I think he was serious

Some people think he was being a wise guy. I don’t. I think he was being serious. And the respect he was showing is warranted.

AT the NFL Owner’s Meeting last week in Boca Raton, Rex Ryan was asked about the Jets’ free agent quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick.

“I hope he goes somewhere else, I do,” Ryan said. “He’s tougher than hell. What’s lost in it is, he might have played poorly against us — it might have been a bad day (in Week 17) — but I think they won five straight with him and he was lighting it up, probably the most yards in the history of that franchise. We’ll see. Like I said, I hope they lose him.”

Some people think Rex was being a wise guy. After all, the Bills beat the Jets in both games last season. And in those games. Fitzpatrick threw five picks.

I don’t think he was being sarcastic. I think he respects Fitzpatrick. Winning five games in a row isn’t easy in the NFL. If Ryan had a QB throw 31 touchdowns to 15 interceptions in a season, he might still be coaching the Jets. The position held him back almost his entire six years with the Jets. While Fitzpatrick isn’t great, Rex knows what the Jets got from the quarterback position last year was a lot more than he got in any given season.

Many Jets fans are destroying Fitzpatrick right now for his contract dispute. He’s being called “greedy” by some.

It’s a complicated situation.

Is Fitzpatrick a great quarterback? No, but he’s the best the Jets have had in some time.

Fitz is good, not great.

Complicating matter is so many average quarterbacks are getting big bucks. It’s due to the dearth of top-shelf quarterbacks in the league.

And there are a lot of bad ones.

So if a team can get a decent QB, who can do a serviceable job, they are locking them up with ridiculous money.

Just look the contracts Matt Stafford in Detroit got, or Andy Dalton in Cincinnati, or Sam Bradford in Philadelphia or Ryan Tannehill in Miami. And the list goes on.

I will even throw in Joe Flacco. I understand that he was on a team that won a Super Bowl, but in my opinion, he’s not a great quarterback. He’s good, not great. He just got $40 million in new money, added to his contract for over $20 million a year, to give the Ravens cap relief.

So Fitz and Jimmy Sexton see the kind of money being throw for middle-tier quarterbacks, and they want a piece of the action.

The Jets have drawn a line in the sand.

They are playing a game of chicken. It’s a high stakes stare down.

But I think all the vitriol directed at Fitz is misguided.

This is called “negotiations.”

Fitz is doing nothing wrong. Nothing is going on right now from a football standpoint. He’s not hurting the team trying to play the waiting game to get the Jets to up their offer.

And the Jets aren’t wrong either. I don’t understand the column concept I’ve read a couple of different places stating, “pay the man.”

Have the people writing these columns ever run a business? Perhaps not.

You don’t just “pay the man,” especially in a cap sport. The “pay the man” narrative is an oversimplification.

The Jets got into trouble last year just “paying a man,” without taking their time. That player didn’t have any other suitors who were going to pay him what the Jets did. They should have been more patient. That contract is hurting them right now.

The Fitz contract isn’t an easy deal to do.

There are a lot of variables involved.

And I think was Rex was being earnest when he said he’d like to see Fitz play somewhere else.

While he’s far from perfect, he’s also pretty good.

March 28, 2016

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