Each week, The Washington Post’s Mark Maske provides in-depth Monday morning NFL analysis with “First and 10,” a dissection of the league’s most important developments.
The New York Jets haven’t lost their starting quarterback from last season. They haven’t re-signed him either. Ryan Fitzpatrick remains a free agent. The Jets remain without their incumbent starter. They haven’t replaced him, unless talking up Geno Smith as a potential starter counts.
Training camps open around the league this week, and no team’s quarterback situation is more puzzlingly unsettled than that of the Jets. They just missed the AFC playoffs last season with Fitzpatrick throwing for 3,905 yards and 31 touchdowns.
It stood to reason that Fitzpatrick’s free agent status would be resolved relatively quickly once the market opened in March. That’s the way it generally works for starting-caliber quarterbacks, given that there aren’t enough of them to go around.
But it didn’t work that way for Fitzpatrick, with no team—including the Jets—willing to give him a contract that he deemed suitable. Jobs elsewhere were filled. And still, nothing happened with Fitzpatrick.
The Jets haven’t exactly moved on. They drafted Christian Hackenberg to go with Smith and Bryce Petty. But Fitzpatrick remains their clear-cut starter if he is re-signed. He still represents probably the team’s best hope to be a playoff contender again this season.
There is enough blame to go around in this. The Jets reportedly have offered Fitzpatrick a three-year, $24 million deal that would pay him about $12 million for the 2016 season. There has been speculation that Fitzpatrick has been seeking something closer to $15 million per season.
It’s fine to believe that you’re a $15 million-a-year quarterback. But if no one is willing to pay you $15 million a year, that’s not what you are. Fitzpatrick should have come to grips with that long ago.
It’s also fine that the Jets don’t want to bid against themselves and pay Fitzpatrick far more than his market value. But they might need to realize that they are best served by finding a way to dress up their offer a little bit and make it palatable to Fitzpatrick. At this point, the Jets need to help Fitzpatrick to save face in order to get the deal done. What good does it do the Jets to be right if it leaves them without a viable starter at quarterback?
This deal should have been struck long ago, about the time it became clear that Fitzpatrick wasn’t going to land a better offer and a starting job elsewhere — and equally clear that the Jets weren’t going to find an upgrade.
The silliness could continue. The Jets may attempt to convince onlookers that they’re comfortable going into the season with Smith as the starter and Petty and Hackenberg as their only fallback options. Fitzpatrick could wait to see if the Jets become desperate enough to increase their offer, or if injuries or disappointing performances league-wide create other opportunities.
Or the two sides could come to their senses and reach the compromise they should have reached months ago.
But that wouldn’t be very Jets-like, would it?
Ten other story lines to watch as camps open:
1. Garoppolo and Brady: Tom Brady’s decision to drop his legal challenge to his four-game Deflategate suspension means that the New England Patriots go to training camp with certainty about what they must do: get Jimmy Garoppolo ready to start the season opener and the following three games at quarterback in place of Brady, and get Brady ready to return in Week 5 and pursue a potential fifth Super Bowl title. It will be interesting to see how Coach Bill Belichick divides the practice-field snaps to try to accomplish that.
2. Flacco: Joe Flacco has given every signal that he plans to be on the practice field with the Baltimore Ravens as he returns from last season’s knee injury. But will Coach John Harbaugh and the organization permit Flacco to take the full-speed-ahead approach that the former Super Bowl-winning quarterback seems prepared to take? Or will there be some caution thrown into the mix?
3. Kaepernick and Kelly: Colin Kaepernick remained in San Francisco and might be the quarterback on the 49ers’ roster best able to put the fast-break offense of the team’s first-year coach, Chip Kelly, into effect. But will Kelly entrust the job to a player who seemed intent at one point during the offseason on leaving?
4. Super Bowl hangover for Newton, Panthers? Cam Newton’s MVP season ended in inglorious fashion, as the Carolina quarterback failed to fall on his late-game fumble in the Panthers’ Super Bowl defeat and then was criticized for how he handled his postgame news conference. The spotlight has become bright indeed for Newton, sometimes uncomfortably so. He undoubtedly will be closely scrutinized again, virtually from the moment he steps on the field for the opening practice of training camp. He and the Panthers must demonstrate that they can rebound from their Super Bowl disappointment.
5. RG3: Hue Jackson, the first-year coach in Cleveland, did not name Robert Griffin III the Browns’ starter at quarterback during offseason practices. It seems inevitable that Griffin will enter the season as the starter. But how long will Jackson keep the competition going?
6. Rams settle in: The Rams are holding their training camp at Cal-Irvine as they prepare for their first season back in Los Angeles. Jared Goff, the top overall selection in the NFL draft, will attempt to show that he’s ready to be the starter at quarterback from the opening game of his rookie season. The “Hard Knocks” cameras are there to document it all. The ingredients are there for the Rams to actually be a relevant NFL team.
7. Broncos’ QB situation: The reigning Super Bowl champs brought in Mark Sanchez likely as a temporary solution at quarterback. But it could be extremely temporary if rookie Paxton Lynch demonstrates that he’ll be ready to play sooner than many expect.
8. Seahawks minus Marshawn Lynch: Will second-year running back Thomas Rawls be productive enough to keep the Seahawks from suffering from the absence of their now-retired centerpiece runner?
9. Lions minus Calvin Johnson: Will there be any reason to pay attention to the Lions any longer?
10. Watt’s recovery: J.J. Watt is to be sidelined in training camp and the preseason as he recovers from back surgery. There has been speculation that his availability for the start of the regular season is in question. But few, if any, NFL players are tougher and more durable than Watt. It’s difficult to envision the league’s most dominant defender missing the opener.
