Tag: Trumaine Johnson

Joe Douglas proving he’s prudent in first offseason as Jets GM

The Jets seemingly missed out on big names in the first few days of NFL free agency, but that isn’t a failure on Joe Douglas’ part.

The Jets figured to be major players during the first wave of free agency. But in his first full offseason as general manager, Joe Douglas has shown that he won’t make the same mistakes as his predecessors and spend wildly on big names. Instead, as the new league officially began Wednesday, it looks like Douglas is hoping to find value wherever he can rather than overpay.

While other teams scooped up top-tier cornerbacks, linebackers and offensive linemen for boatloads of money, the Jets appeared to strikeout. Jack Conklin, Dante Fowler, James Bradberry and Graham Glasglow were the most surprising names to see the Jets miss on.

A lot of these failures to sign appear to be price-related, though. While Mike Maccagnan handed out money like he was playing Monopoly, Douglas appears to have a number in his mind and is unwavering in his evaluation. Take a look at Conklin and Fowler, for instance. The Jets reportedly never exceeded the Browns’ offer of three years, $42 million, nor were they willing to give Fowler the three-year, $48 million deal he got from the Falcons. Teams simply have to shell out cash for the players they want. Douglas, however, seems to have his eye on value more than anything.

By looking at the transactions and contracts, it seems to be by design.

Douglas looks to be a prudent and frugal team builder. All of his deals thus far appear to be team-friendly and give him lots of flexibility after 2020. He gave a three-year, $27.3 million contract with $13.7 million guaranteed to George Fant, a raw but promising lineman. In reality, the contract is really only a one-year, $9.25 million deal – much more manageable if Fant doesn’t pan out. Brian Poole is coming back on a ridiculously low one-year, $5 million deal after grading as one of the best cornerbacks in the league in 2019 and lineman Alex Lews re-signed on a three-year, $18.6 million deal with only $6 million guaranteed.

The only free agent Douglas has given a lot of money to so far is center Connor McGovern, and for good reason. McGovern, who signed a three-year, $27 million contract with $18 million guaranteed, proved to be one of the best centers in the league thanks to his durability, production and lack of penalties. Douglas saw value in that and paid what was needed to bring McGovern into the fold.

It’s not a failure on Douglas’ part to be unwilling to chew up cap space on free agents. That’s how the Jets have gotten into the same spiral of destitute over the last decade. Just look at the Trumaine Johnson deal, which will cost the Jets money this season even though he won’t play for them. Douglas proved already he’s willing to lose out on marquee free agents and settle for mid-tier players on team-friendly contracts. Don’t forget, he also has a couple of early-round picks to use properly in next month’s draft.

We’re only a few days into free agency and the Jets still have over $41 million in cap space. That’s a win for a team that is still building and a general manager who likes to invest carefully.  

Jets bring Brian Poole back on bargain deal

The Jets have re-signed slot cornerback Brian Poole to a 1-year deal worth $5 million.

The Jets still need some help on the outside, but their slot cornerback will remain the same in 2020.

The Jets are-signing Brian Poole, according to multiple reports. He’s getting a one-year deal worth $5 million, according to the New York Post’s Brian Costello.

It’s another prove-it deal for Poole after he signed a one-year deal worth $3.5 million last offseason. Poole was the Jets’ best cornerback in 2019. In 14 games, Poole had 48 total tackles, one safety, five pass breakups, one interception and one touchdown.

The Jets couldn’t afford to lose Poole. He was the best slot corner on the open market and they weren’t going to get anybody better, especially at that price. It was thought that Poole would get a bigger deal elsewhere, but it looks like he took a bit of a discount to stay in New York.

With Poole back, the Jets have at least one known starting cornerback on the roster. Trumaine Johnson is going to be cut and Darryl Roberts could join him. Bless Austin was decent in the short time he was on the field last year, but he is still just a second-year player,.

More than likely, Poole will be the longest-tenured cornerback on the roster heading into 2020.

Jets to officially release CB Trumaine Johnson as free agency begins

With free agency starting at 4 p.m. on Wednesday, the Jets will officially part ways with CB Trumaine Johnson after a tumultuous Jets stint.

The Jets will officially release CB Trumaine Johnson Wednesday, according to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport.

Parting ways with Johnson has been expected since the end of the 2019 season. The Jets informed Johnson of his impending release back on March 9 but had to wait for the new CBA to be voted on.

With the new CBA ratified by the players, the Jets can designate Johnson as a June 1 cut and spread his cap hit over two years. New York does not have to absorb the entire dead cap hit of $12 million this offseason. By releasing Johnson, the Jets will save $3 million in cap space.

Johnson never lived up to the five-year, $72.5 million deal that then-general manager Mike Maccagnan signed him to in 2018. He will go down as of the worst free-agent signings in franchise history.

With Johnson set to be released, it’s only a matter of time before the Jets make decisions on Brian Winters, Darryl Roberts, Josh Bellamy, Avery Williamson and Quincy Enunwa as they attempt to find more cap space to be active in free agency. In the meantime, New York can do a lot of cap maneuvering or restructuring.

Beginning at 4 p.m. Wednesday, teams can release players with a post-June 1 designation, which would allow them to spread dead money over two seasons. That will afford teams more money on the 2020 cap as they continue to work through free agency.

Should the Jets target free agent cornerback Xavier Rhodes?

Xavier Rhodes doesn’t fit schematically with the Jets and his bad seasons with the Vikings wouldn’t bode well for his ability in New York.

Once touted as the next shutdown corner, Xavier Rhodes’ production fell off dramatically the past two seasons.

He became known as one of the worst cover cornerbacks in the league in 2019, prompting the Vikings to release him last week. The Jets, however, are desperate and can use all the help they can get at cornerback. That makes Rhodes the ultimate high-risk, high-reward signing for them.

While Rhodes may have made the Pro Bowl this past season, his numbers didn’t exactly look impressive. He didn’t grab a single interception but managed to record a career-high 63 combined tackles – likely because he allowed a whopping 75.6 percent catch rate and an 84.3 percent completion rate when targeted, according to Player Profiler. Rhodes also allowed a 132.7 passer rating, was burned on 3.5 percent of his targets and gave up 12 yards per receptions.

Yikes.

But if you rewind the clock back to 2016 and 2017, you’d see a different Rhodes, one who combined for seven interceptions over those two seasons and averaged 54 tackles with 10 passes defended per season. He looked like the next Darrelle Revis at times and signed a massive contract with the Vikings the summer before the 2017 season. 

Something changed between 2017 and 2018, though, and Rhodes has looked worse ever since. Part of the problem could be attributed to his age – he’ll turn 30 in June – but he’s also shown an inability to perform in the Vikings’ new defensive coverage schemes.

Touted as a physical corner who excelled at punishing receivers at the line of scrimmage, Rhodes appeared poorly positioned in the Vikings’ zone-heavy defense in 2019. Minnesota employed a zone defense on almost 70 percent of its defensive snaps and specifically a Cover-2 zone on 21.3 percent of snaps. Some ascribed his abysmal performance to that defense, but Rhodes also looked bad in man coverage. He ranked at the bottom of FiveThirtyEight.com’s Opponent Receptions Plus/Minus for man coverage with -10.52 – meaning he’s rarely expected to force an incompletion and he actually allows more than any other cornerback. That checks out considering his catch rate and competition rate stated earlier.

None of this bodes well for how he’d fit into Gregg Williams’ defense. The Jets defensive coordinator used a lot of man coverage but leaned on zone coverage when his cornerbacks underperformed last season. It’s a big reason why Trumaine Johnson didn’t last more than one season with Williams and why the Jets are searching for new cornerbacks to play with Bless Austin.

To make matters worse, Rhodes was also one of the most heavily penalized cornerbacks last season. He tied for fourth-most in the league with eight penalties – four of which were for pass interference. For reference, three of the seven penalties Darryl Roberts committed were pass interference. The Jets need fundamentally-sound cornerbacks who don’t ruin defensive drives with penalties, and Rhodes was exactly that in 2019.

It would be a tremendous risk for the Jets to bring in Rhodes after such a spectacularly bad season given his obvious drop in ability, production and efficiency. But if Joe Douglas can look past the bad and see what Rhodes once was and can still be, he could be a great signing for the secondary-starved Jets. The Bills gave Josh Norman a one-year, $6 million prove-it deal after back-to-back horrid seasons in Washington and a similar deal for Rhodes would mitigate the risk. 

Schematically, though, Rhodes isn’t an ideal fit for Williams and the Jets. New York would be better served looking elsewhere for cornerback help.

New CBA allows Jets to divide Trumaine Johnson’s dead cap hit over 2 years

Under the new collective bargaining agreement, the Jets can divide Trumaine Johnson’s dead cap hit over two seasons.

The Jets were waiting for a new collective bargaining agreement to be passed before cutting ties with Trumaine Johnson. Now that that’s happened, Gang Green stands to benefit from Johnson’s imminent release.

The NFLPA voted on the proposed CBA by the NFL and voted 1019-959 in favor of ratifying the deal. Under the agreement, there will be a 17-game regular season, an expanded playoff field, an increase in players’ revenue share, former player benefits and a 10-year labor peace.

A new collective bargaining agreement also clarifies the Jets’ situation with Johnson. With a new CBA in place, the Jets can designate Johnson as a post-June 1 cut, which allows them to divide his $12 million dead cap hit over two seasons.

In 2020, the cornerback’s dead cap hit will be $4 million, while in 2021 it will be $8 million. Under the previous CBA, the Jets would’ve been responsible for Johnson’s entire $12 million charge in 2020.

Now the Jets will have an extra $8 million in cap space for this upcoming free agency period, which officially begins on Wednesday. The league’s tampering window opens at noon on Monday.

Johnson’s Jets career was an utter disaster. He played 17 games over two seasons and only made the secondary worse. Johnson had 57 total tackles, seven pass defenses, five interceptions and one touchdown in two seasons with Gang Green.

Signing Johnson to a five-year deal worth $72.5 million was one of the worst contracts in Jets history. Now his time in New York will come to an end in a matter of days.

Jets should be wary of investing in this free agent cornerback class

Jets Wire breaks down why handing out big money to the top free agent cornerbacks this offseason might not be such a good idea.

Joe Douglas has to do something to address the Jets’ gaping holes at cornerback.

New York’s first-year general manager is tasked with completely overhauling the position this offseason. He got a head start on things by telling free agent bust Trumaine Johnson he will be released. Now, it’s time for Douglas and his team to zone in on which corners they want to target in free agency.

Douglas will have plenty of cornerbacks to pick from, which is a good thing. There is plenty of variety on this year’s market and plenty of pieces that can be plugged into Gregg Williams’ defense rather seamlessly.

One problem, though: this year’s cornerback class is good, not great. Byron Jones and James Bradberry are nice players, but they are not the typical superstar corners that make it to free agency. This leaves the Jets and Douglas in a precarious position, as they will have to decide who exactly is worth spending on.

If Douglas wants to land one of this year’s top free agent cornerbacks, that means paying big-time money to slightly above average players. That might seem like a harsh take on Jones and Bradberry, but there is a reason the Cowboys and Panthers did not show much inclination to re-sign them. Their production simply does not warrant the money they are in line to receive.

A potential bidding war for Jones could take his average annual salary north of $16 million. That is a lot of money for a cornerback who has not intercepted a single pass since transitioning to the position two years ago.

Bradberry, meanwhile, is seeking a deal worth more than $15 million per year. Is a corner that allowed completions on 59 percent of passes thrown his way last season really worth that much money?

Breaking the bank to land “top” free agent corners is a dangerous practice — one that ultimately cost Mike Maccagnan. In the former general manager’s defense, at least he was spending lucrative amounts of money to land Darrelle Revis and Trumaine Johnson, two players who came to New York with the reputation of being among the best in the game when they signed.

If Douglas gives in, throws money at either Jones or Bradberry, and they wind up being busts, what’s his excuse? Neither is worth what they will sign for once free agency kicks off. The market will dictate they are, but film and past production say otherwise.

Douglas seems like he is wise enough to avoid the mistake of overpaying a player who is not worth the money. Then again, it’s his first free agency on the job. Who knows how he is going to approach things with over $50 million to spend. The need to make a move for the sake of making a move could also be enough for Douglas to abandon his traditional way of thinking.

Either way, the Jets should be wary of spending big bucks on this year’s “top” free agent cornerbacks. If there is ever a free agent cornerback class to invest big money in, it’s not this one.

Ex-Saints trade target Trumaine Johnson to be cut by Jets

The New Orleans Saints tried to add Malcolm Butler, Josh Norman, and Trumaine Johnson, but fell short against teams like the New York Jets.

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Once upon a time, Trumaine Johnson was one of several high-profile cornerbacks the New Orleans Saints tried to bring into the fold. They made an inquiry about trading for him while he was playing for the Los Angeles Rams, back in 2017; Johnson didn’t want to sign a long-term contract with New Orleans, so the Rams declined the offer. It was one swing-and-a-miss in a sequence of them by the Saints, who also attempted to recruit then-free agent Josh Norman and trade for Malcolm Butler.

Instead, Johnson inked a five-year, $72.5 million deal with the New York Jets, earning $45 million in guarantees. He collected $34 million of it before poor performance cut his Jets career short. On Monday, Manish Mehta of the New York Daily News reported that Johnson would be released; Brian Costello of the New York Post confirmed it.

Johnson’s pending release might be part of a pattern. Norman was recently released by the Washington Redskins, who inked a five-year, $75 million agreement with him after the Carolina Panthers rescinded the franchise tag. On Monday, Norman signed with the Buffalo Bills and head coach Sean McDermott, in a reunion with his old defensive coordinator in Charlotte.

While Butler hasn’t been released yet, he hasn’t lived up to his billing since parting ways with the New England Patriots. He underwhelmed in the first season of his five-year, $61.25 million contract before going down with an injury in 2019. Now, the Titans can save more than $7.3 million against the salary cap by cutting him, should they need the extra resources with Derrick Henry and Ryan Tannehill both headed for free agency.

So what happened to the Saints after failing to land any of those three big-name cornerbacks? They ended up drafting Marshon Lattimore in the first round of the 2017 draft. He won Defensive Rookie of the Year and has been named to two Pro Bowls in his first three years, and should have his fifth-year option for 2021 picked up soon (it’s valued at a little over $11.6 million).

And the draft pick once bartered for Johnson? That 2017 second-rounder ended up being spent on free safety Marcus Williams, the franchise leader in interceptions over the last decade. Whether you chalk it up to skilled evaluating or simply luck — the Saints have set themselves up in a great position with cheap, homegrown talent after a series of strikeouts in search of the elusive, expensive home-run hit.

Maybe the Saints will be interested in Johnson again, despite his struggles with top-tier corner responsibilities in New York. They wouldn’t need him to man up against the best receivers every week; that’s what Lattimore and Janoris Jenkins are here for. What the Saints need is experienced depth behind those two starters, and it’s possible Johnson has changed his attitude after seeing the Saints succeed from afar the last few years (and after cashing in with the Jets). But the Saints may be better off looking for younger, less-expensive options, maybe through this year’s draft class.

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Jets tell CB Trumaine Johnson he’s getting released after 2 years in New York

On Monday, the Jets informed oft-injured and disgruntled CB Trumaine Johnson that they plan to release him when free agency begins.

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The Jets have informed Trumaine Johnson that they plan to release him when free agency begins, according to The Daily News’ Manish Mehta and multiple other reports.

This, of course, comes as no surprise. Johnson disappointed under two coaching staffs in New York, so this news was hardly unexpected. At no point did Johnson live up to the five-year, $72.5 million deal that then-general manager Mike Maccagnan signed him to in 2018.

While the Jets informed Johnson that he will be released, the move is not yet official. New York will wait for the official outcome of the CBA vote before making Johnson a cap casualty. By cutting Johnson, the Jets will save $3 million, but the remaining cap hit depends on the outcome of the CBA vote.

If a new CBA is approved for the 2020 league year, the Jets can designate Johnson as a June 1 cut and spread his cap hit over two years. Without a new CBA, the Jets would be forced to absorb the entire hit of $12 million.

Either way, it was time for Johnson to go. In addition to creating distractions off the field, the corner rarely impressed on it. In 17 games with the Jets, Johnson had five interceptions. He made upwards of $34 million in two seasons and was benched twice in the process.

Jets should approach Byron Jones with caution

Jets Wire breaks down why New York needs to approach any potential pursuit of Byron Jones with extreme caution.

The Jets are no strangers to paying free agent cornerbacks the big bucks.

Look no further than the $142.5 million New York has spent luring supposedly elite corners to the Big Apple in the last five years. The first $70 million of that went to Darrelle Revis in 2015. The other $72.5 million went to Trumaine Johnson three years later. New York only paid out a combined $73 million in guaranteed money ($39 million to Revis, $34 million to Johnson), but the point still stands.

Both of those contracts were handed out by Mike Maccagnan. Their failures played a major role in his firing last June. If Joe Douglas can learn anything from his predecessor, it’s that throwing money at a hole doesn’t automatically fill it.

That doesn’t mean New York’s first-year general manager will definitely stray away from using his salary cap space to entice one of the market’s top corners, though.

This offseason, the Jets need a lockdown cornerback to come in and right the ship more now than ever. Not only was Johnson awful in 2019, so were the rest of the players on the depth chart with the exception of one. It took only one season for Darryl Roberts to prove Maccagnan made yet another massive mistake giving him a three-year contract. The rest of New York’s corners were either inexperienced or inconsistent. Only Brian Poole was solid, but he’s heading for free agency and his return to One Jets Drive is up in the air.

Enter Byron Jones — the corner who could make last year’s struggles at the position a distant memory. Jones is only 27. He’s a freak athlete with range and coverage ability who is entering his prime. In theory, he’s the perfect candidate to come to the Jets and blossom into one of the best defensive backs in football.

Jones might seem like a sexy signing on the surface, but his career with the Cowboys suggests otherwise. Since converting from safety to cornerback in 2018, Jones has not intercepted a single pass. He deflected 20 passes in two years at the position, but failed to come away with any picks.

It’s not like Jones’ lack of production in the interceptions department is a product of opposing quarterbacks not throwing his way. Quarterbacks haven’t had much of an issue going at Jones. That’s going to continue until he proves he can ballhawk. At least Revis and Johnson came to New York with a reputation for picking passes off.

There’s also a serious schematic difference at play between Jones and the Jets. Jones comes from a Cover 3 system in Dallas. New York defensive coordinator Gregg Williams employs a man-heavy scheme. He turned to zone defenses at times last season, but that was to cover up weaknesses in the secondary. If he has the personnel he needs, Williams is going to run man-to-man coverage more often than not.

Jones would be a major upgrade over what the Jets currently have at corner. There’s no denying that. The question is this: Is a zone cornerback who lacks the ball skills to intercept passes worth entering a bidding war that could take his average annual salary north of $16 million per year?

There’s no telling what Douglas will do since it’s his first offseason at the helm, but his approach to his job with the Ravens, Bears and Eagles, and what he has let on in his brief time with the Jets, indicates he’s not exactly keen on resetting the market for a player who doesn’t fit his team like a glove.

The Jets need a cornerback. Fortunately for Douglas, there are plenty of good ones available this offseason. He just can’t afford to shell out a lucrative contract to the wrong one. With this in mind, Douglas should approach any potential dealings with Jones with extreme caution.

If he doesn’t, he could s the same fate as the man he replaced in a couple of years.

Why haven’t the Jets cut Trumaine Johnson yet?

The Jets could save $8 million on Trumaine Johnson’s dead cap hit if there’s a new CBA in place.

If you’re wondering why the Jets haven’t cut Trumaine Johnson yet, there’s a reason for that.

As noted by ESPN’s Rich Cimini, New York should be waiting to see what happens with the NFL’s Collective Bargaining Agreement. If a new CBA is agreed upon, it has a direct impact on Johnson’s dead cap hit when he does get cut by the Jets.

Under a new CBA, the Jets could divide Johnson’s $12 million cap hit over two seasons. In 2020, it would be $4 million, while in 2021 it would be $8 million. As long as the Jets label him as a “June 1” cut, they’re able to go through with this method of paying Johnson.

The current CBA doesn’t allow a team to designate a player as a “June 1” cut since the agreement is up after this season. So, if the NFL and NFLPA can’t come to an agreement on a new CBA, then the Jets would be responsible for all of Johnson’s $12 million dead cap hit in 2020.

The Jets have until March 20 to see if a new CBA is implemented. Johnson’s $11 million salary for 2020 becomes fully guaranteed on March 20.

A new CBA would provide New York with an extra $8 million in cap space. However, if the current CBA is still in place, it’s not going to stop the Jets from cutting Johnson. The corner has been a disaster during his two seasons in New York. In 17 games, Johnson has 57 total tackles, seven pass breakups, five interceptions and one touchdown.

Whether it’s under the new CBA or the current one, Johnson won’t be a Jet in 2020. It’s just a matter of when.