Sunday Morning Links Comin’ Down
Posted on May 4th, 2008 by R_in_CT
Grab a cup of coffee, put your feet up and browse . . .
- Rookie camp continues this weekend — read about it here, here and here.
- Cimini profiles Dustin Keller. (fixed, thanks Vbsiena!)
- E-Bola’s long-promised Erik Ainge piece finally sees the light of the web.
- Canny tries to hang the “next Chrebet” tag on Danny Woodhead. McManus also weighs in with another “Little Big Man“-type piece.
- Interesting tidbit from ESPN’s John Clayton on Dewayne Robertson — apparently the Broncos signed him to a 6-year $24 million deal, which is only contingent on him making the team. (Is there a question? Apparently.) The Jets can get as high as a 3rd-rounder back.
- And finally, Cimini offers an “insider’s take” on the Baker situation that isn’t pro-Baker, which of course he does everything to distance himself from, including hiding it in his blog and putting it in quotes so we’ll know it’s somebody else talking.
Filed under: Main Page
Baker claims he is only making $683,000 when everyone knows he is making $1.65 million. So if he lied about his salary, he is lying about the JETS promises. And according to a JETS source quoted by Dave Hutchinson (Star Ledger) the JETS never promised Baker anything.
By the way, with 41 catches, Baker was the 20th highest TE last year. And at $1.65 million he is being paid more than fairly for an average at best TE.
Is the “Justin” Keller a reference to the 81 jersey he wears and Justin McCareins?
No — the “Justin” Keller is just me typing before waking up all the way. Thanks for the catch!
I’m getting concerned about the reputation the Jets are getting with their players. Kendall, Moore, Coles, and now Baker all said the Jets promised them reworked deals. Whether the players are truthful, or just mis-understanding “Clemens-speak) the truth, it doesn’t matter. The issue is that the Jets have disgruntled players, and in either case, that’s a poor job on their part. Either they have to stop making promises they won’t keep, or they have to communicate more clearly with the players.
Look, I don’t have too much sympathy for the players, and this certainly didn’t hurt the Jets in the FA period this year, but sooner or later, this type of “misunderstanding” will come back to haunt them, and no one will want to play here.
Johnny Cash references rule.
GlockNSoul read this,
Here’s one person’s viewpoint:
“No team or front office, especially not Mike Tannenbaum and Eric Mangini, promises a player that if they go out and play well that they will rip up their contract and give them more money. This is a locker-room cancer that is promulgated by agents and certain locker-room lawyer players. In the NFL, like life, everything is about timing. The biggest difference in the NFL is that the time frame is reduced to “lately.” As in, what have you done for me lately? If your timing is fortunate, and you perform well when you have leverage – specifically, in a year near the end of your contract – you get paid.
Read the whole thing at cimini’s blog
Trading in my Chrebet jersey for a Danny Woodhead?
After readin Cimini’s take. Baker is full-o-crap, basically leveraging one decent season and holding guaranteed money against Tangini’s temple.
As much as we can benefit by his balanced blocking/catching ability within our new three-headed tight end attack (Bubba Franks, Dustin Keller), I say trade the greedy ingrate!
Shut up and play!
I’m constantly amazed at this website. As a Jets fan in Los Angeles, this is as close as I can get to the real deal… and I’m always surprised by the wide range of information available here. Keep on rocking guys — no matter how much damage it does to your marriage or relationship with your family. J-E-T-S! JETS! JETS! JETS!
From what I know about Mangini and Tannenbaum, I wouldnt be surpirsed if they did offer Baker more money and are just denying it. The Kendall debacle was beyond repulsive. He had been a centerpiece on the o-line while being underpaid, ask for a little more money and he gets traded.
I’ll be the first to admit that Baker maybe out of line, but the truth is, if the jets cut him then what are we accomplishing. We are just creating a hole on our roster that we will have to fill. If anyone thinks the Jets can go into next season with simply Bubba Franks and Dustin Keller on the depth chart, you’re out of your mind. Chris Baker is an everage TE, yes, but hes still one of our best offensive players.
pete kendall was an average offensive lineman at best who talked himself out of two other jobs. In no way was that clown the center piece of the offensive line or for that matter, any NFL offensive line. usually when a statement like that is made, the player has at least been an alternate in hawaii. the only comparison that someone could make here is that kendall and baker have the same agent.
JayM, read the whole Cimini article, but there’s no avoiding the fact that we’ve now had 4 players in less than 3 years who have spewed the same crap. If it’s locker room cancer, Jets need some serious chemo.
Mike, if Baker was one of our better offensive players, he would have had a lot of offers when he was a FA. He got none but ours. If he was a late bloomer, but one of our best players, someone would have offered us a draft pick too good to turn down, knowing Baker wanted out. We got no such offers.
We won’t cut him. Franks or Keller could get hurt. Besides, we already paid half his salary for this year.
The only way Baker gets out of town is if someone offers us a third round pick in the next draft. I wouldn’t mind if Baker held his breath waiting.
Harlan
Turd burglar, look what happened when the Jets got rid of him. The o-line virtually collapsed with the merry go round of guards that tried to replace him. The running game was terrible for the whole year because guys were getting hit 1-2 times before they even got to the line of scrimage. Plus, in his last season with the Jets, he had to virtually babysit the 2 rookies on either side of him (Mangold and D’Brick.) Just because he wasnt in a pro bowl doesnt mean he was not vital to the teams performance.
Baker will be here, unhappy. Good, that’s what he deserves. Or he can sit out and really screw himself over. Great article in the Cimini blog, I wish he had the guts to print that in the paper or – gasp – write something like that himself.
I’m so glad to have read Clayton’s short piece on Drob. Everyone was saying that he had to play in at least 65% of the snaps for us to get a draft pick, but according to Clayton, as long as he makes the team we get something and it goes as high as a 3rd rounder if he plays alot. That makes so much more sense, I knew that Tanny wasn’t dumb enough to give him away for nothing. As usual, the real deal comes out days after the rumors.