The Jets try making a smart move on for size.
- This is the type of move you see the good NFL franchises make all the time.
For the past 15 years, the Jets have had a habit of doing things completely differently from how the best teams in the NFL usually operate. Then they have acted shocked when things haven’t worked out.
The formula for success in the NFL is pretty simple. Executing the formula effectively might be hard, but knowing the formula isn’t.
A key part of the formula is drafting quality players and keeping them on the team through their prime years.
Former general manager Joe Douglas certainly had his share of faults, but one major positive from his tenure was the talent he added to the roster in the 2021 and 2022 NFL Drafts. These classes provided the Jets with a real base of young talent for the first time in recent memory.
At his introductory press conference a few months back, general manager Darren Mougey stated that extending the team’s young talent was a top priority. That’s easy to say. Practically every new general manager in the league says something similar at their introductory presser. The proof comes from action.
Good teams are built in the NFL through developing and keeping homegrown talent. I’m sure as a Jets fan you can appreciate the truth in that statement. The big names in free agency tend to be guys like Le’Veon Bell (stars who are only available because they are risky), Trumaine Johnson (declining good players), and Allen Lazard (overrated players). The true franchise changes like Patrick Mahomes and Joe Burrow never make free agency. You need to build internally. That’s how the good teams do it.
Perhaps the Jets are starting to learn.
2. On paper you can argue this contract overpays Garrett Wilson, but that argument falls apart once you consider the cost of him leaving.
Garrett’s new contract gives him an average annual salary of $32.5 million per year. That’s the fifth highest annual salary in the league per Over the Cap’s data.
To an extent I can understand somebody having reservations over this contract from that standpoint. Garrett Wilson is making top five money. Is he a top five receiver?
I don’t think this is really the right way to frame the situation, however.
Imagine Garrett Wilson left. How would you replace him?
The best wide receiver to change teams in free agency this year was Stefon Diggs. He’s 31, coming off a torn ACL, and known to be a bit of a difficult locker room guy. The second best wide receiver to change teams was DeAndre Hopkins. He just turned 33 and is coming off the least productive year of his career. The third best wide receiver to change teams was Diontae Johnson, a player who was waived by two Playoff teams in the span of a month last year.
When you look at the alternatives, there’s a good chance you quickly see why Garrett Wilson is worth $32.5 million.
3. This contract is less historic than people are claiming.
In multiple reports last night, I saw the claim that Garrett Wilson is the first wide receiver in NFL history to get a $31 million annual salary three years into his career.
I have sympathy for the people who wrote that. You always want to find some interesting note to throw into an article.
That factoid is irrelevant, however. Every year you hear about “record-setting” contracts in the NFL. There’s a simple reason for that. The salary cap keeps going up.
I’m not even sure that you need an Economics 101 course to understand this concept. If the number of players stay the same on each team’s roster every year (53), and teams have more money to spend on those players, salaries keep getting higher.
The cap is set based on the amount of money the league makes. If the league makes more money, the cap goes up. That means salaries go up.
A better way to look at this is as a percentage of the salary cap. Over the Cap keeps this data. If you click the link, you can see that Wilson’s salary is 11.6% of the cap. That is almost identical to the 11.7% of the cap Amon-Ra St. Brown got from Detroit in his extension a year ago upon completing his third season.
4. Waiting only makes the cost go up.
I was happy to see the Jets get proactive with this contract. They almost never are when it’s contract time for their high end players. It has been this way since the team traded Keyshawn Johnson three months into Woody Johnson’s tenure as owner. The Jets let contract situations linger. Sometimes it costs them good players. Almost always the approach leads to unnecessary drama.
There’s also a more tangible aspect to this. I refer you to the last point I made. The league’s revenue continues to rise year after year. That drives the salary cap higher, which in turn drives player salaries higher. If you think $32.5 million is a lot of money for a wide receiver, just wait a year and see how high salaries go. The Jets almost certainly would have paid more if they had dragged this out.
There were other dangers as well. Without a new deal, Garrett Wilson would have been a free agent following the 2025 season. He’s been part of a lot of losing and dealt with bad quarterback play. Had the Jets waited, there’s no guarantee Wilson would still be amenable to an extension. They would have run the risk that he was eyeing the door. That truly would have been the nightmare scenario. Now we won’t need to worry about it.
5. Sauce Gardner should be the next Jets star to receive an extension.
By all accounts, the Jets seem to be making progress negotiating an extension with the other player they selected in the top ten of the 2022 NFL Draft, Sauce Gardner. It’s fair to say almost all of the point made about Wilson’s extension would apply to him as well. It’s time to get that deal done.