The Payment Timescale

Edition #649

Good morning! ☕

The good thing about having multiple first round picks in the same draft is that you receive an influx of talent capable of turning your fortunes around. For an embattled HC/GM tandem, that 2022 draft could and should be career saving.

The problem with having multiple first-round picks in the same draft is that they all become eligible for a new deal around the same time. And if you’ve hit on every pick, that makes things extremely difficult and extremely tight.

So who needs to get paid and when? That’s the topic for today’s newsletter as we head to mandatory minicamp with more than a few questions to answer.

🟢As expected Haason Reddick was absent from mandatory minicamp yesterday looking for a new contract. Aaron Rodgers was also absent and it wasn’t an excused absence. According to Saleh Rodgers had an event that was very important to him, and considering he’s been at the facility all through OTA’s then I guess you can give him this one. But if we’re all about football as soon as the football starts, I’d expect mandatory minicamp to take precedence over everything else.

• According to Connor Hughes, at the time of the trade the Jets and Reddick were on the same page. The understanding was that he’d be at minicamp, there wouldn’t be a contract extension before the season and the plan was to play out the deal, play well and then cash in. At some point over the last 6 weeks…that changed and now it seems that Reddick has gone back on his word, causing this contract standoff. It’ll be interesting to see when he does arrive.

⚪ Breece Hall was working off to the side again yesterday, he did that several times during OTA’s, but according to Saleh it’s just precautionary. In other RB news, Israel Abanikanda was shaken up in team drills and headed inside with the trainer. Considering the depth at RB now, he really can’t afford to miss many snaps over the coming months.

🟢We knew that the Jets were going to be working out Jakeem Grant during mandatory minicamp, but he’s just one of six. The jets are also working out Corey Luciano, Jeremy Lewis, Pat Elflein, Ilm Manning and Takkarist McKinley as well. There should be some familiar names in there, most notably Pat Elflein and Takkarist McKinley.

⚪ PFF had an article out where they listed the reason for every NFL team to be positive heading into the new NFL season. “Aaron Rodgers is healthy, and this time, he has an offensive line. The story of the Jets’ 2023 season was Aaron Rodgers’ torn Achilles, but a culmination of questionable decisions and bad injury luck on the offensive line doomed the team, too. New York likely wouldn’t have succeeded no matter who played quarterback behind the league’s second-worst offensive line. This offseason, future Hall of Famer Tyron Smith, the league’s leader in pass-blocking grade, was brought in to lock things down at left tackle. New York added two other starters, Morgan Moses and John Simpson, at tremendous value. Right guard Alijah Vera-Tucker returns from injury, and the team drafted Penn State tackle Olu Fashanu as the eventual replacement for Smith. Rodgers should be well-protected in 2024.”

🟢The good news is that the trend of former Lambeau leapers seems to be coming to an end. Earlier this off-season many predicted that Aaron Rodgers buddy Marcedes Lewis would become the latest Packer to head to NY. Yesterday he signed with the Bears so we can all breath a sigh of relief.

⚪ One NFL executive is buying the Aaron Rodgers comeback so much he believes the Jets QB will win his 5th MVP award: “Personally, I think Aaron Rodgers is going to win the MVP award this season. Every time he has a chip on his shoulder, he’s better than everyone. That’s the case this season coming off of the injury and having all the doubters. He’s going to have a massive season and I think he wins another MVP.”

🟢 In positive news for the offensive line, 3 of the starting 5 were out there for Mandatory Minicamp and news came that the Jets are expecting both AVT and Morgan Moses to be ready for day one of training camp. Starting camp with your entire line healthy is a pleasant turn of events for the Jets.

The focus right now is Haason Reddick and whether the Jets will pay him what he believes he’s worth. We spoke at length last week about the kind of numbers he is reportedly looking for, and by all accounts the Jets were aware of these before they decided to trade for him.

Joe Douglas is a financially savvy General Manager and while he’s had to push some dead money this year, it’s with an eye to the future and the long-term deals he knows he needs to get over the line. General managers don’t stay general managers for long if they let in-house elite talent leave the building.

So who are the extension candidates and when will they need to be paid? Let’s take a look at all that talent that we need to lock up sooner rather than later.

One thing to remember is that this is a funnel, not all teams keep all their players. Not all teams keep all their good players, and knowing when to walk away or trade your asset is part and parcel of the business side. As players drop out of the bottom of the funnel new players are added to the top through trades (Simpson), free agency (Tyron) or the draft (Fashanu).

Immediate Concern - 2025