NY Jets salary cap primer, part 6: The mysterious June 1

[32EBoozer]

https://jetsxfactor.com/2024/01/24/ny-jets-salary-cap-primer-june-1/

Very good 6-part series on everything from Franchise/Transition Tags to Pre/Post June 1 cuts. Covers Huff, Tomlinson, CJ maneuvering and the consequences to FA

If the Jets cut Tomlinson before June 1, this is how it would affect his contract.

Tomlinson’s base salary and per-game roster bonus are not guaranteed and would therefore disappear. However, his entire prorated bonus would accelerate onto the Jets’ 2024 salary cap, meaning that $10,740,000 would become dead cap ($5,880,000 + $1,620,000 + $1,620,000 + $1,620,000). In that case, the Jets would save $18,880,000 – $10,740,000 = $8,140,000.

Post-June 1

Starting June 2, if a player is released, the dead cap charge will be split into two sections. Only the current year’s guaranteed money will count as dead money on this year’s cap. The rest of the guaranteed money will count as dead money on next year’s cap.

 

 

[PepPep]

Post or pre June 1st - the cutting of Tomlinson and creation of yet another hole on the o-line is worthwhile. He is simply not good enough for what we need next year. 

Is it me or are Tomlinson and Uzomah the only two guaranteed cuts this offseason?

Lots of talk of CJ Mosley being cut but my guess would be that the Jets figure out some sort of pay cut scenario to have him stay. his guaranteed money is paid up (if I am not mistaken), and while releasing him will create 10mil in dead money it will also free up 10mil in cap. There is absolutely o way CJ is getting big money anywhere else. I think he would love to stay a Jet and would be ok with taking a pay cut because the Jets kind of have the leverage of just saying - hey, if you can't take a pay cut we have no choice but to cut you and eat the dead $$ - so lets compromise. And while CJ is a very good player and leader of the defense, nearly every opportunity that Jamien Sherwood has gotten to play, he has played well. He may be ready to step into that starting role, if not fill the same leadership role.  

[CanadaSteve]

20 minutes ago, PepPep said:

Post or pre June 1st - the cutting of Tomlinson and creation of yet another hole on the o-line is worthwhile. He is simply not good enough for what we need next year. 

Is it me or are Tomlinson and Uzomah the only two guaranteed cuts this offseason?

Lots of talk of CJ Mosley being cut but my guess would be that the Jets figure out some sort of pay cut scenario to have him stay. his guaranteed money is paid up (if I am not mistaken), and while releasing him will create 10mil in dead money it will also free up 10mil in cap. There is absolutely o way CJ is getting big money anywhere else. I think he would love to stay a Jet and would be ok with taking a pay cut because the Jets kind of have the leverage of just saying - hey, if you can't take a pay cut we have no choice but to cut you and eat the dead $$ - so lets compromise. And while CJ is a very good player and leader of the defense, nearly every opportunity that Jamien Sherwood has gotten to play, he has played well. He may be ready to step into that starting role, if not fill the same leadership role.  

I think you are jumping the gun on Tomlinson.  

[PepPep]

2 hours ago, CanadaSteve said:

I think you are jumping the gun on Tomlinson.  

What that he is a definite cut? 

I mean IMO he is as much of a definite cut as almost any other player on the team. Name a player not named Uzomah (who I mentioned) that is MORE of a cut candidate than Tomlinson. Its close but even Zach. Zach Wilson is less likely to get cut if the Jets cannot find a trade partner. 

[chirorob]

His base is 12.6 million.

Can you find a better starter for 12.6?   That's the question.

[Sperm Edwards]

6 hours ago, 32EBoozer said:

https://jetsxfactor.com/2024/01/24/ny-jets-salary-cap-primer-june-1/

Very good 6-part series on everything from Franchise/Transition Tags to Pre/Post June 1 cuts. Covers Huff, Tomlinson, CJ maneuvering and the consequences to FA

If the Jets cut Tomlinson before June 1, this is how it would affect his contract.

Tomlinson’s base salary and per-game roster bonus are not guaranteed and would therefore disappear. However, his entire prorated bonus would accelerate onto the Jets’ 2024 salary cap, meaning that $10,740,000 would become dead cap ($5,880,000 + $1,620,000 + $1,620,000 + $1,620,000). In that case, the Jets would save $18,880,000 – $10,740,000 = $8,140,000.

Post-June 1

Starting June 2, if a player is released, the dead cap charge will be split into two sections. Only the current year’s guaranteed money will count as dead money on this year’s cap. The rest of the guaranteed money will count as dead money on next year’s cap.

 

 

Honestly I haven't read one insightful article of hers to date, and I've read several that were posted or linked to on this board.

They are either things that conflate her opinion with fact (e.g. if Huff will get a small amount more guaranteed from the Jets then that will trump his fervent desire to start); or they're like this where she badly misses the forest for the trees. Much of it stemming from "I want to retain Bryce Huff, so that will trump what Huff wants for himself, which is to be a starting end in the NFL." In her world, nobody turns down more money for a better personal situation elsewhere, even though Jets fans should be used to that by now.

They aren't tagging Huff for $20MM - that's just dumb - and nobody's trading for JFM. 

It is irrelevant whether a player is released before or after June 1st, so long as there are other players on the roster to restructure. 

The other half of the coin - all the hit accelerating to the current year if cut pre-6/1 - is that those players will then carry ZERO cap charge a year later. If you do it after June 1st, the "saved" money wasn't saved, but rather you've chosen for it to hit next year instead.

So you can still cut Player A before 6/1, and o offset that, you restructure Player B's high salary this year so more of it hits after his year. You're just swapping the names attached to current-year cap charges vs future year cap charges.

It's all the same in the end, and because she doesn't get this - presumably she doesn't, since it's totally absent from the article - there's this longwinded article about nothing. She does all this simple math but, again, misses the forest for the trees because the events aren't going to happen and also because it doesn't clear any NET cap space no matter when these guys are cut or traded: the cap space/money saved is the (non-guaranteed) money the team decided to not pay to the player. It's really as simple as that.

Nothing personal, as I'm sure she's nice (nicer than I am, probably), and is a fellow Jets fan, but we do eat our own and tbh these articles have been cringy-bad. 

[Sperm Edwards]

3 hours ago, PepPep said:

Post or pre June 1st - the cutting of Tomlinson and creation of yet another hole on the o-line is worthwhile. He is simply not good enough for what we need next year. 

Is it me or are Tomlinson and Uzomah the only two guaranteed cuts this offseason?

Lots of talk of CJ Mosley being cut but my guess would be that the Jets figure out some sort of pay cut scenario to have him stay. his guaranteed money is paid up (if I am not mistaken), and while releasing him will create 10mil in dead money it will also free up 10mil in cap. There is absolutely o way CJ is getting big money anywhere else. I think he would love to stay a Jet and would be ok with taking a pay cut because the Jets kind of have the leverage of just saying - hey, if you can't take a pay cut we have no choice but to cut you and eat the dead $$ - so lets compromise. And while CJ is a very good player and leader of the defense, nearly every opportunity that Jamien Sherwood has gotten to play, he has played well. He may be ready to step into that starting role, if not fill the same leadership role.  

See, this is a much better summary than that article...

...with the exception of referring to CJ Mosley as a very good player, of course.  

I'm in 100% agreement with you that those two should be guaranteed cuts, with the team likely already shopping for two tackles and the possibility of AVT not being game-ready most or all of the summer, I don't know that Tomlinson is a guaranteed cut. I'd have thought Lawson was a guaranteed cut this past season, too - especially after no one signed Huff away and after drafting McDonald - and that Mosley was going to be faced with a pay cut or get cut ultimatum. Both were due big non-guaranteed money and were brought back for another losing season of Jets football.

[32EBoozer]

5 minutes ago, Sperm Edwards said:

It is irrelevant whether a player is released before or after June 1st, so long as there are other players on the roster to restructure. 

The other half of the coin - all the hit accelerating to the current year if cut pre-6/1 - is that those players will then carry ZERO cap charge a year later. If you do it after June 1st, the "saved" money wasn't saved, but rather you've chosen for it to hit next year instead.

So you can still cut Player A before 6/1, and o offset that, you restructure Player B's high salary this year so more of it hits after his year. You're just swapping the names attached to current-year cap charges vs future year cap charges.

Good info. Thanks.

[Sperm Edwards]

Just now, 32EBoozer said:

Good info. Thanks.

What the hell, that's it????

Fight me, motherf*****!!!!

[32EBoozer]

11 minutes ago, Sperm Edwards said:

What the hell, that's it????

Fight me, motherf*****!!!!

You've been right on Mosley.... so you bget the benefit of the doubt.

 

Or in other words.... youre opinions take too long to read. Easier to let it go.

Edited January 25 by 32EBoozer

[CanadaSteve]

1 hour ago, PepPep said:

What that he is a definite cut? 

I mean IMO he is as much of a definite cut as almost any other player on the team. Name a player not named Uzomah (who I mentioned) that is MORE of a cut candidate than Tomlinson. Its close but even Zach. Zach Wilson is less likely to get cut if the Jets cannot find a trade partner. 

The problem in cutting Tomlinson is the dead cap space AND the hole it creates.  If we put a top-notch LT beside him, he might play average, which is what we could use.  The biggest thing is he doesn't miss time.  Considering we have started roughly 22 different people on the O-Line in the past two years, that is a good thing.

 

[football guy]

"Cap" should be at the very end of the list of the Jets concerns for 2024. They have a lot of maneuverability, and as front offices have become more sophisticated, the easier its become to manufacture cap space without letting it impact your future positions. People are suggesting random trades - like JFM - simply because Cimini suggested we may see some surprising trades. I don't think they will realistically go that route. More likely ways they will address the cap... 

Uzomah is an obvious post-June 1 cut. That will save them $8 million. 

They're going to trade Zach. It's been made pretty clear he doesn't want to be here anymore, and there will be interest. That will save around $5 million. 

I don't think Tomlinson is a sure thing to cut. I think this could be a situation where they sniff around for a replacement, but find themselves renegotiating Tomlinson's contract instead. A lot of players and coaches respect him and he's one of the only guys up front that's actually available each year, so my guess is that they would offer to guarantee his salary in exchange for a pay-cut, similar to what was negotiated with Carl Lawson last year. They can likely get him to agree to take a $5 million haircut in exchange for $8 million guaranteed. 

I think they will look into extending CJ Mosley. He hasn't lost a step and my guess is they tack on 2 real years to his contract, lowering his cap hit by about $6 million. 

Obvious restructure candidates are Quinnen & Quincy Williams. That would save the Jets around 15 million combined. 

All the above moves would leave them around $45 million under the cap. They could easily restructure JFM, Reed, Conklin if they needed more to get closer to $65+ million. 

That should be enough to re-sign their own, place the franchise tag on Huff (temporarily) if they intend to tag-and-trade him, and still have about $15-35 million in cap room. Whether they do or don't tag Huff remains to be seen... I fully expect Joe Douglas to vet out teams who will be interested leading up to the tag window to get a sense whether there will be a team who would trade for him in the event they tag him. If the answer is yes, he'll tag and trade him (watch for Arizona). If it feels like he'll have a hard time moving him for something reasonable in return (figure a 3rd), he'll have to let him walk for nothing. But point trying to drive is that all of this is very realistic and possible 

[Sperm Edwards]

17 minutes ago, 32EBoozer said:

You've been right on Mosley.... so you bget the benefit of the doubt.

 

Or in other words.... youre opinions take too long to read. Easier to let it go.

That's fair.

[Beerfish]

Retaining stink fest players on win now teams due to worries about a few million is dumb.

Did we restructure thomlinson a year or so ago to make the cap hits worse now?

I totally hate restructuring unless it is totally essential.  It has become a crutch that in the long run does not pay off.

[football guy]

3 minutes ago, Beerfish said:

Retaining stink fest players on win now teams due to worries about a few million is dumb.

Did we restructure thomlinson a year or so ago to make the cap hits worse now?

I totally hate restructuring unless it is totally essential.  It has become a crutch that in the long run does not pay off.

I think they restructured Tomlinson with the expectation he would be here in 2024. Whether that was good judgment or not is a whole other discussion, but it's why I'm not so sure about this talk that they'll cut him. I think they rationalize he hasn't played up to his contract for a lot of reasons (mainly shoddy play at LT and rotating QBs), but they will attempt to use play as leverage to renegotiate his deal. He hasn't been great but he's far from the reason for all the problems on this line 

[bonkertons]

Yeah I don't know on Tomlinson.  He had his moments last year, specifically early on.  Once guys started dropping like flies, he fell off yet again.  Either way, they already have 2 major holes that need to be addressed on the OL(along with WR2, WR4, DT, QB2, RB2, depth DE if Huff walks, potentially S and ILB if Mosley is cut).  Not sure they are looking to create yet another hole that needs to be addressed.  I think they want some continuity.  IMO they run it back with Tomlinson one more time.

 

Uzomah is the only 100% guaranteed cut that I see.

[Sperm Edwards]

43 minutes ago, football guy said:

I think they restructured Tomlinson with the expectation he would be here in 2024. Whether that was good judgment or not is a whole other discussion, but it's why I'm not so sure about this talk that they'll cut him. I think they rationalize he hasn't played up to his contract for a lot of reasons (mainly shoddy play at LT and rotating QBs), but they will attempt to use play as leverage to renegotiate his deal. He hasn't been great but he's far from the reason for all the problems on this line 

Could be, but beyond optimistically expecting him to bounce back from a bad 2022 season it still kinda makes no difference. They restructured him to clear cap space for 2023, and if they ended up not using it then it just forwards to the next season anyway. They did the same thing with others who surely weren't in their long-term plans: D.Brown, Lawson, Uzomah, and Whitehead.

Ultimately what matters is whether or not they feel they're better off paying him another $13MM for 2024 over just going with anybody else to replace him for the same or more or less $.

It's pretty obvious which way the fans think, but I think the best chances he has of returning stem more from Douglas having to fill two starting tackle spots as it is (presuming he isn't already handing the RT job to Carter Warren).

Or it could just be that he waits to fill Tomlinson's G spot (giggity) first before cutting him and then beginning the search for his replacement. Technically he could even wait until minicamp or the summer, so long as he isn't restructured again, since Tomlinson's got no more guaranteed money left. 

No one thinks he's the reason for all the problems on their OL, but he's been far more part of the problem than part of the solution. Literally his only attribute is not getting injured, and given his level of play that hasn't been much of an attribute tbh.

[Beerfish]

The object of the game is to get the best performance at the cheapest price.  Thomlinson is no better than guys like schwietzer or newman of that ilk.  If you can dump him you do it now.

It is also insanity to redo Mosleys deal to defer the pain down the road.

As a few of us have said for ages, the very easiest thing to replace in the NFL is tackling ILB.

Mosley is not a good blitzer, he can't cover at all.  he makes tackles.  Guys like Blake Cashman, kwon alexander look great and make a ton of tackles, rookies come in and make a ton of tackles with a good dline in front of them.

We would have forgotten about mosley by about game 6 next year when the cheap replacement plays as well as he is now.

The move won't be made but it sure should be made.

[Jimmy 2 Times]

1 hour ago, 32EBoozer said:

You've been right on Mosley.... so you bget the benefit of the doubt.

 

Or in other words.... youre opinions take too long to read. Easier to let it go.

Bro, Sperm's been wrong all year.

According to him, we were locked into the 6th slot!!!!!!

 

Karate chop that dude!!! 

[NYJCAP2]

1 hour ago, bonkertons said:

Yeah I don't know on Tomlinson.  He had his moments last year, specifically early on.  Once guys started dropping like flies, he fell off yet again.  Either way, they already have 2 major holes that need to be addressed on the OL(along with WR2, WR4, DT, QB2, RB2, depth DE if Huff walks, potentially S and ILB if Mosley is cut).  Not sure they are looking to create yet another hole that needs to be addressed.  I think they want some continuity.  IMO they run it back with Tomlinson one more time.

 

Uzomah is the only 100% guaranteed cut that I see.

Safety is an issue, Adams is the only one under contract. Key communicator needed back there, wouldn’t mind Whitehead back short term.

[rangerous]

1 hour ago, bonkertons said:

Yeah I don't know on Tomlinson.  He had his moments last year, specifically early on.  Once guys started dropping like flies, he fell off yet again.  Either way, they already have 2 major holes that need to be addressed on the OL(along with WR2, WR4, DT, QB2, RB2, depth DE if Huff walks, potentially S and ILB if Mosley is cut).  Not sure they are looking to create yet another hole that needs to be addressed.  I think they want some continuity.  IMO they run it back with Tomlinson one more time.

 

Uzomah is the only 100% guaranteed cut that I see.

There is something to be said for players who don’t seem to get injured.  Could be from a lack of effort or simply the guy just has strong joints that don’t break.  But the jets really need to make sure they have his replacement before cutting him.  And there’s another jetx article that shows how a different blocking scheme works better than the zone type they currently use.  So it’s possible that Tomlinson will play better in a different scheme.

[The Crusher]

2 hours ago, chirorob said:

His base is 12.6 million.

Can you find a better starter for 12.6?   That's the question.

Since his coming to the Jets you could find a better starter at a Bus Stop for petes sake. 

[football guy]

1 hour ago, Sperm Edwards said:

Could be, but beyond optimistically expecting him to bounce back from a bad 2022 season it still kinda makes no difference. They restructured him to clear cap space for 2023, and if they ended up not using it then it just forwards to the next season anyway. They did the same thing with others who surely weren't in their long-term plans: D.Brown, Lawson, Uzomah, and Whitehead.

The way they restructured these guys wasn’t all the same though. Brown, Whitehead, and Lawson (pay cut) were in the final year of their deals, so the goal was to reduce/spread their cap hits out by using void years. They did the same for Uzomah as Tomlinson because I do think they intended on him being back for 2024. Difference is that not only did he play awful, get benched, and get injured, but they have 2 better TEs already under contract. I don’t think they can say the same about Tomlinson. As far as using the money: I think they wanted to, but they didn’t get players to sign the dotted line. They offered Orlando Brown more than anyone else, but he picked Cincinnati.

Again not defending these moves, just rationalizing them. If it were up to me, cut Tomlinson. Finding Gs is not super difficult for teams not named the Jets. Whether they did so to sign a younger high upside option to a big contract or a solid veteran for 1/3 the price I really don’t care, I just think they need to bring in as much new blood as possible

[32EBoozer]

3 hours ago, football guy said:

I think they restructured Tomlinson with the expectation he would be here in 2024. Whether that was good judgment or not is a whole other discussion, but it's why I'm not so sure about this talk that they'll cut him. I think they rationalize he hasn't played up to his contract for a lot of reasons (mainly shoddy play at LT and rotating QBs), but they will attempt to use play as leverage to renegotiate his deal. He hasn't been great but he's far from the reason for all the problems on this line 

+Maybe they can offer a sweetner to take a pay cut.... He can rub Saleh's head after every practice!

[football guy]

2 minutes ago, 32EBoozer said:

+Maybe they can offer a sweetner to take a pay cut.... He can rub Saleh's head after every practice!

Lol I will say a pay cut is pretty much in the bag if he comes back. He’s due $13 million unguaranteed, which is the 4th most cash among LGs in the NFL. Smart move for him would be to accept $6-8 million guaranteed if that’s what he’s offered; he’d be lucky to make $3-5 million in cash next year if he were released 

[Maxman]

7 hours ago, Sperm Edwards said:

Honestly I haven't read one insightful article of hers to date, and I've read several that were posted or linked to on this board.

They are either things that conflate her opinion with fact (e.g. if Huff will get a small amount more guaranteed from the Jets then that will trump his fervent desire to start); or they're like this where she badly misses the forest for the trees. Much of it stemming from "I want to retain Bryce Huff, so that will trump what Huff wants for himself, which is to be a starting end in the NFL." In her world, nobody turns down more money for a better personal situation elsewhere, even though Jets fans should be used to that by now.

They aren't tagging Huff for $20MM - that's just dumb - and nobody's trading for JFM. 

It is irrelevant whether a player is released before or after June 1st, so long as there are other players on the roster to restructure. 

The other half of the coin - all the hit accelerating to the current year if cut pre-6/1 - is that those players will then carry ZERO cap charge a year later. If you do it after June 1st, the "saved" money wasn't saved, but rather you've chosen for it to hit next year instead.

So you can still cut Player A before 6/1, and o offset that, you restructure Player B's high salary this year so more of it hits after his year. You're just swapping the names attached to current-year cap charges vs future year cap charges.

It's all the same in the end, and because she doesn't get this - presumably she doesn't, since it's totally absent from the article - there's this longwinded article about nothing. She does all this simple math but, again, misses the forest for the trees because the events aren't going to happen and also because it doesn't clear any NET cap space no matter when these guys are cut or traded: the cap space/money saved is the (non-guaranteed) money the team decided to not pay to the player. It's really as simple as that.

Nothing personal, as I'm sure she's nice (nicer than I am, probably), and is a fellow Jets fan, but we do eat our own and tbh these articles have been cringy-bad. 

She also writes for a Giants site and a Mets site I believe.

[FootballLove]

8 hours ago, chirorob said:

His base is 12.6 million.

Can you find a better starter for 12.6?   That's the question.

AVT

[chirorob]

10 hours ago, FootballLove said:

AVT

Still need a 2nd guard, assuming AVT is 100% by September.

[Lith]

I think Tomlinson's fate depends on what they do in FA.  If they can upgrade and structure the contract so the cap hit for 24 is around the $8M saved, then so long, Laken.  If they whiff in FA, or just add some depth pieces on the interior, then he is back.  You don't cut him and create another hole on the OL without a replacement lined up.

[section314]

15 hours ago, football guy said:

Lol I will say a pay cut is pretty much in the bag if he comes back. He’s due $13 million unguaranteed, which is the 4th most cash among LGs in the NFL. Smart move for him would be to accept $6-8 million guaranteed if that’s what he’s offered; he’d be lucky to make $3-5 million in cash next year if he were released 

You hearing anything about maybe moving Max Mitchell inside?

[Adoni Beast]

15 hours ago, football guy said:

Lol I will say a pay cut is pretty much in the bag if he comes back. He’s due $13 million unguaranteed, which is the 4th most cash among LGs in the NFL. Smart move for him would be to accept $6-8 million guaranteed if that’s what he’s offered; he’d be lucky to make $3-5 million in cash next year if he were released 

If we he comes back on a payout and makes about 6-8 million next year....could we not find an upgrade for the same money by cutting him? Or do they think that by upgrading LT and Tippmann playing well at C that Laken will return to form to a degree?

[FootballLove]

1 hour ago, chirorob said:

Still need a 2nd guard, assuming AVT is 100% by September.

Yessir. But Left Guard, AVT's natural position, is almost as important at Left Tackle. Ditching Tomlinson and moving AVT back to LG will improve that side, no matter who we get to play LT. Save $10m in cap space AND improve the left side of the line. Win win.

But yes, we will still need a RG. The right side is normally where you develop your youngins before moving them over to the Left side. With the 5 or 10 dudes we have on the roster, someone should be able to take over the RG spot.

[Guilhermezmc]

1 hour ago, chirorob said:

Still need a 2nd guard, assuming AVT is 100% by September.

Schwitzer is better than him (Laken)

[Sperm Edwards]

16 hours ago, football guy said:

The way they restructured these guys wasn’t all the same though. Brown, Whitehead, and Lawson (pay cut) were in the final year of their deals, so the goal was to reduce/spread their cap hits out by using void years. They did the same for Uzomah as Tomlinson because I do think they intended on him being back for 2024. Difference is that not only did he play awful, get benched, and get injured, but they have 2 better TEs already under contract. I don’t think they can say the same about Tomlinson. As far as using the money: I think they wanted to, but they didn’t get players to sign the dotted line. They offered Orlando Brown more than anyone else, but he picked Cincinnati.

Again not defending these moves, just rationalizing them. If it were up to me, cut Tomlinson. Finding Gs is not super difficult for teams not named the Jets. Whether they did so to sign a younger high upside option to a big contract or a solid veteran for 1/3 the price I really don’t care, I just think they need to bring in as much new blood as possible

Look you may be right, but I don't think it requires reading into the motivation for this or that players' restructures, as you may be doing.

Broader picture, the reality is they simply restructured pretty much all restructure-able players on the roster, whether they had a longer term future here or not. They only one they didn't was Cook, but by that late point in the offseason it wasn't necessary. 

Lawson and Whitehead both had pay cuts, but that's immaterial to whether or not that (new pay) amount hits the cap all now or mostly later. They pushed it off because it left flexibility for the next guy(s) they addressed. 

[football guy]

9 minutes ago, Adoni Beast said:

If we he comes back on a payout and makes about 6-8 million next year....could we not find an upgrade for the same money by cutting him? Or do they think that by upgrading LT and Tippmann playing well at C that Laken will return to form to a degree?

Hypothetically yes, you can find an upgrade for cheaper. Kevin Dotson, Graham Glasgow, Dalton Risner, Isaac Seumalo, Matt Feiler, Jon Feliciano, Greg Van Roten all signed for less than $8m/year and on the surface were better than or equal to Tomlinson. At the same time, it's not that simple. Some of those guys simply had better environments, others were acquired for a similar price who amounted to nothing (i.e. Dan Feeney, Nate Davis, etc.)

But as you allude to, I think the Jets will weigh the constant rotation at QB/LT/C as reasons for Tomlinson not playing very well. Each QB has certain preferences how the OL blocks, so when you have constant QB changes that's going to screw the OL a bit. When you have no stability at LT or C that too is going to impact his play. The other thing is his availability; considering our issues over the past few years there is significant value to that... all the top G options in free agency missed time, whereas Tomlinson hasn't. I think his future with the team comes down to this: (1) will he take a paycut; or (2) is there a clearly superior replacement available that will sign with us - i.e. Robert Hunt. If we had someone waiting in the wings, I think it would be a no-brainer that he's gone. Since they don't, they'll probably rework his contract and bring him back, draft his eventual replacement, and handle it similar to how they treated CMG/Tippmann. 

31 minutes ago, section314 said:

You hearing anything about maybe moving Max Mitchell inside?

They definitely want him to continue practicing and improving at G. I don't know that he'll be there full-time but think of Conor McDermott as a comp - a backup who can play 4 spots in a pinch.