New York Jets: 4 internal free agents to keep and 4 to let walk away
By Ed Stein
Before the New York Jets go big game hunting for impact free agents, they have to look at their own roster first. Here are four pending internal free agents who should stay, and four who they should let walk away.
Welcome to the NFL offseason. A better name for this time of year should be “business season.” This is when the money decisions are made and teams are put together. The NFL is known for its parity, every team allegedly has a shot to put together a winner. In the Salary cap era, organizations can’t freely spend on free agents or hoard players. Tough business decisions have to be made. The New York Jets are in the thick of it this spring with the 13th-highest amount of dollars available to sign players.
While they are not close to dominating the NFL, the Jets are much closer to being a playoff team than they are to drafting in the top five come 2021. According to overthecap.com, Gang Green has approximately $49.4M to spend in the offseason.
That number could increase by almost 50 percent if they cut some underachieving players from their roster (who they are is a different story). General Manager Joe Douglas has to pay as much attention to the cap as he does to player personnel when building his team for the upcoming season.
The GM will lean on his coaches and scouts for advice and evaluation of free agents. He said as much in his pre-combine press conference.
"“We had our coaches finish their free agent evaluations. So the plan is to get with them after the combine and get our (free agency) plan together.”"
That time is now. Before adding new players to mix, decisions have to be made about internal free agents. Granted on a 7-9 team, very few players have total job security like Jamal Adams and Sam Darnold do. So who from last year can help the New York Jets win and who should they be content to let walk away to other teams? A playoff spot may depend on it.