There are rules attached to the CBA that say a team must spend at least 89% of the salary cap over a 4 year period. We are half way through that 4 year period and we have spent a little over 70%. So we have to spend significantly in 2015 and 2016 to catch up and not be in violation of the CBA. This should be kept in mind as I suggest prospective free agents. I will be more aggressive than I usually would this time of year.
Lets get right to it and look at QB's. What's available this year is depressing. Sanchez, Locker, Mallet... it's a who's who of 'who's he'? You may remember some of these guys, but if you do it's not for anything good. Two guys stand out to me. Two former teammates from Carolina... Jimmy Clausen and Matt Moore.
Clausen is a guy who simply never got a chance. I think he could be a diamond in the rough. He was a 2nd rounder from Notre Dame who landed with the Panthers. He started a few games and then the Panthers drafted Newton and Clausen never came close to the field. He went to the Bears last year (I wanted him last year as well) and he ended up replacing a healthy Cutler and looked good, before being snake bit again with an injury. I was pretty impressed that he beat out Cutler and got the mid season start. I doubt he's a long term answer, but he could be a good stop gap if we take a rookie QB who needs some time to sit and learn. He is also not that old, so if we did strike gold and Jimmy emerges as a legitimate starter, he could be a 5+ year starter. Remember he has very little mileage on him.
Moore is the definition of a stop gap. He could start the first half of the season and allow for an environment where we can ease in a rookie. I like him because he seems to have the intangibles. He carries himself as a leader, he has more TD's than INTs in his career, and he believes in himself. Players will follow him. His intangibles are key, and he has helped develop Tannenhill in Miami so he knows how to help a rookie make the transition. he would also be a solid back up. So a two year deal on this guy could cover all the bases.
I like Ahmad Bradshaw, CJ Spiller and Reggie Bush at HB.
Reggie has never been used properly in his career. He's a pass catcher and a 3rd down back. That's it. And that can be a very important position. If we signed him for short money, and keep Powell and Ivory we have a great compliment of runners. If you limit Bush to 3rd down he can have a huge impact. Defenses will have fits dealing with him in that scenario, and less carries will keep him fresher and ideally healthier. He has some gas left in the tank and for the right money he's a no brainer.
Spiller is a similar back. Injury prone, game changer, and he has a history with our new OC. He would be a nice compliment to Ivory. He just can't be looked at as a primary back because his health is unreliable. he has expressed enthusiasm about reuniting with Gailey, so that's also a positive. Give Chan one of his guys.
Finally Bradshaw. I absolutely love this guy. He is so dynamic and runs hard. He plays with fire and that's so important in the locker room. He's coming off a season ending injury, he has a history of injuries and he's getting old. But a guy like this paired with Ivory is the ideal scenario for us moving forward. Just like the other 2 backs I mentioned Bradshaw can't be counted on physically, but with solid depth in our backfield he is a good addition on a 1 year deal with a 1 year option. I think he would be open to returning to NY.
I'll move to WR's now. I won't discuss all of them but my list is (in order of my interest);
- Torrey Smith
- Randal Cobb
- Jeremy Maclin
- Eddie Royal
- Stevie Johnson
- Kenny Britt
- Hakeem Nicks
If we keep Harvin it's essentially a one year deal. So Decker, Smith and Kerly will have the multi year deals and Harvin will get his 10 million for one year, where we desperately need to spend anyway. Any decent QB should be able to work with a fearless slot guy with great hands like Kerly, an elite deep threat like Smith, an all purpose game changer like Harvin (who even lines up in the backfield) and a big bodied, well rounded end zone threat like Decker.
Cobb, Maclin and Royal are all savvy veteran guys. All these guys do is get open. Cobb and Decker as our two top guys for the next 3-4 years is a great duo. Cobb has reportedly turned down a 9 million dollar a year deal in Green Bay. If he wants more than 9 million a year, I pass on him, no matter how much we need to spend. Decker is at about 7.5 million annually so we need to be careful paying a wideout more than him.
As for the final 3 guys I listed, Johnson, Nicks and Britt. They are complimentary guys. If we can't land one of the top free agents at this position we need to keep Harvin. No question. If we do land Cobb or Smith maybe we consider dropping Harvin. But a WR corps of Decker, Harvin, Britt and Kerly isn't too shabby. It will be hard to attract bluechip WR's with Geno as the face of the franchise.
One area where we absolutely need to make a splash is O-line. The heavy hitters (no pun intended) are Iupati, Wisniewski and Franklin. We need at least one of them. Wisniewski would be interesting because we could move Mangold to guard and Wis' would play center. I'd move Giacomini to the other guard spot and we are one RT from a kick ass O-line. We can take a guy like Franklin or draft one.
I think we need an upgrade at FB. I am a big fan of that position. Some teams don't even use one. In Gailey's spread offense I'm not sure if he needs one. But if he does, Kuhn and Hynoski are both outstanding. Conner is a joke and Bohanan is a C+ guy at best.
At TE I see some options in the draft but Jermain Gresham is a perfect compliment to Amaro. I also like Moeaki. He had one good year in KC a few years back and since then his star has faded. I'd take a shot at a retread like him. He's still fast.
I'll start of the defensive side of the ball with LB. my 2 favorite guys are Jerry Hughes and Jason Worilds. These guys are in their prime and ready to bring a real threat at the OLB position to this defense, which we haven't had... since like Parcells was the coach. I hope we move on from the Coples experiment and put #98 back on the D-line. Hughes is a guy I wanted the Jets to draft. I wrote about him on this blog and I was sure he would be a great pass rusher in the NFL. His first 2 years in Indy he got lost in the mix with guys like Freeny and Mathis. But the last 2 years in Buffalo he has registered 20 sacks and is one of the top pass rushers on the market. And I doubted myself??? LOL
I'll list the defensive backs I'm interested in the same as the WR's:
- Kareem Jackson
- Devin McCorty
- Perrish Cox
- Antonio Cromartie
- Laron Laundry
- Dwight Lowery
- Brandon Meriweather
I feel we need 2 savvy veteran CB's and a veteran safety. Also please take note that Revis is not on my list. His career is down hill from here. I'm not interested. Period. From the list Cro would be a good fit because he's obsessed with NYC, he played decently for Bowles and he would be a really good nickel at this point of his career IMHO. He's a playmaker. McCorty is more important to us than most fans realize. We have a good role player in Antonio Allen and a guy in Pryor who was a disaster in 2014. I am honestly really worried about Calvin. He shows little to know instincts. I hope Bowles can help him, but he needs a guy like McCorty to balance our defensive backfield.
So I listed a bunch of guys who I think would be good contributors to the NYJ and who play the game the way I respect. Obviously we won't take them all.
I think we realistically take:
I think we realistically take:
- Sam Acho (who I didn't mention)
- Cromartie
- Torrey Smith
- Gresham
- Matt Moore
- Spiller
- Stevie Johnson
- Franklin
...and my final 2 are real reaches but hopefully Hughes and McCorty. I'd also love the CB's Jackson and Cox, but for some reason I don't think we land either. Fingers crossed.
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