A Closer Look at Mohamed Kamara

Edition #619

Good morning!

The next couple of weeks are going to be a touch strange as I’m off to Bali then Singapore. Considering it’s draft week next week, the Rangers and Knicks are both in the playoffs and the Mets are playing some fine baseball…It’s safe to say I’m going to be plugged in. But if a TJW doesn’t land in your inbox every day, don’t panic it won’t be too long until another arrives. If there are slightly more errors than usual, blame it on the Bintang beers…which is apparently the superstar of the Bali beer scene. I have to admit I’m looking forward to sampling that bad boy. In my effort to avoid rehashing the Bowers/offensive tackle discussion, I thought we’d spend a little time today talking about Mohamed Kamara.

Some thought that former Baltimore RB J.K. Dobbins would be a target for the Jets to complement Breece Hall. That notion was scuppered last night as Dobbins revealed that he’s signing a one-year deal to play for Jim Harbaugh in LA with the Chargers.

Rich Cimini gave his thoughts on the Jets draft strategy in the latest Flight Deck Podcast "The sense I get is that the theme will continue: all in for '24. They've got a 40-year-old quarterback, a GM & a coach on the hot seat, & I think they are going to deal with tomorrow... tomorrow." "That's why I think the Jets will end up with a pass catcher at 10. Someone who can make an immediate impact. That could be Brock Bowers, the tight end from Georgia, or it could be one of those 3 receivers if Harrison, Nabers, or Odunze fall to 10, I think the Jets would take him over Bowers."

This was posted last week by PFF but I don’t think I ever shared it here. They ran a state of the franchise looking at starting spots available and depth pieces needed ahead of the draft. The Jets are in pretty good shape, not sure we’ve been able to say that very often recently.

PFF also marked Brock Bowers out as one of the x-factors in the NFL draft

The 33rd team ran a good article around starters who could find themselves getting traded either during the draft or once the draft has concluded, and the first name on the list was a Jet. John Franklin-Myers.

The New York Jets are one of four teams with negative effective salary cap space, per Over The Cap. That means they need to move some salary to sign their draft class. 

According to OTC’s figures, they need to clear about $2.8 million. A small contract restructure could easily accomplish that, but it would also keep them close to the cap and potentially in a bind throughout the season.

John Franklin-Myers' base salary is $13.3 million for 2024, but just $3.2 million is guaranteed. After a trade for Haason Reddick, Franklin-Myers could see his playing time decrease on a line with Jermaine Johnson and Will McDonald, first-round picks from the past two drafts.

By quality of play, Franklin-Myers should not be the odd man out in that rotation, but moving on could be the easiest way for the Jets to shed some salary. He’d be off the books for 2024 and 2025 with $4 million saved in 2024 cap space with a release. The Jets could also field a trade, opening up $7.3 million in cap space with some future draft capital in return.

Earlier this week it was reported that Colorado State edge rusher Mohamed Kamara was visiting the Jets. As he’s from New Jersey the Jets could treat it as a local visit.

Kamara also visited the Giants as a local visit and the Eagles are in showing a ton of interest, they even sent DL coach Jeremiah Washburn out to Fort Collins to work him out privately.

He’s also visited with the Texans and there are plenty of other teams rumoured to be interested in him and it’s easy to see why.

I did a little digging on his draft stock and the very start of day three seems to be the consensus. The good news for the Jets is they have pick #111 in the 4th round which is ahead of Philly who picks at #120, and the Eagles don’t have a 3rd-round pick.

The bad news for the Jets is I think they’d need to use their 3rd round pick at #72 to almost guarantee his services as having looked at the numbers and watched some of his games, I’d be surprised if he makes it out of the 3rd round, although what do I know…most mocks have him going in the 5th.

First of all, let’s start with his athletic testing thanks to RAS