Good morning!
Hackett talks, Dalvin finds a new home, the Jets are paired with their ideal draft prospect and we look at five free agents should could be sneaky good additions for a team looking to bounce back in 2024.
📢 I'm not going to spend too much time on the coordinator conferences. Hackett did meet the media though. He said he needs to put a better product on the field in 2024, praised the young players, especially Tippmann and Gipson and said he didn't appreciate how productive Hall would be in the passing game. Like it or not, he'll be back next season with Aaron Rodgers. How long he lasts will depend on how healthy Rodgers is.
🟢⚪ He did confirm that the Jets need to find ways to get Garrett the ball more: "It's a credit for him to be able to separate and make himself available for the quarterback. He's come up big. We need to find more ways to get him the ball and get more creative." It was maddening that at times this season, Garrett Wilson went multiple drives and quarters without a target. Madness.
🌟 PFF recently released an article where they paired each team with the perfect prospect in the 2024 draft. It won't come as a surprise to see the Jets paired with an offensive tackle, and it's my favourite guy Joe Alt “We’ve said it a million times this season, but the 2024 offseason is truly an all-in approach for the Jets with Aaron Rodgers healthy again at quarterback. Offensive line in the first round is the best way to do that. Alt has been a three-year starter for the Fighting Irish and has the snaps under his belt to step in right away at left tackle for the Jets. The reason I have him as the choice over Penn State’s Olu Fashanu is I think Fashanu will have a learning curve due to the strength needed for the professional game. I don't have that concern with Alt.”
🐦⬛ Dalvin Cook found a new home after being released by the Jets. He'll also have a great shot at getting a ring with Baltimore considered one of the title favourites. It'll be interesting to see how much action he sees and how effective he is in that system behind a much better offensive line.
🦁 Dan Graziano of ESPN shared a piece on coordinator rankings. “Detroit Lions DC Aaron Glenn is the NFL’s highest-graded coordinator according to a new NFLPA survey that asked players to rate how they felt about their coordinators on a 1-10 scale” - Glenn was a first-round draft pick of the Jets back in 1994.
The Jets 2024 salary cap situation certainly isn’t the worst in the league. The Saints are expected to be $76 million over the cap, the Bills $43 million, the Dolphins $40 million and the Chargers $34 million. When you look at the effective salary cap which takes into consideration the signing of at least 51 players and the projected rookie class to the roster, the numbers look even worse. $86 million over for the Saints, $52 million for the Bills, $54 million for the Dolphins. and $52 million for the Chargers.
Those GMs have a lot of work and a lot of manoeuvring to do.
Joe Douglas needs to drastically improve this roster if he hopes to be competing for a Championship next season. To do that the Jets have $15.9 million in cap space and an effective cap of just over $4 million. Not a ton, but with some cuts and some restructuring, there’s plenty to work with.
Douglas has always been responsible with his spending, last off-season we saw the first signs of him kicking the can down the road, and with his job on the line, it’ll be interesting to see the approach this season. I’m sure he won’t be irresponsible, but he may be more willing to push money into the future knowing he may well not be here if he doesn’t achieve the success desired.
While we’re all going to be hoping to see some marquee signings like Mike Evans, Tee Higgins or Michael Pittman, Jr. in the wide receiver room there are a few players who could be sneaky good additions to the Jets, outside the big-money signings that are expected to occur around the league.
Here are five free agents who aren’t being spoken about enough that I think would be perfect for the Jets in 2024 and beyond.
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