Lichtenstein: Maccagnan Should Give Jets CB One Mo' Year

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If the Jets have any intentions of bringing free agent Morris Claiborne back this season, they’d be wise not to dawdle too much longer.And given the state of Gang Green’s cornerback depth chart, it’s baffling why they haven’t already been more proactive.I concede that Claiborne’s performance dipped in the second half of last season, but so did a lot of folks on that Todd Bowles defense.  Besides, does anyone really believe general manager Mike Maccagnan will find someone better off the league’s scrap heap?Currently, the Jets are going with the vastly overpaid and underachieving Trumaine Johnson and the versatile but mediocre Darryl Roberts on the outside, with free agent signee Brian Poole in the slot.Depth? The Jets are supposedly relying on development prospects Derrick Jones and Parry Nickerson, sixth-round draft choices in 2017 and 2018, respectively, to be ready to sink or swim this season. Rashard Robinson is somehow still on the team after a comically bad 2018 season. With Robinson holding a $2 million cap number that can be excised without any dead money hit, he’d have to be awfully impressive in training camp to make the final cut.As I noted in my last post, the Jets’ draft will not provide any immediate help. The sole corner they took was Blessuan Austin, again in the sixth round. The Rutgers product is recovering from his second torn ACL in his left knee in two seasons. Maccagnan has said that he expects Austin to be on the PUP list when training camp begins.So why should the Jets be concerned with the hard May 7 date? After that, other teams can sign Claiborne without it counting in the league’s proprietary formula that awards compensatory draft picks the following year. These pick assets have increased in value every season since the league allowed them to be traded.

Jets cornerback Morris ClaiborneUSA TODAY Images
Teams are therefore purposely waiting until the deadline passes before engaging with certain veterans like Claiborne and defensive linemen Ndamukong Suh and Ziggy Ansah, who could each potentially damage their team’s compensatory pick status. On the flip side, losing Claiborne after May 7 will eliminate all benefits that the Jets would have accrued.

That gives the Jets a decent enough window to get a deal done with Claiborne, who was surprisingly durable (he played in 15 of 16 games in each of his two seasons in New York) after an injury-filled five seasons in Dallas.Through Week 10 last season, Claiborne was ranked sixth among NFL cornerbacks with a 67.9 passer rating allowed when targeted, per ProFottballFocus.com. For the year, he recorded a career-high 14 passes defended.Is he an elite shut-down corner at this stage? No. He is too inconsistent and accrues too many penalties (9 last season, including 7 for holding). He finished last season as the league’s 75th-ranked cornerback among the 112 players graded by PFF.Claiborne played last season on a 1-year, $7 million contract, with $6.85 million guaranteed. An estimate in a recent article on N.J.com had the Jets with $17 million in salary cap space after accounting for the rookie draft pool. Overthecap.com has the Jets with $26.4 million in space counting only the top 51 salaries.That’s plenty for Maccagnan to get Claiborne for reasonable compensation. Claiborne visited the Giants last month, which means he hasn’t given up on staying in the area. In his press conference at the draft last week, Maccagnan mentioned he was open to re-signing Claiborne.Like pitching in baseball, you can never have too many corners. I don’t get the hold up.

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