The New York Jets are hitting the reset button at the safety position.
A few years ago they made history when they used their first two selections at the position in the 2017 NFL draft taking Jamal Adams out of LSU and Marcus Maye out of Florida.
Now they’ll be looking for two brand new starters this offseason. One analyst had a very bold proclamation for what will transpire over the next handful of months.
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A Bold Proclamation
Jets analyst Joe Caporoso made a bold guarantee for his mock offseason on Badlands saying, “the Jets will sign a top of the market safety.”
He added that it will be one of three names: Jessie Bates of the Cincinnati Bengals, Marcus Williams of the New Orleans Saints, or Quandre Diggs of the Seattle Seahawks.
We’ll focus in on the star defender located in the pacficic northwest.
The 29-year-old safety isn’t a massive name to the common NFL fan, but he has more than proven his worth in the big leagues.
Diggs is exactly the kind of player the Jets defense is missing. He is a ball hawk by every definition of the word.
During his seven years in the pros, Diggs has recorded 19 interceptions featuring 10 of those over the last two seasons.
On top of his ability to take the ball away, Diggs has also been an incredibly durable player suiting up for every game over the last two years (33-for-33). The bad news is he suffered a gruesome injury in the season finale.
He broke his fibula and dislocated his ankle which forced him to be carted off the field in Week 18 versus the Arizona Cardinals.
There is a long road to recovery and that could complicate his free agency status. According to Over The Cap projections, Diggs is expected to make over $10.5 million on his next deal. That would make him the 13th highest-paid safety in the NFL.
Hit the Reset Button
The Jets have two clear options this offseason.
They can completely hit the reset button and let their two pending free agents, Maye and Lamarcus Joyner, walk in free agency. That is the likeliest outcome with both players coming off of serious injuries and being another year older.
Although the door on their potential return can’t be completely shut because there is always the possibility of the Jets swinging and missing this offseason.
For example, last year the Jets wanted free-agent tight end Jonnu Smith “badly” but they lost the bidding war to the New England Patriots. So instead of chasing another high-priced weapon, Gang Green settled for bargain shopping (Tyler Kroft).
If a similar situation presents itself this offseason where the Jets try to swing for the fences on a talented safety and miss, they could fall back on bringing the band back together.
It would make a lot of sense from the Joyner/Maye side of things to return to the green and white on one-year prove-it deals. They could rebuild themselves and have a really good season which would set them up, in theory, for a big payday in 2023.
This would be an underwhelming result from a fan perspective, but it would be a solid fallback plan for the Jets if things don’t work out.
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Jets Predicted to Land $10.5 Million Star Seahawks Starting Safety