The Jets have not had much success keeping their homegrown talent in the building recently.
Jamal Adams forced his way out of New York before coming anywhere close to signing a second contract with the team that drafted him. The Jets shipped Leonard Williams to the crosstown rival Giants after a stretch of three largely disappointing seasons. Sam Darnold flopped even harder than Williams and was traded to the Panthers this offseason to clear the way for Zach Wilson.
Gang Green has largely failed to hang onto its homegrown talent — for one reason or another — in recent years. Could Marcus Maye be the one to buck that disturbing trend?
Maye is one of the few homegrown Jets players who has actually developed as expected recently. Adams reached the All-Pro ceiling many expected him to coming out of LSU, but his head got too big for his shoulders before Joe Douglas traded him. Maye has been the complete opposite in that sense, as he has turned into one of the better safeties in football while remaining grounded and not causing any turmoil in the locker room.
The Jets have just over two weeks to sign Maye to a contract extension or else he will play the 2021 season on a $10.6 million franchise tag. In other words, Maye day will either result in a payday or set up his eventual departure from New York.
Douglas and Maye’s representatives have been at contract negotiations for a while now, but it’s likely this will come down to the wire.
Maye’s contract situation is essentially a litmus test for Douglas. He has not inked a significant contract extension since taking over as New York’s general manager two years ago and locking the Florida product in long term would be a solid place to get the ball rolling. Maye is one of the Jets’ best defenders and a well-respected presence in the locker room. He is crucial to what Robert Saleh is trying to build on and off the field.
In other words, New York should be doing everything in its power to keep him.
How far will Douglas have to go to make that happen, though? Maye is not looking to be the highest-paid safety in football like his former running mate is, but he is likely going to command a contract with an average annual value anywhere between $11 and $14 million. The Browns gave John Johnson $11.25 million per year in free agency this offseason, which could potentially serve as a baseline for the structure of Maye’s contract extension with the Jets.
Douglas is known to drive a hard bargain in contract negotiations. In this instance, he might want to ease up a little bit in order to ensure a deal gets done. Douglas likes to build up his team through the draft, but what good does that method of roster construction do if productive homegrown talent is not retained?
Maye might not have been drafted by Douglas himself, but green and white are the only colors that have run through his blood throughout his NFL career. If the Jets put the right amount of money on the table this summer, there is a chance that remains the case for a long time and Maye goes down as the player to bring an end to a trend that has contributed to New York’s decade-long failures.
That’s not a bad outcome for either party involved.
[listicle id=656021]