WAS THE FIX IN?
Can’t blame Kirk, but Jets still feel like they got duped
The way Cousins landed in Minnesota, it seems as if the Jets never really had a chance
The NFL is a big-boy pants world filled with shrewd, smart people, so nobody is going to shed a tear for the New York Jets for losing out on the Kirk Cousins Sweepstakes, but I can’t help but feel that Gang Green got massively duped.
The Vikings showed off their shiny new quarterback Thursday after locking him up to a fully guaranteed three-year, $84 million contract. Cousins, wearing a purple-andgold striped tie, perhaps unwittingly revealed the truth about the timing of his decision to go with Minnesota over the Jets (and others) by re-tracing events during Super Bowl week.
“I like to prepare,” Cousins said Thursday. “I like to cover my bases. And I don’t like to be surprised. The nature of free agency is that you don’t have time when free agency begins to do your research and to take your visits. Things move quickly as we saw. I did take full advantage the week I was here for Super Bowl week with (marketing/ promotional) events. I had about five or six days here. Rented a car and drove out here and drove by Winter Park and drove through Eagan. I wanted to get a feel for the area and did the best research that I could.”
“I called (my wife) Julie near the end of the week and I said everything’s checking the boxes here,” he continued. “The timing of it was such that I think the second day I was here was when the (Washington) trade (for Alex Smith) was made to show that I was going to be moving on. So, the timing was good for me to start being able to do research here. From there, it was just a process of continuing to gather facts.”
There’s little doubt that those facts centered on getting an acceptable financial package from the Vikings, who were obviously his preference as far back as a month ago. To my knowledge, Cousins didn’t take a trip to Northern New Jersey to get a feel for the Jets home base.
This looks, smells and feels like it was a fait accompli as long as Minnesota was willing to pony up a fair contract.
“We didn’t take the best offer,” Cousins’ agent, Mike McCartney, told reporters. “Not even close.” My understanding is that the Jets offered $30 million per year, or $2 million more than Minnesota’s $28 million average. Money, of course, never was going to be the driving factor in Cousins’ decisions. The player was headed to Minnesota as long as the loot was comparable.
“Two things I kept saying to Kirk,” McCartney said, via the Pioneer Press. “Money is important. Contract is important. But I want you on a daily basis to jump out of bed excited to go to work, to go into a building that has a great culture and a chance to win. But at the same token, at the end of the day, I want you to get excited to go home where your wife and family are flourishing and if we can find both of those I think we’ve done our job.”
I don’t begrudge Cousins for taking this path. It’s not personal, it’s business. McCartney, frankly, has a top-notch reputation as a shrewd negotiator, who will never sacrifice his clients’ best interest. He’s a rock-solid agent.
This is a $14 billion business. Stakes are high. Emotions run high. Camp Cousins did what was best for Camp Cousins.
That’s life in the NFL.
The Jets, however, were left to believe that they had a good shot to land the veteran quarterback as recently as last weekend. Their pitch made perfect sense. Jeremy Bates and Rick Dennison, disciples of Mike Shanahan, would have been terrific for Cousins, who understood and thrived under Shanahan’s system (for Mike, son Kyle and Sean McVay). The Jets, flush with cash, opportunity and the biggest stage in the world, could have turned Cousins into a mega-star.
But there was also a larger unknown than Minnesota, which came within one game of the Super Bowl last season. Cousins said there was a “long list” of reasons why he was sold on the Vikings.
“There are many, many positives,” Cousins said. “But the pitch is: Will we win football games? And the answer here is I believe we will.… I believe the pieces are in place. I’m really excited about the potential that exists here.”
The Jets also provide promise and potential, but they nearly got screwed by waiting on Cousins.
Agents of non-quarterbacks told me Monday (after the “legal tampering” period commenced at noon) that the Jets were effectively paralyzed because of their uncertainty over whether or not they’d get Cousins. In short, the Jets couldn’t make firm commitments with most other free agents until they knew whether they’d have to allocate a sizeable amount of cash to Cousins.
There was one more important wrinkle that shouldn’t be ignored. McCartney also represents Josh McCown, who made it clear for months that he wanted to return to the Jets. My understanding is that the Jets were indeed interested in bringing back McCown, but he wasn’t a priority for them at the start of free agency. They wanted to sign Cousins and add McCown as a backup down the road.
Now, McCown, who got more money ($10 million) than he would have if Cousins were on the Jets, has the inside track to be the starter entering the team’s offseason program.
There are some folks on One Jets Drive who believe this was all designed to get McCown back as the Jets starter (for now). Perhaps that’s sour grapes, but it is a real sentiment in the building.
McCartney, however, doesn’t have to apologize to anyone for putting both his clients in terrific positions, but the Jets’ disappointment/anger towards him is understandable.
The Jets’ angst reached a boiling point Tuesday morning when they finally gave the Cousins camp a deadline: They didn’t want to be held up any longer. Was he in or out?
News trickled out late Tuesday morning that Cousins was scheduled to fly out to Minnesota for a visit, effectively ending the drama. He was going to be a Viking. McCartney did a brilliant job for his client: A historic fully-guaranteed deal with a no-trade clause and no transition tag provision after three years? You couldn’t have navigated this any better.
But the Jets were not happy. And it’s hard to blame them.
They pivoted pretty quickly by securing one-year agreements with McCown and Teddy Bridgewater and locking up some other free agents on their wish list on Tuesday.
But there was a bitter taste in their mouth. Fair or unfair, they felt that they were duped.