First Anthony Barr spurned the Jets on Tuesday morning, backing out of a deal that could have paid him anywhere between $14-$15 million a year, only to return to the Vikings instead.
Then former Broncos center Matt Paradis spurned Gang Green by inking a three-year, $27 million with the Carolina Panthers, after it looked like the Jets were making progress on a deal on Monday.
Now Le'Veon Bell is playing the Jets like a fiddle as he has yet to decide where he will ultimately sign, and the Jets have invoked a deadline for the former Steelers running back to make a decision.
Yup, it has been a bad 24 hours for the Jets. Think about it; when people put their heads down to sleep on Monday night, the Jets had linebackers Anthony Barr, CJ Mosley and wide receiver Jamison Crowder "locked up" with the prospect of potentially adding Bell and Paradis.
Now the Jets are just trying to save face.
You can blame the player agents all you want, but the fact is their job is to get the best deal possible for their clients. The Jets job is to lock up the deal and make sure pen touches paper. That hasn't happened.
The Jets and Mike Maccagnan have allowed three top free agent targets to take both he and the Jets for a ride.
This is not the first time the Jets have been taken for a ride. Last year, the Jets thought they had quarterback Kirk Cousins only to later find out that Cousins was intentionally using the Jets to drive up his price with the Minnesota Vikings. Cousins' decision to go to Minnesota turned into a blessing in disguise for the Jets who turned around and selected Sam Darnold in the draft.
How can the Jets make up for this? The Jets convinced themselves that Barr would be an edge rusher, even though he had never been an edge rusher in his NFL career. As a result the better pass rushers were off the board by the time Barr made his final decision. Now the Jets HAVE to draft an edge rusher next month.
What about center and running back? There are still some names out there like former Falcons running back Tevin Coleman, but talk about the Jets looking at other options has been pretty quiet thus far.
This is a mess. The only way Maccagnan can save face is if either A) Bell actually does sign with the Jets, or B) the Jets pull their offer to Bell, move on and address the holes that exist on this roster.
Bottom line is the Jets look like a franchise that nobody wants to be associated with. Whether that has to do with Adam Gase, Maccagnan or the Jets horrible reputation, or all of the above it doesn't matter. The Jets look bad.
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