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There was a play in the fourth quarter of Sunday’s Jets-Buccaneers game where Tom Brady threw a short pass to Le’Veon Bell and C.J. Mosley wrapped him up and brought him down at the 11-yard line.
Seeing Mosley tackle Bell made me think back to March 12, 2019 when the Jets signed Mosley to a five-year, $85 million contract at 6 a.m. and Bell to a four-year, $52.5 million deal 18 hours later.
It also made me think about March of 2022 and how Joe Douglas and the Jets need to look at that crazy day three years ago when they jump into the choppy waters of free agency again.
Mosley was named the Jets’ team MVP on Wednesday, a signal of the type of season he has had and affirmation of the decision to throw a crazy amount of money at him in 2019. Bell? He washed out with the Jets after four touchdowns in 17 games. He tweeted his way out the door and has been on three teams since then. He is now a spare part that teams sign when their running back room gets hit with injuries.
It is a reminder of how tricky free agency can be. Douglas and the Jets will go into this offseason with around at least $60 million in salary cap space. There will be pressure from the outside to spend, spend, spend. Douglas has resisted going crazy in free agency during his first two offseasons, but pressure is starting to mount on him after three years on the job and a 13-35 record.
This has some of the same feel that that 2019 offseason had. The Jets had just drafted a quarterback in the first round the year before. There was pressure to improve the roster quickly, give Sam Darnold some weapons and end an eight-year playoff drought. This time around, there is pressure to improve the roster quickly, give Zach Wilson some weapons and end an 11-year playoff drought.
But Douglas should look back at 2019 and study what went right and wrong there. Former coach Adam Gase had Mosley on the top of his wish list that offseason. He saw Mosley as a culture changer who could make the 10 players on the field with him better. His scouting report has proven true albeit after an injury and an opt-out slowed Mosley’s success here.
Former general manager Mike Maccagnan made sure the Jets landed Mosley by overpaying him. The Ravens were believed to be offering Mosley around $14 million a year to stay in Baltimore. The Jets gave him $17 million a year, making him the highest-paid linebacker in the game. The Jets certainly are going to have to overpay again in a few months to land good players. It is a losing tax. Players are not going to pick the Jets over a contender unless the Jets give them lot$ of reason$ to. That can be risky, but it has worked out with Mosley.
The investment in Bell was not a good one. That was a signing that Gase was against and Maccagnan made anyway. The motivation was to win the news cycle and appease people calling for the Jets to sign Bell. But the warning signs were there. The Jets were bidding against themselves. No other team came close to offering what the Jets did. Maccagnan should have never signed a player his head coach did not want. It was the spark that lit the fuse to Maccagnan getting fired two months later after a power struggle with Gase.
Douglas must make sure he and coach Robert Saleh are aligned when it comes to free-agent decisions.
“I think Joe and I see things the same,” Saleh said Wednesday. “I think guys who love ball always maximize who they are as individuals. There’s a difference, there’s a difference between guys who love ball and guys who like what football brings up. There’s a huge difference, and they tell on themselves every day.”
Mosley is a guy who loves ball. His play and leadership this season has made the Jets’ big contract in him look like a wise investment. He has a message for any free agents concerned about joining the Jets because of their recent losing ways.
“You should be the reason why they win. That’s why I came to the New York Jets,” Mosley said. “I wanted to come here and turn a losing organization around and be a part of that and be part of the process to take those steps. If you’re scared to come here because you think you might lose, then don’t come.”
The Jets need more players like Mosley. It’s on Douglas to get them here without falling into any of the traps that come with free agency.
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