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Bart Scott has been given permission to seek a trade. What is going on here? Let’s take a look.
This New York Daily News story shouldn’t come as a surprise.
After the season-finale in Miami, Newsday’s Rod Boone tweeted, “With no postseason, changes are coming for #Jets. Here’s one: Source tells me Bart Scott won’t be back next season.”
The source of this story was likely Scott, who has a good relationship with Boone.
This story to us was just posturing from Scott. Scott is a smart guy, and he knows darn well the Jets weren’t going to just cut him, since he’s guaranteed $4 million for the 2012 season.
Why would the Jets just eat that money? Scott is still a serviceable player. While he’s not great in coverage, he’s still a terrific player in the box, playing down-hill. There is no way they are going to just cut him.
If they trade him, they can re-coup that money. If they cut him, they can’t.
So this new story makes a lot more sense than the one right after the season.
Scott was in a bad mood for what seemed like the entire 2011 season. The usually accommodating Scott, never wanted to talk to the media. When he did, it was usually after Jets publicist Bruce Speight pleaded with him for a few minutes at his locker.
Then he flipped the bird at photographers on baggy day, and was fined $10,000 by the league.
Scott is trying to shoot his way out of here by being a malcontent.
The weird part of Scott’s desire to leave is that he bought a mansion in Mendham (where the late Whitney Houston lived), very close to the Jets’ Florham Park complex. He and his family love it there, and don’t intend on moving, even if he is traded. The Scott’s are in Mendham for the long-haul.
So why would he want to continue playing for a team that plays and practices essentially in his back yard?
The two top reasons for this are that he was forced to take a pay-cut before camp last year, and then lost some playing time during the season.
Scott has a tremendous amount of pride, and these two things really pissed him off.
And what made the money situation even worse for him, is that he’s lockered right next to Santonio Holmes in Florham Park, and the Jets showered the wide receiver with money, which turned out to be an enormous mistake.
Holmes has a lot of talent, but he really had a terrible impact on the locker room last year.
Also three lockers away is Mark Sanchez, who despite having a cap figure of around $17 million last year, didn’t reduce his salary one iota before last season. This was a major surprise, and had to piss off Scott, and the other players, like Calvin Pace, that took cuts.
Sanchez couldn’t give back $1 million like Scott? Obviously not. This falls into the coddling category. The Jets are so worried about Mark’s feelings on a regular basis (like when Rex asked the fans to stop booing him), they clearly thought a pay cut would upset him.
We have mentioned before, with too many luxury boxes and club seats still unsold, the owner and his money man Ira Axrelrad are a little financially nervous right now (it looks like Sione Pouha is going to have to take a major hometown discount), so getting Scott and his $4 million guarantee out of Dodge, would be very helpful, especially if they are pondering a run at Peyton Manning.
The Jets feel league-minimum player Josh Mauga is ready to replace Scott.
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