with that though, I think he's been a good leader and would just open another hole if we moved on from him. I also want to see him with better safety play, I think he covered up a lot of deficiencies.

Agreed.  It'll be nice to not be locked into his crazy salary after next year.  He'll have about a $3 mill dead cap hit.  If he didn't opt out last season his contract would not have tolled and we could cut or restructure him now.

 

CJ's contract is the final piece of the Macagnan era to get out from under.  Crazy how awful Mac was, crazy we still were paying Quincy Enunwa and the like this season.  2023 will fully be JD's roster.  

[Jetsfan80]

1 hour ago, HawkeyeJet said:

Is he though?  Over paid, yes.  Badly?  Debatable.

He’s the 4th highest paid non pass rush LB in the NFL.  There are 16 such players that made 10 million plus this year.  He was 4th in tackles this year in the NFL.  While he’s probably not worth 17 million a year, He’s probably still worth around 12 based on performance, add in the leadership qualities etc and I personally don’t think it’s the albatross of a contract some make it out to be.

 

2 of the LB's making more than him are 26 (Darius Leonard) and 25 (Fred Warner).  Their best days are still ahead of them.  Mosley, who turns 30 in June, can't expect to keep this going for much longer.  And while Bobby Wagner, the other LB making more, is 32, his contract expires at the end of 2022, making it much easier to part ways.  And Wagner, unlike Mosley, had been a 1st Team All-Pro for 5 straight years prior to finally showing his age on a bad defense in 2021.  

Meanwhile, Leonard and Warner are perfect fits for good systems, and can both cover opposing pass-catchers well (Warner didn't have a great year covering receivers this season but was excellent at it in 2020, when he was a 1st-team All-Pro). 

Mosley only really works in a 3-4.  And since the move to  a 4-3 was long overdue for this franchise, that makes Mosley a relative dinosaur in this league.  He allowed opposing receivers to catch 84 % of passes thrown to them this season and a 109.1 QB Rating when targeted, while only recording 2.0 Sacks, 2 QB Hits, 0 QB Knockdowns and 0 QB Hurries on 38 blitz attempts. 

I get that a lot of that falls on the rest of the defense failing to do its job, but its not like Mosley has elite pass-rushing or coverage skills at this stage in his career, so even if he was playing on a competent defense I doubt he'd be putting up elite numbers in the pass-rushing or pass-coverage department.  If you can't play well in pass coverage and you can't rush the passer, your value as a LB is limited in this league.

For the record, I'm not advocating he gets let go OR traded any time soon.  Even if his contract allowed either of those things to happen, I probably would prefer to have him on the team in 2022.  I still like him as a player.  But it's undeniable that he currently has one of the worst contracts in the league.  When its impossible for your team to move you without significant cap penalties until after your age 31 season, its a really bad contract.  Thanks Macc.  

[Origen]

Gotta say, the dude earned every dollar he was paid this year.  He was out there making tackles which is a lot more than can be said about most of this team.

[HawkeyeJet]

11 minutes ago, Jetsfan80 said:

 

2 of the LB's making more than him are 26 (Darius Leonard) and 25 (Fred Warner).  Their best days are still ahead of them.  Mosley, at 30, can't expect to keep this going for much longer.

And meanwhile, Leonard and Warner are perfect fits for good systems, and can both cover opposing pass-catchers well (Warner didn't have a great year covering receivers this season but was excellent at it in 2020, when he was a 1st-team All-Pro). 

Mosley only really works in a 3-4.  And since the move to  a 4-3 was long overdue for this franchise, that makes Mosley a relative dinosaur in this league.  He allowed opposing receivers to catch 84 % of passes thrown to them this season and a 109.1 QB Rating when targeted, while only recording 2.0 Sacks, 2 QB Hits, 0 QB Knockdowns and 0 QB Hurries on 38 blitz attempts.  If you can't play well in pass coverage and you can't rush the passer, your value as a LB is limited in this league.

 

Mosely only really works in the 3-4?  Based on what?  He seemed to fair just fine this year.

You talk about Leonard and Warner.  As you admit, Warner was worse in pass coverage than Mosely this year statistically.  2 of Leonard’s 4 seasons in the NFL he’s put up coverage numbers very very similar to Mosely this year.  Warner this year was practically identically in every aspect this season as Mosely and Leonard was almost identical statistically last year and was an all pro.

I wasn’t even comparing him to those two anyway but it’s a hell of a lot closer than it’s made out to be.

The narrative that Mosely is some cheerleader only is off base.

[Jetsfan80]

5 minutes ago, HawkeyeJet said:

 

Mosely only really works in the 3-4?  Based on what?  He seemed to fair just fine this year.

You talk about Leonard and Warner.  As you admit, Warner was worse in pass coverage than Mosely this year statistically.  2 of Leonard’s 4 seasons in the NFL he’s put up coverage numbers very very similar to Mosely this year.  Warner this year was practically identically in every aspect this season as Mosely and Leonard was almost identical statistically last year and was an all pro.

I wasn’t even comparing him to those two anyway but it’s a hell of a lot closer than it’s made out to be.

The narrative that Mosely is some cheerleader only is off base.

Mosley only faired "just fine" when it came to tackling RB's (and even then he only had 2 TFLs).  In every other metric he struggled.  His opposing passer rating went up from 39.1 to 109 with the switch to the 4-3.  Even the coaches indirectly admitted he's struggling by trying to convert him to OLB.  Hopefully it works next season, especially with an influx of new talent and the development of other young guys on the roster, but I have my doubts that he'll excel in that role when it comes to pass coverage.  And my guess is he probably doesn't blitz much more than the 38 times he did this year.  We'll see, I suppose.

Yes, Warner struggled in pass coverage this year, but allowed an opposing QB rating under 70 in 2020 and it was a respectable 86.2 in 2019.  And as I mentioned, he's 25.  He has a lot of time to improve his skills.  Not so for Mosley.  I imagine Warner will do a lot better in the pass coverage department next year.

You didn't want to compare them, but you mentioned the bigger contracts, so its fair to game to explain WHY those 3 other LB contracts aren't anywhere close to as bad as Mosley's. 

[JohnnyLV]

Getting rid of him saves almost nothing and he is still a decent player. I assume we have several new insider linebackers next year and having him there for the younger players has value too.

[Chrebetfan80]

4 hours ago, mrcoops said:

Mosley is clearly overpaid, based purely on his on-field performance alone, but he brings more than his on-field play alone.

He's a leader on the field and in the meeting rooms, he works hard, and his attitude is outstanding.

Mosley is not a guy who got paid and then mailed it in. He keeps finding more and more ways to contribute to try to make the team better. He has talked about being an active recruiter during the FA period this year, to sell players on the idea of signing with the Jets.

Plus, as others have said, there is no real financial gain in cutting him this year. Next year, it becomes more of a possibility.

But, for 2022, Mosley will be a Jet and a leader on an off the field for the team.

From all accounts, he actually likes being here as well and is really committed to changing the culture here.  Granted im sure his enormous contract has a lot to do with this, it is nice to hear from the people you talk to in the know his love for the game, and his commitment to the franchise are at least on par with what you'd want as a fan. 

I am in the minority in thinking he played better than a lot of fans give him credit for.  First season in 2 years, playing in a style of defense that he has never played, and playing 20 lbs lighter than he ever has.  It definitely helped his speed, but hurt his power and tackling ability. I think an offseason being able to work at that weight and build some competency there, plus an overall better understanding of the defense will help him improve next year i believe. 

[RutgersJetFan]

It's weird because it feels like Mosley has been on the team for 10 years but he's only played like 5 minutes total of them.

[Jetsfan80]

12 minutes ago, Chrebetfan80 said:

From all accounts, he actually likes being here as well and is really committed to changing the culture here.  Granted im sure his enormous contract has a lot to do with this, it is nice to hear from the people you talk to in the know his love for the game, and his commitment to the franchise are at least on par with what you'd want as a fan. 

That's the best thing you can say about him.  And he easily could have just taken all that money and stopped playing hard for a bad team.  He hasn't.  He never pulled a Muhammad Wilkerson or a Haynesworth when he easily could have. 

His Team MVP award was more about how he helped the young players and how hard he played every week for a 4-12 team than it was anything else.  He's a highly coachable and likable player, from all accounts.