Friday's Mailbag: Your Questions Answered
Let's dive into the mailbag
Good morning Jets fans. The final Friday of the Jets season, let’s hope we end on a positive come Sunday. This season has flown by, there have been so many positives but also a fair few negatives, that maybe weren’t all that negative. It’s been a confusing season.
Thank you to everyone who sent in some questions for today’s mailbag. Let’s dive straight into it.
If you need a tight end during the 2022 off-season, you’re in luck. There are a number of interesting options set to be available in free-agency and the draft is loaded through the middle rounds.
In terms of a fit for the Jets the first name that instantly comes to mind is Dalton Schultz, the Dallas tight end who’s about to hit free agency. Schultz is a reliable receiving threat (75 catches, 787 yards and 6 TD this year), he’s a decent run blocker and can either play in the slot (301 snaps in 2021) or as a traditional in-line TE (564 snaps in 2021), if he does indeed hit the market I’d expect the Jets to be serious players.
David Njoku is another name that could interest the Jets in free agency, and I wouldn’t count out O.J Howard either.
In terms of the draft, you don’t have that Kyle Pitts type talent at the very top, but you do have plenty of good options through rounds 2-4. Trey McBride is a guy that everyone likes from Colorado State, and It wouldn’t shock me if he did go at the back end of the first round. If not McBride then Coastal Carolina’s Isaiah Likely is a great receiving threat. Charlie Kolar of Iowa State is a personal favourite of mine and I think Cole Turner out of Nevada will continue to climb draft boards.
I did see this doing the rounds on Twitter yesterday and it’s an interesting option for the Jets to explore.
The pro’s of trading for someone like Calvin Ridley is obvious, in 2020 he caught 90 passes for 1,374 yards and 9 touchdowns. We hear a lot about the Jet’s need for a true #1 receiver, and Ridley is that guy.
Over his 4 year career (49 games, 35 starts) he’s caught 248 footballs for 3342 yards and 28 touchdowns, that’s very good production. He is predominantly a wide receiver (83.7% of snaps over his career), but he can be flexed into the slot as well, which gives the Jets a lot of ability to move people around. Having a top 4 of Davis, Ridley, Moore, and Berrios would give the Jets one of the better-receiving cores they’ve had.
The negatives are based on the cost. Ridley will be playing on his 5th-year option for around $11 million in 2022, becoming a free agent in 2023. Any team that signs him will want to sign him to an extension upon completion, the Jets do have the cap space and they can cut Corey Davis after the 2022 season and save $10.5 million…so it’s possible.
Ridley did take some time off this year due to anxiety issues, he only appeared in 5 games for the Falcons in 2021 and that has to be taken into consideration.
In terms of what I’d give up? I think because he’s playing on the final year of his deal I wouldn’t move a 1st for him. I’d maybe suggest a swap of first-round picks allowing the Falcons to jump to #4 and a 3rd or 2nd round selection. It’s hard to understand his value considering the circumstances and the perceived strength of the 2022 wide receiver class.
Good question, and a very difficult one to answer. We love talking about the draft, but my opinion on what we should do drastically changes once free agency is in the books. If we go out and sign a Jessie Bates, then I probably wouldn’t go Hamilton, but the ND man intrigues me with his overall skillset.
I would say that considering we’re the worst defense in football, we absolutely have to spend at least one of those picks on that side of the ball. You usually can’t fix the worst defense in football by signing free agents alone. So for those who have us going OL and then WR, I wouldn’t like that as I think it shows a complete disregard for an important part of the team.
My preferred preference is a 1/1, so one defense and one offense. Right now my ideal combination is Nakobe Dean and Jameson Williams, I like that balance and I firmly believe they are both impact players. You could switch in Wilson for Williams and I’d be just as happy.
It is indeed, that ghoul is gone. Johnson was on the books for $8 million of dead money for the Jets in 2021 while he was sunning himself. I’ve checked the 2022 contracts and he is nowhere to be seen. A hard lesson learned by the Jets.
I’m going to combine these two questions as they’re connected in scope.
The Jets tackle situation is one of the more interesting positions to watch ahead of 2022. In theory, the Jets can re-sign Moses to a short-term deal and run it back with their current roster, opening up assets to improve the rest of the team. In short, I think that’s my preferred option, you need depth and having Becton, Fant and Moses on the books is a good start. You can then draft a tackle through the middle rounds to try and find a gem.
One thing I wouldn’t do is guarantee that LT spot for Becton. I think that position is an open camp battle between Becton and Fant in 2022 with the person who loses out moving to the right side. As Andrew Golden said on Twitter yesterday, there was a time where the LT was the pass protector and the RT was the run blocker, that’s largely an antiquated idea now. Both LT and RT are pass blockers and run blockers and although you need your better pass protector on the blindside, I don’t like seeing the right tackle as the lesser player.
George Fant has done a fine job this season at left tackle and he’s only 29, and while Becton had an impressive rookie campaign, we can’t forget he gave up 7 sacks as well. I actually love the idea of Fant on the left, Becton on the right and Moses as the backup. I say we run it back with what we have, outside of that middle round tackle and see where we are in 2022.
I’m going to combine these questions as well. In theory a trade down is the perfect option for the Jets, it gives us more draft capital to continue the rebuild and I think the strength of this draft is between picks 10-40, so if you can acquire more picks in there then you absolutely should.
The issue with wanting to trade down is that you need a partner willing to tango. Most trade-ups into the top 5 are for quarterbacks and right now I just don’t see a QB that a team will want to jump for. It’s early in the process and strange things happen
Saying that, Miami moved up to #6 last year for Jaylen Waddle and there’s a chance that we could see that again considering how good the receiver class looks. Will someone love Wilson or Williams or Olave so much they’ll want to make that jump? Right now, I think trading down will be difficult but a lot can change. Team’s who may want to move up? Atlanta for a receiver if they lose Ridley or the Browns for a receiver.
The way I see it the Jets need to sign Quinnen to a deal sooner rather than later, I think he’s only going to get better and the better he gets the more expensive he gets.
So the Jets can either sign him to an extension this off-season or they pick up his 2023 5th year option and sign him to an extension next off-season.
Personally, I think I’d try and get it done this off-season. Williams has 7 sacks in just 329 pass rush snaps, compare that to the likes of Jonathan Allen who has 9 sacks in 459 pass rush snaps and Cameron Heyward who has 10 sacks in 536 pass rush snaps and you see how valuable Williams is.
If you look at their advanced statistics, Q and Jonathan Allen are comparable so it makes sense to look at that contract as a base for what we can expect Williams to cost. So with that being said, Allen signed a 4 year $72 million extension and that’s what the Jets will need to do to keep Williams in house. This defense is the worst-ranked defense in the league, they can’t afford to lose Q. The only question is whether we pay him this year or next year.