Mike Maccagnan says Jets will be 'very active' in free agencyCimini reports:
Unlike his predecessor, Mike Maccagnan is planning to take an aggressive approach in free agency.
"Building through the draft is ideally what I'd like to do, but we'll very active in free agency," the
New York Jets' new general manager said Tuesday via the team.
Maccagnan, who will be formally introduced with Todd Bowles in an 11 a.m. news conference Wednesday, touched briefly on his team-building philosophy. He said his objective is to fill "some" needs in free agency, allowing him to take a best-available-player approach to the draft -- basically, the Mike Tannenbaum model.
John Idzik tried it a different way, emphasizing the draft and using free agency as a supplement. That didn't work out so well.
Before we anoint Maccagnan as Spender Mike, it's important to note that he's
required to dole out a lot of money. There's something called the "89 percent Rule."
The collective bargaining agreement requires teams to spend 89 percent of the salary cap in cash over four-year periods, from 2013 to 2016 and 2017 to 2020. In 2014, the Jets were 30th in spending ($106.295 million) and are below the 89-percent threshold since 2013 at 84.56 percent, according to CBSSports.com.
In other words, the Jets probably will have to spend a good chunk of the projected $40 million in cap space to remain on track for compliance.
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While I won't pepper the 2015 Free Agency thread with "SIGN THIS BEAST" posts, I am glad to hear that Macc is going to use any and all means at his disposal to improve this team. There are holes aplenty needin' fillin', and using free agency smartly is a great way to address them and leave the team in a position to go BPA in the draft. Idzik's stubborn refusal to address roster weaknesses adequately was his biggest failure as a GM. The NFL is a competitive situation, and other teams use FA, so why wouldn't we? Glad to hear we're going to compete.