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Is David Harris' new Jets contract really one of 2015 free agency's worst?
Jets inside linebacker David Harris (52) signed a contract with $15 million in guarantees just before the start of 2015 free agency. (Brad Barr | USA TODAY Sports)
Dom Cosentino | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com By Dom Cosentino | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
Email the author | Follow on Twitter
on March 17, 2015 at 12:15 PM, updated March 17, 2015 at 1:13 PM
Free agency is a week old, which means it's time for everyone to judge every move that's getting made, never mind there won't be any actual football that counts for another six months.
Bill Barnwell of Grantland needed a mere two days to weigh in with a verdict on the worst free agent contracts out there (so far), with inside linebacker David Harris' new deal to remain with the Jets making Barnwell's list.
You can read all of Barnwell's analysis over yonder, but I'm pulling out these two paragraphs just because:
At 31, you would expect him to be on the downside of his career, but it still seemed logical for the post-Kiko Alonso Bills to target Harris as a [Rex] Ryan acolyte in free agency.
The Jets ensured that wouldn't happen by massively overpaying to keep Harris in town. Harris' three-year deal pays out $15 million in guaranteed money over the next two seasons, a deal that stands out as an outlier among similar players. Harris comes away with the fourth-largest guarantee for an inside linebacker, and no veteran with a contract as big as Harris' has a larger percentage of his money guaranteed. And this comes for a guy who was declining!
On the surface, this isn't an unreasonable opinion. Harris is on the decline. But Barnwell also overlooks a few factors:
1. The Jets wanted Harris back. Badly. General manager Mike Maccagnan and head coach Todd Bowles came right out and said as much at the combine last month. Barnwell himself noted that Rex Ryan's Bills would be in play, especially after the Bills shipped Alonso to the Eagles. The Jets did what they could to hang on to Harris before the Bills would even get a chance to make an offer.
2. This deal sends a message. Harris is one of the most respected veterans in the locker room. In eight prior seasons, he rarely came off the field. He knows the system, knows the surroundings. Remember, Harris and the Jets reached an agreement just before the start of free agency. After all the negativity generated by previous GM John Idzik's tight-fistedness, this was a way to let the roster's young players know productivity and leadership would be rewarded. This was true even though Harris had just played the duration of a lucrative contract.
3. This deal doesn't break the Jets. The Jets had to spend in 2015 and '16: The league's cash spending rules required it. And the salary cap went up 7.7 percent from where it was 2014. Salaries, in turn, are going to rise, too—which is why it's a bit disingenuous to say simply that Harris has the fourth-highest guarantee for an inside linebacker. In another year or two, that likely won't be true. And while Harris did become something of a liability in coverage last year, the Jets now have plenty of other players in the secondary who can compensate for that.
4. The fine print isn't that bad. On its face, $21.5 million for three years with $15 million guaranteed looks like a lot. But forget those first two figures; as with most any NFL contract, especially for a player over 30, the guaranteed money is all that matters. And Harris' $15 million in guarantees is entirely front-loaded into the first two years of that deal. If he continues to show his age and the Jets have to release him (or "part ways" in the current kinder, gentler NFL parlance), they can do that after next season and owe Harris nothing.
5. This deal fits a pattern. The details on Antonio Cromartie's and Marcus Gilchrist's contracts haven't yet been made available, but the guarantees in the Jets' other major free agent deals—Darrelle Revis, Buster Skrine, James Carpenter—are pretty well tied to 2015 and '16, when, as noted above, the Jets had to spend: Skrine's and Carpenter's guarantees run out after 2016, and the last $6 million of Revis's guarantee stretches only as far as 2017, when Revis will be 32. Why is this important? Because the Jets still have to get an extension done for Muhammad Wilkerson and (eventually) Sheldon Richardson. But by front-loading all of the deals they've cut this spring, the Jets still have plenty of flexibility to hand out those extensions with large signing bonuses that can be pro-rated to spread out the cap hit. Harris' deal, in particular, does nothing to affect that.
Dom Cosentino may be reached at dcosentino@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @domcosentino. Find NJ.com Jets on Facebook.
Jets inside linebacker David Harris (52) signed a contract with $15 million in guarantees just before the start of 2015 free agency. (Brad Barr | USA TODAY Sports)
Dom Cosentino | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com By Dom Cosentino | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
Email the author | Follow on Twitter
on March 17, 2015 at 12:15 PM, updated March 17, 2015 at 1:13 PM
Free agency is a week old, which means it's time for everyone to judge every move that's getting made, never mind there won't be any actual football that counts for another six months.
Bill Barnwell of Grantland needed a mere two days to weigh in with a verdict on the worst free agent contracts out there (so far), with inside linebacker David Harris' new deal to remain with the Jets making Barnwell's list.
You can read all of Barnwell's analysis over yonder, but I'm pulling out these two paragraphs just because:
At 31, you would expect him to be on the downside of his career, but it still seemed logical for the post-Kiko Alonso Bills to target Harris as a [Rex] Ryan acolyte in free agency.
The Jets ensured that wouldn't happen by massively overpaying to keep Harris in town. Harris' three-year deal pays out $15 million in guaranteed money over the next two seasons, a deal that stands out as an outlier among similar players. Harris comes away with the fourth-largest guarantee for an inside linebacker, and no veteran with a contract as big as Harris' has a larger percentage of his money guaranteed. And this comes for a guy who was declining!
On the surface, this isn't an unreasonable opinion. Harris is on the decline. But Barnwell also overlooks a few factors:
1. The Jets wanted Harris back. Badly. General manager Mike Maccagnan and head coach Todd Bowles came right out and said as much at the combine last month. Barnwell himself noted that Rex Ryan's Bills would be in play, especially after the Bills shipped Alonso to the Eagles. The Jets did what they could to hang on to Harris before the Bills would even get a chance to make an offer.
2. This deal sends a message. Harris is one of the most respected veterans in the locker room. In eight prior seasons, he rarely came off the field. He knows the system, knows the surroundings. Remember, Harris and the Jets reached an agreement just before the start of free agency. After all the negativity generated by previous GM John Idzik's tight-fistedness, this was a way to let the roster's young players know productivity and leadership would be rewarded. This was true even though Harris had just played the duration of a lucrative contract.
3. This deal doesn't break the Jets. The Jets had to spend in 2015 and '16: The league's cash spending rules required it. And the salary cap went up 7.7 percent from where it was 2014. Salaries, in turn, are going to rise, too—which is why it's a bit disingenuous to say simply that Harris has the fourth-highest guarantee for an inside linebacker. In another year or two, that likely won't be true. And while Harris did become something of a liability in coverage last year, the Jets now have plenty of other players in the secondary who can compensate for that.
4. The fine print isn't that bad. On its face, $21.5 million for three years with $15 million guaranteed looks like a lot. But forget those first two figures; as with most any NFL contract, especially for a player over 30, the guaranteed money is all that matters. And Harris' $15 million in guarantees is entirely front-loaded into the first two years of that deal. If he continues to show his age and the Jets have to release him (or "part ways" in the current kinder, gentler NFL parlance), they can do that after next season and owe Harris nothing.
5. This deal fits a pattern. The details on Antonio Cromartie's and Marcus Gilchrist's contracts haven't yet been made available, but the guarantees in the Jets' other major free agent deals—Darrelle Revis, Buster Skrine, James Carpenter—are pretty well tied to 2015 and '16, when, as noted above, the Jets had to spend: Skrine's and Carpenter's guarantees run out after 2016, and the last $6 million of Revis's guarantee stretches only as far as 2017, when Revis will be 32. Why is this important? Because the Jets still have to get an extension done for Muhammad Wilkerson and (eventually) Sheldon Richardson. But by front-loading all of the deals they've cut this spring, the Jets still have plenty of flexibility to hand out those extensions with large signing bonuses that can be pro-rated to spread out the cap hit. Harris' deal, in particular, does nothing to affect that.
Dom Cosentino may be reached at dcosentino@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @domcosentino. Find NJ.com Jets on Facebook.
