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One thing you got to remember about Joe Douglas . . .
He’s a turnover-every-stone kind of GM.
So if there is a player of note available via the waiver wire or free agency, he’s more than willing to chop it up with the agent.
But too often that leads to agents saying, “The Jets are interested” stories.
And this leads us to free agent running back Dalvin Cook.
There is speculation the Jets are interested.
Why shouldn’t they be? He’s very talented, as they saw firsthand last year in their loss in Minnesota.
In the first quarter, Cook had a 21-yard run up the middle. Center Garrett Bradbury locked up Quinnen Williams and Cook exploded through the hole. Cook finished this drive with a four-yard TD up the middle where the Jets D-Line go manhandled across the board.
Cook is very talented, but he reportedly wants like $9-10 million a year, and where is that Jets’ cap room going to come from?
They need to pay the aforementioned Williams, who also got locked up by Bradbury on a 14-yard TD run by Alexander Mattison up the middle in this game.
But obviously run defense doesn’t matter to the “pay the man” crowd. Just pay him whatever he wants and the heck with run defense.
So they need to pay Williams and figure out how to work with Aaron Rodgers’ enormous contract. This might have been resolved, but the last time we heard, they were still trying to figure out how to spread the money around.
Maybe, just, just maybe, paying Cook $9-10 million this year doesn’t make sense from a cap standpoint.
And maybe, Cook and his camp are pushing the Jets’ angle to make Miami up the ante on how much they are willing to pay the hometown running back.
The worst-kept secret in the world is that Cook, a graduate of Miami Central High School, would like to play for the Dolphins.
So this story might be a little reminiscent of the Tyreek Hill situation in 2022. The Kansas Chiefs were looking to trade Hill who wanted a big raise, and it seemingly came down to the Jets and Dolphins, and he ultimately was traded to Miami.
How close was Hill to going to the Jets?
“How close was I? Who? The Jets?” Hill said at his introductory Miami press conference. “I knew I was always going to pick Miami no matter what because I’m basically from here. I’m here all the time. This is home for me. For us.”
So the Jets perhaps were used as a tool to drive the price up, and Hill ultimately got a deal for $30 million a year.
The Jets never would have paid him that, but perhaps they didn’t mind driving the price up on a division rival.
If you want to demoralize Breece Hall, who is far along in his knee rehab, then sign Cook.
Well people will say, what if he’s not ready for Week 1?
Okay, but then if you get Cook, and he’s the bell cow, and Hall is ready for Week 3, what do you do then, make Hall a backup?
They also have Michael Carter, Bam Knight and Izzy Abanakanda.
Look, Cook is a very talented player, but in a cap sport, you can’t take a fantasy football perspective if you are the GM.
You need to spread the money around.
And it’s pretty clear Cook wants to go to Miami, but his agent needs to drive the price up, and Douglas, who also does his due diligence on available players, could help them do that.
But don’t expect the Jets’ GM to break the bank on Cook.
At a reasonable contract number, perhaps they would make a move.
June 22, 2023
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