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This happens every year, and it’s not ideal.
And the players mean no harm when they do it, but perhaps it’s best to avoid doing this, and I will explain why.
Talking about players going on social media and either talking about free agents their team should sign and/or recruiting them.
A big story on social media earlier this week was this from Sauce Gardner:
A fan asked Gardner to “name a free agent no one is talking about that the Jets should sign,” and the cornerback replied “Calvin Ridley & Tee (Higgins).”
First of all, let me say, Sauce is a good guy, and a terrific player, but when players become personnel consultants for their own team, it can be a slippery slope.
Because one unexpected circumstance of suggesting free agents your team should sign, is it can be considered an affront to the current guys on the team at that position.
So if Gardner is suggesting the team sign a receiver, how would you feel if you were Jason Brownlee, Xavier Gipson, Irv Charles, Malik Taylor or Allen Lazard?
Now some people might say to me, “What are you crazy, you know that Ridley and Higgins are better than those players?”
That has nothing to do with my point.
Should the Jets add a receiver in free agency? Absolutely.
But it’s best to leave that to the GM, so the players don’t slight their teammates by suggesting players who could take one of their jobs.
Higgins is a big receiver (6-4, 219) who is good on 50-50 balls.
They just signed a guy like that last year, Allen Lazard, who is 6-5, 227, who is very good on passes where you “throw him open” like Higgins.
And Lazard signed a 4-year, $44 million contract last year with $22 million guaranteed.
I know some have turned on him, like they often do on Jets receivers who aren’t #1 receivers with one-read quarterbacks, but he should be fine with Aaron Rodgers’ returns. Rodgers knows how to use Lazard’s skillset.
I have written this over and over again, so I’m sorry to sound like a broken record. But when you have a one-read QB, it’s really bad for the secondary receivers. We all know Garrett Wilson was the #1 option last year and rightfully so.
Did Lazard and Randall Cobb forget how to play? You should have seen those two lighting it up in training camp playing with Rodgers who sees the whole field, goes through his progressions – one, two, three, checkdown. When Rodgers got hurt, they both went into the Witness Protection Program. Did Lazard have a few drops? Yes, but so did Garrett Wilson. Receivers are going to have drops, but he had so few opportunities, that it was hard to get into a flow.
If the Jets got rid of Lazard in his second year, they’d take a huge cap hit. So if he is going to be here, why would you sign a similar player – Higgins – to a big money deal in a cap sport where you need to spread the money around?
As for Ridley, there are perhaps character concerns, and that is why Atlanta moved on from their former first-round pick.
But my point here isn’t to evaluate Higgins and Ridley, but how it’s probably best for players to stay in their lane when it comes to which free agents their team’s sign.
It’s not great for teammates to point out a need at a position, because that could be viewed as an insult by players currently at that position.
Let the GM farm that land.
January 25, 2024
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