Content available exclusively for subscribers
Obviously this was no surprise.
The Jets release of center Spencer Long.
We all know he essentially signed a one-year contract last year.
Unless he performed like Kevin Mawae (good week to bring him up) last year, he likely was never going to see the second year of his contract.
When he signed a four-year, $27.5 million deal in 2018, it was viewed by many as a one-year “make good” contract. Further proof of that is the fact that by cutting him this week, the Jets incur no cap hit. So makes you realize it was a one-year deal. It it wasn’t, there would be a cap hit.
The reason he was only able to get essentially a one-year deal was he was injury-prone in Washington, and he was coming off a knee injury in 2017.
And with the Jets, he had injury issues.
Over the last month of the Jets’ season, he was listed with three injuries – back, knee and finger.
So he was kind of mess late in the year.
Most people know about the finger, but not the back and knee.
The finger problem, as we know, turned into a real problem in Miami, where the Jets had major issues with center-quarterback exchanges in their loss to the Dolphins at Hard Rock Stadium.
One of the big mysteries in recent Jets history is why the former Jets coach kept Long in the game until the fourth quarter, when he had snapping issues in the first three quarters, that were impacting the offense.
Why not put Jonotthan Harrison in the game, a more than capable center, as we saw late in the year? Harrison is a former starter in Indianapolis, so he had proven he could do the job.
It made little to no sense.
But we know, the Jets former coach, who is a very nice guy, had a hard time pulling players when they struggle.
Even the announcers on the network, who usually aren’t very critical of coaches because the teams are their partners, were wondering why Long wasn’t being pulled.
However, you know what’s interesting about the snapping issues, and I’ve mentioned this before, is that I saw snapping issues in the summer between Long and the quarterbacks. And this was before the finger injury.
So while the finger was an issue, maybe there is more to it than that.
As one Jets observer said to me in the middle of the snapping issues, “I think it’s in his head.”
Obviously, I can’t prove that, but perhaps it was part mental and part physical.
But when he moved over to guard late in the season, and Harrison moved into center, Long did a nice job. He had a lot of key blocks in the running game.
He’s definitely going to play in the league this year. Hey, maybe the Jets bring him back at a reduced salary.
But it’s going to have to be on a one-year deal, or a multi-year contract like the last one, which is essentially a one-year deal.
His injury history will dictate that.
February 6, 2019
Premium will return by 9:30 pm on Thursday.