Marcus Maye is a very solid player, but based on the extensive film study of Joe Douglas, and others in the building who the GM leans on, they clearly determined the player is not a $14-15 million-a-year safety, like Denver’s Justin Simmons or Arizona’s Budda Baker.
Now that doesn’t mean Douglas is down on the player. Not at all. He likes Maye the person and player quite a bit, but that doesn’t mean he was prepared to pay him like Simmons and Baker.
Of all the commentary on the Maye contract situation, the person who probably summed up the team’s postion best, was NFL Network’s Brian Baldinger, who knows Douglas very well. Baldinger was asked on an NFL Network panel show about whether Maye would get a long-term contract.
“Well, I think this GM is going to have a hard time doing it to be honest with you,” Baldinger said Wednesday. “Marcus stepped up in the absence of Jamal Adams and had his best season, but Joe Douglas, the GM, has been around Ed Reed (in Baltimore) and was in Philadelphia with Brian Dawkins. I just think when he thinks about high-priced safeties, he needs a safety to take the ball away and change games, and I’m not sure he feels that way about Marcus Maye. He might, but if they did, they would have showed him a long-term contract and that hasn’t happened and I don’t think it’s going to happen.”
And it didn’t. It’s now official. The Jets didn’t extend Maye by Thursday’s 4 pm deadline, so now the player must play the 2021 season under the franchise tag ($10.6 million).
None of this is personal. Douglas likes Maye.
He just had a different view of his monetary value than the agent/player.
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