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New Jersey – A lot of tough decisions for Mike Maccagnan this off-season. The caffeine will be flowing. Let’s look at perhaps his toughest call . . .
Before we began our Senior Bowl coverage last week, we ran a series of articles reviewing the Jets’ free agent class.
We have one player left to cover – the most important one along with Ryan Fitzpatrick – and that is Mo Wilkerson.
Of all the deals Mike Maccagnan and Jackie Davidson need to work out, this is the most complex.
Obviously he broke his fibula in the Jets season-finale in Buffalo.
It’s a sixth month rehab, which could take it into training camp.
While most players are able to come back from this injury, it’s pretty tricky to negotiate a long-term deal while a player is rehabbing a broken leg.
Yes, Wilkerson had a career high 12 sacks last year, but who knows what to expect from him in 2016, with an entire off-season spent rehabbing.
You can always apply the franchise tag and trade the player, but who is going to trade for Wilkerson over the next six months or so, while he’s rehabbing a broken leg?
And another downside to the franchise tag is it could cost the Jets about $15 million this year. The Suh, Dareus and Watt contracts are going to help create a very high number for the defensive tackle franchise tag number.
While the Jets only have about $10 million in cap space right now, that is going to change shortly. Antonio Cromartie is likely going to be released, freeing up $8 million space. There is no way Jeremy Kerley is going to be kept at $3.1 million, so he will have to restructure or be released. D’Brickashaw Ferguson and Nick Mangold have high cap figures, and will likely restructure. Breno Giacomini, who was good, not great this year, could be a surprising cap casualty at $5.1 million. They could go cheap at that position with Brent Qvale.
Also, maybe the ill-conceived Darrelle Revis contract can be restructured.
So they will have okay cap space once the NFL calendar year gets underway.
So they should be able to fit Wilkerson in at the $15 million franchise tag number. This will probably lead to them losing Damon Harrison and DeMario Davis, but these are losses I think they can overcome.
I think their main focus will be re-upping Wilkerson and Ryan Fitzpatrick. Everything else is gravy.
Obviously they would like to get Mo Wilkerson to sign a long-term deal (if he stops focusing on the Suh and Dareus contracts), so they can spread the money out, and not take the $15 million cap hit this year.
But here is the quandary. If you tag a player, you have until July 15 to sign him to a long-term deal, or he has to play this year on the franchise tag. Wilkerson might still be rehabbing around that time, so they likely won’t not be able to see him move around at 100 percent on the practice field before that date.
So that July 15 date puts a monkey wrench into the process.
If that date was a month later, it would probably be helpful to the Jets.
So with that July 15 deadline, I think he plays this year on the tag.
January 1, 2016
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