The New York Jets best player, Muhammad Wilkerson, will not force general manager Mike Maccagnan to blink first come NFL Training Camp.
What exactly are the New York Jets right now?They’re an NFL team coming off a very surprising 10-6 season. They’re a team who just ended spring minicamp much like every other team in the league.
Many aspects to the life of the Jets are completely normal at the moment. Unfortunately, there’s one major problem surrounding New York that is continuing to raise hell for its front office and its fans.
The game within the game is at its highest peak for this organization.
Both Ryan Fitzpatrick and Muhammad Wilkerson – two key cogs to the Jets 10 win season a year ago – are both currently waging a salary war against the Jets.
Fitzpatrick has some wiggle room. Playing the position he plays, in quarterback, saves him. Big Mo, on the other hand, is in deep trouble.
Mike Maccagnan won’t blink first at the big boy table when it comes to negotiating a contract with his best defensive player. It’s that simple. The reasons are plentiful.
From here on out we’ll take you through these specific and unique reasons that provide Mikey Mac the obvious upper hand over Big Mo:
Depth At The Position
Perhaps the worst thing that ever happened to Muhammad Wilkerson was the 2015 NFL Draft.
It was the night the first-year regime of Mike Maccagnan and Todd Bowles made Leonard Williams the No. 6 overall selection.
Williams, who was considered by many to be the most talented player in the pool, was graciously accepted by the Jets despite falling to the sixth spot. This, despite already possessing Big Mo and Sheldon Richardson.
Suddenly, the defensive end spot on the roster became very crowded.
RELATED: The 25 Greatest New York Jets Of All-Time
Bowles is a man who prides himself on acting as a very versatile defensive mind. His blend between four and three man fronts has been extremely pronounced through his entire NFL coaching career.
In spite of his unique principles, three defensive ends in a 3-4 set is one too many. We saw it first hand last season when they attempted to make Richardson a stand-up outside linebacker. It failed miserably. Should the Jets make the official move to 4-3, all three guys could see the field at once, but then Big Mo would be severely be out of position at defensive end. He can handle it at times on passing downs, but he’s simply not an every down edge player.
Three is one too many.
Should Wilkerson hold out into training camp, Maccagnan will wait it out. He’ll allow business to go on as usual as long as both Sheldon and the Big Cat are healthy.
Fletcher Cox‘s Monster Deal
If there was any glimmer of hope that Muhammad Wilkerson would magically receive a long-term deal from the New York Jets, it was completely thrown in the garbage thanks to one signature.
Fletcher Cox‘s absurd 6-year, $103 million deal erased any thought of Wilkerson remaining with the Jets long-term.
Although most in the know understand this contract is really a sham – as it’ll really amount to a 2-year, $42.9 million or 3-year, $59.7 million contract – the fact of the matter is that the money is absurd for an interior defensive lineman.
Right off the bat, should the Jets want to even approach Mo about a long-term future, they’ll have to be in ballpark of Cox’s deal.
Don’t hold your breath.
Salary Distribution, Decision Was Already Made
The NFL salary cap is sitting at a cool $155.27 million for 2016. This means 53 football players must fit like puzzle pieces within that ceiling (barring the new carryover rules, positive or negative).
Positions like cornerback, wide receiver, tackle, edge rusher, and quarterback receive the big bucks. Quarterback and edge rusher are two spots the Jets currently have no money tied up in.
It simply makes no sense to pay three defensive lineman all big money in a 3-4 scheme. And because the Jets currently possess Sheldon Richardson through the 2017 season and Leonard Williams at a very cheap cost through 2018, Wilkerson becomes the odd man out.
The real nail in the coffin came this offseason.
Once the Jets picked up the 2017 team option on Richardson for $8.69 million, that essentially signaled the end for Big Mo. If Maccagnan wanted to work with Wilkerson, he would have allowed Sheldon to play through 2016 as a free agent to be.
Final Thoughts
It’s not Muhammad Wilkerson’s fault in the least. He was just placed on the wrong team at the wrong time.
This sort of thing happens all the time.
It’s not Mike Maccagnan’s fault either.
Big Mo deserves to be paid more than any other Jet on the roster. Unfortunately, thanks to the hardened guidelines of the financial system that is the National Football League, he won’t be paid with the New York Jets.
Well, he won’t be paid past 2016. His pretty solid $15.701 million this season, thanks to that dreaded franchise tag, won’t have anybody crying for him anytime soon.
For Wilkerson to have remained a Jet long-term, he needed to be locked up by the front office prior to the 2015 NFL Draft. If that was the case, the Big Cat wouldn’t have been drafted.
The team option on Sheldon Richardson for 2017 further cemented the situation.
The only person Muhammad Wilkerson will be hurting if he holds out come July will be himself. Maccagnan won’t blink. He won’t need to because he’s already provided two beasts in a two beast system to his head coach.