Some quotes from Mike Tannenbaum on the signing of Mark Sanchez.

On being happy to get Mark Sanchez’s contract signed before training camp…

It’s a really good team effort. I would like to thank Dave Dunn and his host of representatives: Brian Murphy, Andrew Kessler and Mark’s brother Nick (Sanchez). Jackie Davidson and Ari Nissim really did a great job working with me and it was a good team effort on both sides. I think that the agreement works well. There was good give and take, like there always is. We are really comfortable with the agreement. I think that it is good for Mark and for us as well. Woody (Johnson) was really involved. I just want to thank him for all of his help and support. He was involved every step of the way and we are glad it is done. We think it was good for both sides.

On why the contract is five years instead of six years…

Without getting into all of the details, there were tradeoffs. Where we are today in 2009 we just felt that was the appropriate place. I think, overall, the deal is good for both sides.

On being one of the earliest the Jets have signed a first round pick…

I think that we said that (Bryan) Thomas was signed on June 20. We had some discussions a couple of weeks ago and I give them a lot of credit. We were trying to create a sense of urgency, even though it is early June. There was a lot of dialogue back-and-fourth with Rex (Ryan) and Woody (Johnson), Ari (Nissim), Jackie (Davidson) and myself talking to their guys. I think there was good, healthy dialogue. There was no need to wait if both sides could take that sense of urgency and come up with a deal that was good for both sides.

On Mark Sanchez saying that he wanted to sign early…

I recorded that so I played it back a couple of times (smiling). Every time they asked for something unreasonable I just played that. I would just say that Mark is a sincere person; I think that you get that feeling from him. You have two sides working in good faith. Sometimes you hear that some teams try to make draft day deals setting parameters. Quite frankly, we didn’t get on the clock until there were about two-and-a-half minutes left on draft day because of the complexities of the deal with Cleveland. When you make a trade involving players you have to put conditions in. If Kenyon Coleman fails his physical what does Cleveland get? It’s a pretty complicated conversation when you have 10 minutes on the clock. We didn’t have the fifth pick in the draft until there was about two-and-a-half minutes left to go. Did you get hit by a bus? Are you OK? We don’t really have time to get into in-depth negotiations. It was really more based on our understanding of Mark and (Dave) Dunn, who I think is a really good agent. What Mark said publicly he said privately as well. We didn’t really have a lot of time there to talk parameters because of the complexities of the trade with Cleveland.

On how this affects Thomas Jones’ and Leon Washington’s contract…

They’re compartmentalized, this was part of the working pool and those other two players (Jones and Washington) are both under contract. I’m glad they’re here. I can understand the question, but they’re really not related from a standpoint that one’s a rookie contract and those guys are veteran players.

On if he has physically signed the contract yet…

He’s doing that right now, and he’ll be signing for about another 45 minutes or so. The contract is 47 pages long. Just so you know, when you sign an NFL contract, you have to sign six sets of originals, so he’ll be signing about 300 pages. I think it will probably be worth it for him. He will be signing for awhile upstairs.

On contracts and the CBA…

It really has to do a lot with this being the last capped year and what you can guarantee and not guarantee. You have to fully guarantee money in the last capped year to have money guaranteed into non-capped years. There’s 30% growth in terms of going from the last capped year to an uncapped year, but you have 30% as well as 25% growth with rookie contracts. Each year of a rookie contract can only grow at 25%. Then there are other issues that come in relative to only being able to guarantee money for a certain number of years out. So the landing spots are pretty small, that’s the bad news. The good news is everyone is dealing with the same set of rules. All contracts will have mechanisms to make it work.

On if it is harder to complete a rookie or a veteran deal…

I think (it is) a little bit harder for a rookie deal. You’re limited to a certain number of team incentives. I think that market is what it is; everyone’s dealing with the same set of rules, so no one’s going to outgain the other person. It’s kind of a defined world in and of itself. With veterans, you have a bit more options out there. The menu’s a little bigger.

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