Just The One Safety

Edition #324

Good morning! 🌟

One thing I forget to add yesterday was the betting odds for the Jet’s next QB courtesy of Bet Online. I asked them to send me a list of the latest odds, as the bookies seem to usually have a steer on what’s happening before anyone else.

Here are the results, listing over 10 options. The odds were accurate as of the 7th of February 2023

Jets QB in Week 1 of 2023 Regular Season                   
Aaron Rodgers              +150
Lamar Jackson              +400
Derek Carr                    +450
Jimmy Garoppolo          +450
Mike White                   +600
Zach Wilson                  +850
Bryce Young                  +2500
CJ Stroud                      +2500
Will Levis                      +2500
Baker Mayfield             +2800
Tom Brady                    +3300
Joe Flacco                     +6600

As you can see Aaron Rodgers is the heavy favorite and surprisingly Lamar Jackson is the second favorite ahead of Derek Carr. I’m not sure how they’ve worked that out as I don’t feel there is a chance in hell of the Jets landing Lamar, which is why I didn’t include him in yesterday’s roundup.

Anyway, today we’re moving away from the quarterback and we’re focusing our attention on the safety position, and in particular, the strong safety position.

⚜️ The Las Vegas Raiders have given Derek Carr permission to speak to the Saints according to Ian Rapoport. New Orleans is the first team to be given permission to speak to Carr this off-season. Ian did state that Carr is doing due diligence and a trade is not imminent. I'm hoping after that trip to New Orleans he's given permission to stop at 1JD, but no movement on that right now. If the Jets want to be in the mix for Carr, you feel as though they’re going to have to act quickly over the coming week.

💲 The Jets don’t have any franchise tag candidates this off-season, but here are the values of the tags for the 2023 season for all those who are interested

💼 The 49ers have confirmed the hiring of Steve Wilks as their new defensive coordinator. Looking at all the talent on that defense, that must be one of the most attractive jobs in football. Not to mention that the last two DCs went on to be head coaches.

💯 PFF released their top 100 free-agent rankings this week and the Jets had a couple of players make the list. DT Sheldon Rankins came in at #63 and he was followed by center Conor McGovern at #73. Finally, George Fant made the list at #97 despite a down year.

🤝 Aaron Rodgers in his weekly appearance on the Pat McAfee show and he rubbished two reports. One, that he wouldn’t want to retire because of Tom Brady: "The idea I wouldn't want to share a stage with Tom (Brady) and J.J. Watt is ridiculous. Their decision doesn't impact mine." and two, the reports around him having communicated his trade destination desire to his reps, saying he hadn’t even spoken to his reps since season end.

⬛ Rodgers also confirmed he's going on a darkness retreat in a couple of weeks, which is designed for self reflection and that's where he'll ponder the question of retirement. So if that's in 2 weeks and it's a 4 day retreat, it sounds as though we won't have a firm idea if he wants to play until the start of March.

❓ He also spoke about the comment he made about not going to San Fran, saying "I'm not a free agent. I'm under contract with the Packers. People forget that. That gets lost in the conversation."

😜 Sauce Gardner was on GMFB yesterday and when asked about Rodgers he said "I know a little Something about Something...". Fans went absolutely wild about that online, and obviously, we’ve not learned that Sauce likes to troll. He’s just having some fun with everyone, I really wouldn’t pay too much attention. Remember he sent tweets this weekend campaigning for Carr and Rodgers.

☠️ The Jets had a meeting with ECU QB Holton Ahlers last week. The 6’3 signal caller completed over 67% of his passes last year for 3708 yards, 28 touchdowns and 5 INTs. The Packers have also been showing a lot of interest in him.

When you read an article about the Jets off-season you’ll see cuts mentioned. When you’re brushing up against the cap as close as the Jets are, it’s understandable.

In most articles, you’ll see the same two names mentioned. Corey Davis and Carl Lawson. That’s logical because just by cutting those two players the Jets take their cap space from what’s shown above, to what’s shown below.

We’ve spoken about the merits and pitfalls of cutting both players in previous newsletters. Today I wanted to focus on another name that you sometimes see mentioned in the same breath. Jordan Whitehead.

Whitehead is set to count $10,232,500 against the cap in 2023. If the Jets decided to cut him they would save $7,250,000 against the cap with just $2,982,500 dead money.

Let’s just for a minute consider that option, which would move the Jets from being over the cap by around $900k to being under the cap by $32,235,503. A nice pot to work with, albeit you’d need to replace all three of those players that you cut.

But, does Jordan Whitehead deserve to be under consideration as a cap casualty?