German_Force » The Jets are not going to turn into carbon copies

of the Philadelphia Eagles simply because they hired Joe Douglas. The new general manager has been around the league for a long time and has his..." />Skip to main contentclockmenumore-arrownoyesHorizontal - WhiteGang Green Nationa New York Jets communityLog In or Sign UpLog InSign UpFanpostsFanshotsJetsOddsAboutMastheadCommunity GuidelinesStubHubMoreAll 322 blogs on Horizontal - WhiteFanposts Fanshots Jets StoriesScheduleRosterStatsYahoo Jets NewsYahoo Jets Team PageYahoo Jets ReportYahoo Jets Depth ChartYahoo Jets TransactionsYahoo Jets PhotosOdds About Masthead Community Guidelines StubHub ✕How Jets GM Joe Douglas should replicate the Eagles White Andre Roberts Jerseys , Part 1: Building around homegrown talentNew,67commentsEDTShareTweetShareShareHow Jets GM Joe Douglas should replicate the Eagles, Part 1: Building around homegrown talentJohn David Mercer-USA TODAY SportsThe Jets are not going to turn into carbon copies of the Philadelphia Eagles simply because they hired Joe Douglas. The new general manager has been around the league for a long time and has his own ideas. I am sure there are things his old boss Howie Roseman did in Philadelphia that he disagreed with. He will do those things differently now that he is in charge of his own team.With that said, the Eagles do a lot of things right so I am sure Douglas will borrow some of the philosophies he liked from his time in Philadelphia.Over the next few days I will share philosophies the Eagles have that I think Douglas should bring to the Jets.What follows is the first.Building around homegrown talentIt feels like every single general manager in the NFL pays lip service to the concept of building through the Draft, but few truly adhere to it. Douglas’ predecessor Mike Maccagnan came from a college scouting background, but it sure didn’t feel like he was committed to building through the Draft. During his tenure the Jets were regularly short on Draft picks and among the leaders in free agency spending. There’s nothing wrong with a timely free agent signing. In fact one of the biggest reasons Douglas earned plaudits in Philadelphia was how effective the Eagles have been in free agency. In today’s NFL I think few would recommend an approach like Ted Thompson had as Packers general manager where free agency was barely ever utilized.But the outside additions were there to supplement a core of homegrown talent, not serve as a substitute for it. The Eagles already had their core in place, and it was comprised of players they had drafted and developed.A great article by Robert Mays of The Ringer that came out before Super Bowl LII discussed the benefits.Shortly after the firing of Chip Kelly in late 2015 Andre Roberts Jerseys 2019 , the Eagles extended their homegrown talent.This was a stark contrast to the approach of the previous regime, which imported a lot of underperforming high priced talent.There was another example in recent Eagles history of high priced imports failing to deliver.This time Philly took the opposite approach and re-signed their own players. Whenever a team signs a homegrown player to an extension I hear fans discuss how that signing, “sends a message to the locker room.” I’m not sure one signing really has that impact, though. When it becomes the organization’s operating philosophy and happens continually, that’s a different story. It can become a motivator for players on the team.Once you have a core of leadership that understands the organization’s culture, it is easier to acclimate outsiders as Mays noted.That leads us to the natural comparison of what happened with the Jets under Mike Maccagnan. High priced imports were a staple of the Maccagnan Era.Maccagnan gave Trumaine Johnson one of the richest cornerback contracts in league history. Upon signing the deal Johnson proclaimed, “I bring leadership.”Once he actually started playing for the Jets, that wasn’t evident.One of the benefits of being so bad for so long is the Jets have started assembling a core of premium young talent picked at the top of the Draft. Leonard Williams White Neal Sterling Jerseys , Jamal Adams, Sam Darnold, and Quinnen Williams have the potential to be a pieces the Jets can build around. Depending on how they perform, less decorated young players like Marcus Maye, Chris Herndon, and Robby Anderson might join them. It is the first time in more than a decade the Jets have had building blocks like this. Of course the financial terms have to make sense. You don’t want to repeat the saga of giving a marginal starter like Brian Winters a payday simply because he’s homegrown. But there is a lot of logic in locking up homegrown talent when possible. Muhammad Wilkerson situations aside, paying big money to your own players is less risky than giving megadeals to players from other cities.Unlike imported players, these guys have shown they can thrive on your team. They fit into your locker room. They have shown they fit your team’s system. There are many instances where high priced talent fails because the new team cannot replicate the conditions that led to the player’s success on the old team. And as pointed out in the Mays article Neal Sterling Jerseys 2019 , these guys are more likely to take ownership of the locker room and embrace leadership roles because they understand the team’s culture. When you bring in outsiders, it makes sense to invest small at first. Leave yourself some wiggle room to get out of the deal. If the import takes to your team, then you can give him big money, and he can work his way into a leadership role.Mike Maccagnan didn’t have much of an opportunity to build around a homegrown core. He inherited a team that had produced little in the way of recent young talent. Still I can’t shake the stark difference in the way he treated two of his players last year.In free agency he essentially gave Johnson a blank check to come to the Jets. I don’t have a source who can confirm that. It’s an educated guess. I just don’t see how a contract could be structured in such a team unfriendly way unless the Jets did minimal negotiating.So the Jets just gave a cornerback with a career total of zero All Pro teams and zero Pro Bowl appearances whatever he wanted.A few weeks later the Jets drafted Sam Darnold. He was picked to be the centerpiece of the franchise for more than a decade. Darnold missed the start of training camp because the contract negotiation on his rookie deal was acrimonious. The issues were not about the salary Darnold would make. Instead the Jets and Darnold dug in over relatively minor issues such as offsets and forfeiture language.Just for a second forget about whether you think Darnold was right to care so much about those relatively minor provisions. Think about Mike Maccagnan’s operating procedure. He didn’t think structuring Trumaine Johnson’s deal in a way that could protect the team a little bit was a battle worth fighting. Mind you, Johnson could have gotten just as much money even if the deal was structured in a friendly way for the team.A couple of minor provisions on the contract of the new leader of the franchise? That was a hill Maccagnan was willing to die on.While these negotiations were just a slice of the Maccagnan Era, I would argue that a comparison of the two moments provide a window of the previous regime’s thinking. Importing was prioritized over building within. Give outsiders whatever they want. Play hardball with your own.The Eagles’ mindset has been the opposite for decades starting with Roseman’s mentor Joe Banner. Under Banner the Eagles pioneered the practice of locking up young players as early as possible.Considering the fact the salary cap has risen by at least $10 million for six straight years, signing players early can be a great money saver. If you wait a year to strike a deal, the cap will likely have gone up. When the cap goes up White Doug Middleton Jerseys , a player’s market value goes up with it. Better to get a deal done early.Just this week the Eagles struck an early extension with their young quarterback Carson Wentz, and one expert noted it will likely bring long-term savings.That brings us to another benefit of working out early extensions. The player has less leverage and is more likely to take a discount. A player two years away from free agency has a lot of uncertainty. That is a lot of time to potentially suffer a career-altering injury. Or there could be a multi-year performance slide that diminishes his market value. The certainty of a big money long-term deal right now can sound very appealing, even if it risks leaving some money on the table over the long haul.The Jets have taken the opposite approach with Leonard Williams. Williams is looking at a $14 million payday this year playing on his fifth year option. After the season he is either going to hit the open market where he will have numerous suitors or receive the lucrative franchise tag. There isn’t much incentive for him to leave money on the table in negotiations with the Jets. A year ago that might not have been the case.With that in mind, I think Douglas would be well-advised to emulate his former employer. If Adams, Darnold, Q. Williams, and others perform to their capabilities, the Jets should aggressively look to make sure they will remain in green and white for a long time. It is the type of smart business practice that helped the Eagles build a Super Bowl core. The New York Jets have re-signed veteran defensive tackle Steve McLendon. The 6’3’" Doug Middleton Jerseys 2019 , 310-pound McLendon played in all 16 games and started 14 games for the Jets in 2018 and recorded 44 tackles. In..."The New York Jets have re-signed veteran defensive tackle Steve McLendon. The 6’3’”, 310-pound McLendon played in all 16 games and started 14 games for the Jets in 2018 and recorded 44 tackles. In his three years with the Jets the 33 year old McLendon has played in 43 out of 48 games and recorded 108 tackles, 18 tackles for loss and five sacks.Steve McLendon was originally signed by the Pittsburgh Steelers as an undrafted free agent out of Troy University in 2009. He spent the 2009 season on the Steelers’ practice squad before making the jump to the 53 man roster in 2010. McLendon spent the first seven years of his NFL career in the Steelers organization before the Jets signed him as an unrestricted free agent in 2016.The signing of McLendon appears to begin to answer, at least for now, how the Jets might address the lack of experienced defensive tackles on the roster. Reportedly McLendon’s deal is for one year, $2.5 million with $1 million in additional incentives, making it a deal for a maximum possible $3.5 million.