For one short hour, Craig and Evan were dreaming big about a Jets offense with one of the best, if not the best, wide receiver in the NFL leading the franchise back into contention.
Those hopes were swiftly shot down when Tyreek Hill was traded to the rival Dolphins and signed a four-year contract extension, now putting the superstar against Gang Green twice a year rather than in a Jets uniform.
Evan couldn’t help but fume at the news when it broke, while Craig took a different outlook.
“If they were able to pull this off…that would have been a freakin’ steal,” Evan said on Wednesday’s show. “This franchise would have had both of their first-round picks and added one of the best wide receivers on the planet, and they have two goof tight ends for Zach [Wilson], and they’ve got a really good offensive line.
“I can’t even use words to describe how excited I would be right now if they pulled this thing off, but Tyreek Hill chose the weather, and he chose no state income tax.”
But Craig sees the devastating tease of Hill as a sign that the Jets are moving in the right direction, and the fact that they were a finalist in the Hill sweepstakes in the first place is something to be celebrated.
“His phone rings now when it comes to major players who might be on the move,” Craig said of Joe Douglas. “While it sucks that we didn’t get him…all of a sudden the Jets are a team to be reckoned with. I’m not gonna cry about it.
“We have crossed over to a new dimension for our franchise. We’re in the game now…we are now back on the table.”
That was no consolation for Evan.
“The New York Jets are the worst team in the AFC East,” Evan said. “A team in the AFC East just got considerably better. The Jets lost…I can’t take solace in a second-place finish. I don’t know what happened to you, I don’t know what happened to my fellow New Yorkers, but if you are taking today as a positive, I don’t know what to tell you. There is no positive. We didn’t get the guy.”
Flexing some perspective, Craig not-so-subtly reminded Evan that, as a Jets fan, there should be no familiarity with such successes, and to take the positives when they are there to had, no matter how small.
“Oh come on, it’s the Jets we’re talking about,” Craig said. “All of a sudden you have some pedigree of winning? Stop it!”
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