Is this really news?

Isn’t this what your supposed to do as a GM?

All of a sudden, a big story in the sports media is a team “calling” about a player.

Remember, this doesn’t mean a player is available. It’s just a GM doing his due diligence about who might be available.

To me, calling about a player is only news if the player is available. Otherwise, it’s just a media or agent-created story.

You can call about anybody you want. You can call another GM and ask about every player on their 90 man roster. How is that a story?

All these stories out there about the Jets calling about Seattle’s D.K. Metcalf, Tennessee’s A.J. Brown and Houston’s Brandin Cooks are these really stories, considering none of these players are being shopped?

The Texans signed Cook to a two-year extension on Thursday.

Also on Thursday, Mike Vrabel said about the concept of trading Brown – “Not as long as I’m the head coach. I love AJ professionally, personally. I’ve gotten to know him well as his coach and enjoy seeing him as much as I possibly can. As long as I’m the coach here, I would want to have A.J. Brown on my football team.”

WIP’s Howard Eskin reported the Jets offered a first-round pick, #10 overall, for Metcalf.

The Jets shot down this rumor.

The part of this rumor that makes no sense is that the Jets offered a pair of second-round picks for Tyreek Hill, so why would they offer the 10th pick overall for Metcalf, who hasn’t been as good as Hill?

Metcalf is good, but he’s not as good as Hill, and is coming off a good, not great season. He’s got some hip stiffness which limits his route tree.

So they wouldn’t offer a first-round pick for Hill, but they would for Metcalf? How does that make sense?

Now, I’m not going to sit here and totally rule out the Jets making an offer for Metcalf. It could happen. Who knows?

But the overarching point here is just because Douglas talks to teams about players on their roster who might be available, it’s not big news. That is what GMs do.

The theory out there is that the Jets need to get more weapons for Zach Wilson. There is flawed logic in this thinking. Yes, the QB needs weapons, but he also needs to improve reading defenses, his accuracy, his mechanics and footwork. So to me, I’m not paying a receiver $25 million-a-year before knowing if my QB is the answer. Because none of Wilson’s issues, which he will work to improve this off-season, have anything to do with weapons.

So some of these stories about the Jets calling about every receiver with pulse, is driven by this narrative on the outside that they don’t have enough weapons for Wilson.

Once again, they should add a receiver in the draft, and maybe somebody in a trade or free agency. Nothing wrong with that.

But if you think that a star receiver magically fixes the things that Wilson needs to work on, I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you.

And Douglas calling about receivers who aren’t even available isn’t that newsworthy.

April 8, 2022

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