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Boca Raton – Jets owner Woody Johnson doesn’t seem to be in a huge rush to get the Ryan Fitzpatrick deal done.
He mentioned the season is six months away, and Fitzpatrick doesn’t need a ton of off-season work.
He was asked when the Jets need to get Fitzpatrick signed by.
“Before the season – I don’t know how much off-season he needs,” Johnson said in Boca Raton today.
In a way, this is a smart negotiating position from the owner.
Fitzpatrick is a worker bee. He likes to get a lot work in with his teammates in the off-season.
He wants to be there.
But it’s important for the Jets to get this contract right. You can’t go bananas with this deal based on one standout season.
“He was good last year – you hope he can do it again,” Johnson said today.
So while I’m sure the Jets would love to him in their entire off-season program, that won’t lead them to overpaying.
And remember last year, Fitzpatrick took over as the starter in August, after Geno got punched. In the off-season, he was getting second-team reps.
So by Johnson saying they just need to get Fitzpatrick in before the season starts, it makes is abundantly clear, they are willing to take a fairly long time, and show a lot of patience, to get this deal right.
Surely, Fitzpatrick is going to get antsy at some point, and perhaps tell agent Jimmy Sexton to “get this thing done.”
Johnson said something else that struck me today during his brief press gathering at the Boca Raton Resort.
“How’d Denver win the Super Bowl last year – defense, baby,” Johnson said.
He went on to say that there are only a certain number of elite quarterbacks in the league, and the other teams need to figure out ways to get to the Super Bowl.
Clearly Fitz isn’t an elite quarterback – a good one, but not elite.
So in the Jets’ minds, they can’t go too crazy with the contract, because they feel good about their defense, and could be spearheaded by that side of the ball.
So clearly, with this mindset, there is no way they are parting with their best defensive player – Mo Wilkerson.
“He’s been franchised, so as far as I’m concerned, he’s on the team right now,” Johnson said.
Is Johnson frustrated with how the team hasn’t been able to strike a long-term deal with Wilkerson.
“I don’t get frustrated,” said the owner.
Some interesting stuff from Johnson today.
And he also was smart to stay away from politics.
Johnson was a supporter of Jeb Bush in the Republican primary. In fact, he was a finance director.
Bush dropped out of the race.
Johnson was asked today who he is going to support now.
“I’m just going to keep this on football,” Johnson said.
Smart move.
If he threw his support behind Donald Trump, who he knows, the New York Daily News would absolutely destroy him. They are obsessed with Trump.
Good decision to stay out of it.
March 21, 2016
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