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The inevitable happened today.
The Jets moved on from Mo Wilkerson and Matt Forte. Wilkerson was released, and Forte “retired.”
Forte was going to be released, and considering his retirement happened the same day as Wilkerson’s release, you do the math.
They let him go out gracefully.
There is plenty of blame to around on this Wilkerson thing.
It was a colossal mistake for the Jets to give Wilkerson a massive contract in the summer of 2016 while was still rehabbing a broken leg. A GM could lose his job over something like that. That is how egregious it was to give Wilkerson, who still wasn’t cleared to practice, a deal the included $53.5 million in guarantees over three years.
And then he had issues with the leg over the first half of the 2016 season.
The player also deserves a lot of criticism for his lateness issues. It’s shocking to my sensibilities that somebody get paid that kind of money can’t bother to get to work on time. Totally inexcusable, but the coach perhaps enabled this to certain degree.
“Sometimes you’re late to work. It’s life. It’s not life threatening. Sometimes your alarm clock isn’t going to go off.” – Todd Bowles on March 28, 2017.
Not an ideal message to send your team.
From what I hear, one thing that contributed to Wilkerson’s lateness were family issues – people pulling at him. That is no excuse, but I’m just telling what I heard. Playing close to home can be overrated.
Another problem was Wilkerson getting libeled by the Daily News on a regular basis, and nobody from the team having his back.
I wouldn’t treat my worst enemy like the Daily News treated Wilkerson, and what did the team do about it?
People always say to me, “You have to have thick skin to play in New York.”
This went way beyond that.
This isn’t my first rodeo. The way this paper covers this team is unprecedented. I’m telling, no team, in any sport, is covered this way on the beat. I’m telling you. This is anomaly.
Wilkerson is going to enjoy going somewhere else and just focusing on football.
And I’m telling you, I think he’s going to go somewhere else and play on a high level.
Some of the reporters don’t understand the 3-4 defense and are obsessed with his sack total. The Jets issues with sacks is the fact that their OLB’s hardly get any, not Mo Wilkerson. Some people need to study-up the 3-4 defense.
But while is was crazy to give Wilkerson a long-term deal when his leg wasn’t 100 healed, honestly, the money was ridiculous even if he was healthy.
The insane contracts Ndamukong Suh and Marcell Dareus got in free agency, from Miami and Buffalo respectfully, led to the Jets overpaying Wilkerson. The Suh and Dareus contract were major wastes of money. The bar should have been a lot lower.
First of all, they should have just kept him on the franchise tag in 2016 for two reasons – to make sure he was healthy, and to keep dangling the motivational carrot as he angled for a long-term megadeal.
So finally a mercy killing on this Wilkerson deal.
I’m glad it’s over.
Tired of covering it.
It’s been poisonous. Bad for the karma of everyone involved.
Just be prepared for potential domination somewhere else.
In perhaps New England.
He’s a 28-year-old athletic D-Lineman who actually played pretty well in the second half last year – the five games before being shut down for salary reasons. That five-game stretch teams couldn’t on the Jets. The last three games, without him, the Jets struggled stopping the run.
February 28, 2018.
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