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BAKER FLIES JET COOP

By MARK CANNIZZARO

April 23, 2008 -- JetsNew York Jets tight end Chris Baker, disgruntled with his contract status and management's apparent refusal to renegotiate, has left the team's offseason strength and conditioning program in protest, The Post has learned.

Baker, who's fresh off the best season of his career, having caught 41 passes and become more of a focal point in the Jets' offense, has two years remaining on his $6.6 million contract and he's clearly underpaid by NFL starting tight end standards.

Without attempting to make any significant waves, the 28-year-old Baker spoke after the 2007 season about his desire to sign a new deal that would pay him more fairly and keep him in his native New York for the rest of his career.

"Hopefully, we'll get something done," Baker said the day after the season.

Since then, he has watched as the Jets signed a new roster full of expensive free agents to contracts in excess of $140 million. That group includes backup tight end Bubba Franks, who was given $1.65 million for the 2008 season - more than Baker's base salary this year.

The Jets also recently appeased WR Laveranues ColesLaveranues Coles , who initially boycotted the offseason program until the Jets agreed to make the final two years of his contract guaranteed for the remaining $11 million.

And even more recently, they ripped up the contract of S Kerry RhodesKerry Rhodes with one year remaining and renegotiated it into a new five-year, $33.5 million deal with $20 million in guarantees.

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What they are not saying in this article is Baker redid his contract just in November.

Do these guys want to redo a contract every time they have a good game?

If he is unhappy with the contract he just signed, he should fire his agent, and shut his mouth

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Wasn't Baker a free agent a couple years back and didn't have any offers?? Coles got exactly what his contract stipulated and Rhodes contract was up in a year. Cannazzarro is a drama queen trying to create problems. Signing free agents has nothing to do with Baker.

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Baker is an idiot. His agent is an idiot.

Walk off AFTER the draft. Don't walk off before the draft so the Jets know you're going to pull this stunt. Now we're drafting a pass-catching (or preferably an all-around) TE for sure, and might address it with a legit TE prospect in round 2 or round 4 instead of shot in the dark in rounds 6 or 7. Might not have been the case if Baker had waited 6 more days before walking off since his position was otherwise "addressed" prior to the draft.

What an idiot.

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All of this could be solved with my pay by how you play plan. It's very simple, each position gets a base salary that you will receive no matter how you play. You get bonus money for every tier that you reach. So in realty you never will be underpaid or overpaid. You will be payed at exactly how much you are worth.

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This is the problem with putting up with and negotiating with loud mouth players.

Now every single player thinks they can just protest to get more money.

BZ

Yeah because nobody thought that before Coles got his guaranteed money. The Jets got blasted for the hard line stance they took with Kendall. They are trying a softer approach.

Geez BZ stop being so critical of the Jets. They have it under control. :-P

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All of this could be solved with my pay by how you play plan. It's very simple, each position gets a base salary that you will receive no matter how you play. You get bonus money for every tier that you reach. So in realty you never will be underpaid or overpaid. You will be payed at exactly how much you are worth.

only thing wrong with that is a little thing called the NFLPA

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What the FO needs to say clearly is that if they feel a player is worthy of it, they are willing to renegotiate. If they don't feel a player is worth renegotiating with, they will not. Baker clearly is not worth renegotiating with. Tell him that, plain as day.

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Yeah because nobody thought that before Coles got his guaranteed money. The Jets got blasted for the hard line stance they took with Kendall. They are trying a softer approach.

Geez BZ stop being so critical of the Jets. They have it under control. :-P

That is the point.

They played hard ball with Kendell, got their ass handed to them (and the season), so next year they give in to Coles and now some average TE is looking for a renegotiation.

It is a no win situation, but better Baker get loud before the draft where there are TEs on the board.

BZ

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That is the point.

They played hard ball with Kendell, got their ass handed to them (and the season), so next year they give in to Coles and now some average TE is looking for a renegotiation.

It is a no win situation, but better Baker get loud before the draft where there are TEs on the board.

BZ

They got their asses handed to them with Kendall for other reasons:

1) They promised him they would redo his contract & then renegged on it

2) They stupidly renegged on it after NOT addressing his position in the draft or FA.

Baker is a moron doing this right before the draft and after the Jets picked up Franks. He should have played the happy soldier & if Franks still sucks AND if the Jets don't draft a legit TE prospect, THEN he stands a chance by holding out.

But what he's also not taking into consideration is that he's starting because the Jets had no one else, not because he's so friggin' good. He's a bottom-tier starter. An ok receiver and sub-par blocker. The Jets are better off trying a draftee than giving Baker $3-4M/yr. He's just not worth it.

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This copycat crap is what happends when you start to cave into players demands.

This is precisely why I was 100% in support of how the Jets handled the Kendall saga.

The guy signed a deal then demanded it get redone before the ink was dry.

Coles did the same thing and in my mind he should have been sent packing.

This type of attitude from Baker is a joke.

Let him sit or let him pull this crap on someone else.

Get someone else in there that is thinking about the team and will play with some energy.

Players like Kendall, Coles, Baker erode morale.

Good riddence.

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Eh, even if the Jets gave him the money, Fat Can would write an article about how the Jets did something wrong and are stupid. That's the problem with NY, and letting writers who hate the team write about them. We should really just ship Fat Can to KC for a fish sandwich and a writer to be named later.

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Chris Baker gets contract extension

By Hoss Aultman

Posted Dec 12, 2007

Jets tight end Chris Baker was given a contract extension. The announcement was made by Dave Hutchinson in the Star-Ledger.

"TE Chris Baker, who was thought to be in Mangini's doghouse after criticizing the play-calling following a controversial loss to the Eagles in Week 6, quietly had his contract renegotiated last month, The Star-Ledger has learned," wrote Hutchinson. "Baker, in his sixth season, signed a new three-year contract worth $5.4 million. Baker received roughly $800,000 in new money. His base salary went from $850,000 this season to 2.37 million.

What more does Baker want? Hes starting to get on my nerves with this money grubbing BS. Just do your friggen job and honor your contract.

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Great player? Give me a break.

Uh He is. He's was one of the only bright spots last year and we all know that if he didnt walk out we'd all be praising him. As soon as any player starts to gripe about their contract everyone is too quick to pull the trigger write the player off and call him a baby. You go out there and do what they do. Granted he already got an extension so he shouldnt be bitching but i wont deny the fact that Baker is a quality player.

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That is the point.

They played hard ball with Kendell, got their ass handed to them (and the season), so next year they give in to Coles and now some average TE is looking for a renegotiation.

It is a no win situation, but better Baker get loud before the draft where there are TEs on the board.

BZ

They did the right thing with Kendall. The 4-12 season was not because they traded Kendall. The mistake there was that Adrian Clarke was not up to the task of replacing him and Fergeson was still on the learning curve and we still had some of Kendall's boys on the team and they did not give their all (no matter what they said). they played well during practice and rebelled on the field during the game. The Jets are rid of those malcontents and will fair much better with the team as it is being brought together to go forward. If Chris Baker is pulling another Kendall, get rid of him too.

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Lets get SHOCKEY now!!!!!!!!!! A legitimate TE havent had one since Mickey Shuler.

I'll only get shockey if the giants accept a trade of baked and franks for him. Or maybe a 4th is the most I would be able to live with the Jets giving up for him(because we have more than one)

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