So while the news that Thomas Jones signed with the Chiefs is yesterday’s news, I wanted to make sure everyone saw what he will earn in the next two seasons with the team:
Jones signed a two-year deal; he’ll get $3 million in 2010 and $2 million in 2011. He also is eligible to earn $500,000 in incentives.
Now, you can’t assume that he would have taken the same deal from the Jets before he was cut … but it seems that it wouldn’t have cost the team all that much to keep him … did the Jets do the right or wrong thing?
WROOOOOOONNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGG!!!!
I think TJ did the wrong thing. I hope he enjoys running behind the KC line for the next two years….
I think the jets organization likes this years rbs in the draft and didn’t want to carry a ton of backs on the team. Behind the jets’ line, we can do better with younger and cheaper
I have to assume that the Jets offered him a similar deal. I think he wasn’t going to return to the Jets after they let him go because he’s a very proud man, and I’m not saying that in a derogatory way. But he’s essentially going to the Chiefs to do exactly what he would have done with the Jets, so it’s a bit perplexing.
I agree with Brendan. A lot of times players are unwilling to accept less than they feel they deserve with their current team, but are willing to take a paycut with a new team. I’m sure the Jets would have been willing to bring him back at that price.
The rumors of TJ’s pride being hurt make this sense that the Jets probably offered a similar deal and he took the KC one….
TJ had every right to be insulted by the request to have his contract lowered but at the end of the day he will sit behind J Charles and an awful OL instead of swallowing his pride and getting more carries and more yards behind this one.
Sounds like another example of a lose-lose here
I think he just wants to start, and KC offers him a chance to do that. I don’t think Charles would be the #1 there, but plays a role similar to Leon.
Shonne Greene took his spot, and he didn’t want to be the 3rd RB on the team. Money has little to do with the difference here, IMO
PA Matt,
Charles is their #1, the guy averaged 6 yards per carry behind an awful O-line.
I am going to assume that last year when TJ wanted a new contract or restructure his contract- taking some of that 6mil due to him this year and bring a couple mil to him last year- the Jets said not doing a thing- so why would he want to restructure things now for us, when Tanny wouldnt do a thing for him last year. So I understand things from TJ’s standpoint.
I think $3m is a fair number for this year. I wonder whether the FO was weary of offering more than a 1 year contract since they clearly want to move in a new direction going forward.
Still, wish we could have kept him. Shonn Greene spent an awful lot of time on the shelf last year due to various ailments. And Leon was never a guy we gave more than 10-12 carries a game. So, even assuming Leon and Shonn are both healthy and effective, we still need to bring another guy for 10 or so carries a game.
I agree with the consensus. It was Jones that did the wrong thing (picking KC over a chance to return to the Jets). This proves that $5.8m would be much more than his market value.
I wanted to keep him, but if the Jets spend the money saved smartly then it should work out in their favor. If they don’t spend it at all, blame the owner, not the GM.
Right.
This is TJ’s last “big” contract and he made a business decision. Nothing to do with pride.
He rightly thought it more likely he would see the 2nd year money with the Chiefs than the Jets.
TJ knew what his market $ was/is and he tried to get above that from the Jets. Hoping they may feel “pressure” to resign him (see Johnny Damon).
TJ & Tanny both did the right thing.
If Kerry Rhodes was worth a 4th and 7th round pick (he wasn’t; he was worth more,) we should have been able to get at least that for Jones.
Again, we simply don’t know what happened. My guess is the Jets just didn’t want to commit any money to 2011 and Jones wanted a 2 year deal. To me, that is the most logical explanation because it makes sense from both sides. Of course Jones would want a 2 year deal at this point in his career if he could get it. From the Jets standpoint, it also makes sense that they wouldn’t want to give him two years. A year from now they will be dealing with the prospect of trying to resign new deals to Revis, Brick, Mangold, and maybe Edwards and Cromartie. Maybe there is no bad guy in this one. Just a business situation where their interests simply didn’t match. That’s what it looks like to me.
Good luck, TJ. From one of the best lines, to the worst, for what? An extra million?
J Charles 1100yds. T Jones 1400yds = overrated
This was set up when TJ tried to bust out of his contract last year. Words were said, Shonn was drafted, they ran him over and over, he was given a take-it-or-leave-it, and he left it
Still a good move to cut him. He was too expensive and we need players to win the in the playoffs and late in the season. Yes, he got that big fourth down for us. But at the same token, if I remember correctly, that hole was so big the first person to even touch him was after the first down marker. Besides that, we did he do – other than “fall apart at the seams” – for us at the end of the year?
jmac- no team would have given the jets a 4th and 7th and paid him the money he was owed for this season. how many teams were even interested in him??
PA Matt- Brandon is right. Charles averaged 121 yards per game rushing in his 8 starts- he is a stud. TJ is gonna be a solid veteran backup for him.
“Fall apart at the seams” is fast becoming the “taking care of bidness” of this season. Shall I get some t-shirts printed?
Good riddens Thomas Jones, no more of you running into the back of your lineman. He had average speed and did nothing special except he hardly fumbled the rock.
As much as we ran the ball this year it shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone that TJ was wearing down. We did not start the two back system really still the playoffs…that’s a tremendous load for him to carry. The team needs to find another back to go with Greene, who hasn’t even carried the load of a whole season yet, and Leon who we all know is coming off an injury. Thought it was the wrong move. Especially with leon being a ?
Is any of the money in his new contract guaranteed? Seems to me like he’ll get his $3m this year and then who knows?
Still would’ve preferred to have kept him but if he wouldn’t budge on a 2nd year or taking less for this year then it’s on him.
I bet the 3m is all guaranteed and treated as salary so that it all counts against the uncapped year.
I doubt anything beyond that is guaranteed, so they can cut him at the end of the season with no cap implications if he doesn’t play well.
I just dont see why we couldnt find a way to bring him back for the same money.
JR,
We probably tried. That’s the type of deal that many people here and many sports writers speculated he’d been offered from the Jets.
If the Jets’ last offer was (basically) the same as KC’s, that means TJ chose his pride over running behind a great offensive line (not to mention a much better chance at the playoffs). Based on everything I’ve heard about TJ’s character, I’m really surprised by that. Well, wish him the best, and hope we can get a decent back in the draft or during August cuts.
JR & Brendan – if that’s how it played out and TJ chose KC, then he is a fool. Pride is one thing but that would be plain dumb. A backup on a good team with a great Oline or a backup on KC for the same money, seems like a decision that should take about .03 milliseconds to make.
Totally understand where Rhodes is coming from.
In an earlier article, you noted that he was the second oldest starter on the team (after Ellis) coming into the 2009 season. It seems like the Baltimore Boys immedately took the reigns on leading the defense, and that must’ve really burned Rhodes up.
Anyone who’s been on a team where new guys come on and impliedly usurp your leadership role knows how cruddy that feels. However, Rhodes should have had the wherewithall to know that his comments would be sound-bytes for the rags. Perhaps, he just didn’t care.
based on everything we’ve seen so far this year – dumping rhodes for almost nothing, letting TJ walk, lettiing wallace wright walk, and the potential to lose key guys such as feeley, leon and douglas….i think it is not safe to assume the jets offered him a similar deal. they have already shown they are willing to part with key guys because they dont want to pony up the money. whether that is because of the economy or whatnot remains to be seen.
even with the addition of Cro – this team without TJ, Douglas, Wright, and Feeley will look a lot different next year. im not saying the sky is falling, but when you are handcuffed by final 8 rules, i dont understand why the team isnt making more of an effort to sign our own players
If Rex wants to take over the NY fanbase…..Mr T and Woody better have a plan here…..
If he realized this was all he’d get on the open market, I’m sure he would’ve been glad to restructure his contract with the Jets for less. Assuming he wasn’t, Jets did the right thing to let him go– that’s too much money.
Did the Jets do the right thing? Yes. Running backs are fungible unless you are talking about a handful of elite players, which Thomas Jones was not. It’s also a position for which good value is available in the middle rounds and draft picks can step in and perform right away, unlike, say, WR or CB. Jones would be a backup next year with the Jets. You can get solid performance from a backup for a lot less money than Jones was asking or what he got from KC. The only thing that gives me pause is that he was a leader whom guys looked up to, but the offense has other guys who can step up as leaders and the “rah rah” aspect of leadership is overrated anyway.
This isn’t intended as a knock on TJ, who seems like a great teammate and solid citizen. Economics aside, I’d love to keep him on the team. But to sustain long term success, the team has to make moves like this.
This is really a Lose-Lose for Jets and TJ. The Jets probably offered him a comparable deal.
So now, instead of having a shot at getting a ring before his career is over, he gets to take his pride to KC where they will likely not make the playoffs in the next two years.
Let’s hope Shonn Green can stay healthy for 16+ games and Leon makes a full recovery. I doubt we’ll draft a RB, unless someone really good falls to us. We need youth on both O & D lines.
As I said on another thread, it’s a bit useless to speculate about TJ’s motives for signing with KC, and not resigning with us. We (and the press) are creating this whole pride story, when we have absolutely no evidence that it is at all true.
We don’t know, for instance, if Mike T matched KC’s two-year offer of $5 million, plus another $500,000 in incentives.
And we don’t know what the behind-the-scenes dynamic has been between the FO and TJ—mostly because Jones has too much class to talk publicly about that sort of thing.
So, as Bent said on another thread: We don’t know either way, so we can’t really bash or defend the FO or TJ, simply because we don’t know what really happened behind the scenes.
Having said that, though, hearing that TJ had signed with KC was like a kick in the gut.
Rhodes and TJ were all about money .. I’m okay with all of this .. all part of this big picture .. I could get 1,000 yards with our offensive line ..
It was the right thing to do. Keeping TJ at $6 million per year to play a back up role would have been a waste of millions of dollars. It’s just unrealistic to expect a front office to do that. If TJ had a comparable offer from the Jets and decided to sign with KC anyhow, then I am very disappointed. “Warriors” don’t willingly decide to play with an inferior team and I thought TJ was a “warrior.”
Everyone forgets ryan didn’t make manÝ moves last year brought in a couple key guys and 3 draft picks. He did great with what mangini left behind. He came in one year and dominated. , now rex is making this defence his. I’m loving every bit of this.
One point that should be made here, I think.
Look at the way Rhodes left us—hurling accusations in the press, whining that he was made a “target” and a “scapegoat,” whining that he wasn’t the “focal point” of the defense, that the coaches liked other players better, whining that he wasn’t asked him to “run the defense.”
And look at the way TJ left us. Without a word of complaint.
Just one more reminder (if we needed it): Thomas Jones is a class act.
I think we should take a look at the reality of the RB position on the Jets outside of S.G.. I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Jets minus L.W. and obviously T.J.. The reason why I say this is that the draft is deep in RB’s who if someone should sign L.W. will fork over a 2nd round pick. Now the Jets could sign a rookie to a 4 year deal worth 2 million. Saving themselves 3-5 million on a T.J. or L.W.. T.J. was older and less effective at the end of the season, L.W. may “never” return to form. No sir, the Jets are playing this one right.
Both parties did the what was in their best interest. Mutual business arrangement and understanding.
This is purely a business decision by the Jets. They felt that TJ has only maybe one year left of “good” footbal. For the Jets the $ did not match the 2 year investment ergo goodbye. I also believe that they feel that the O-line is the best in the NFL and therefore if they can get even an “average” running back they will be o.k. Don’t be surprised if the Jets draft a RB in the later rounds. Also, don’t be surprise if the Jets acquire more picks.
Ben Nevis, not that I needed reminding, but excellent point about TJ’s class.
This is exactly why he was so respected in the locker room and will be missed by his teammates and the fans, more than they are willing to admit right now. Absence makes the heart grow fonder.
Jones will have a mediocre year behind that line …he was way overrated as he had the top line in the NFL which Greene will prove with a great year …..Jones would rush for no gain half the time he carried as he has no vision and would eventually break runs due to the amount of carries he got behind the line he had….. see ya jones…..
Based on what we know now, I would say I am really disappointed that we couldn’t get a similar deal done with TJ. I am a big fan of continuity, esp on offense, and would err on its side over modest talent upgrade/money savings. And as I have stated before I am a fan of his leadership/intangibles for young team that is going to rely on run-first offense. Measuredly optimistic on Cro trade, skeptical but hopeful on Rhodes deal. Bottom line though – we are only a few moves into the off-season chess match right now and I have faith in the FO to use draft and free agency – with our Final Four limitatation – to upgrade our current roster. The TJ news did hurt, however.
I say the wrong thing