The final tally on Brett Favre's one year with the New York Jets now reads nine wins, 22 interceptions, one broken playoff dream and $12,100,000. A $100K add-on came Wednesday when the NFL fined the Jets and general manager Mike Tannenbaum for not listing the aging Wrangler model on their injury report after Favre tore his bicep last season.
For anyone who missed this episode of As The Favre Moans, here's a recap: The quarterback claimed last week that he told the Jets to bench him because of his injury, triggering a NFL investigation because his name wasn't on injury reports for a bunch of games he ended up playing in anyway.
The Jets have been playing hardball with Jones, going so far as to draft Iowa RB Shonn Greene in the third round of last month's draft as a way of telling Jones he could be replaced. When Rosenhaus met with Jets GM Mike Tannenbaum earlier this week at the NFL owners' meetings in Fort Lauderdale, it doesn't appear as if he got any satisfaction, according to Cimini:
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- Despite numerous twitter updates that indicate he's in the building, I have been unable to locate agent Drew Rosenhaus. It appears, however, that Mike Tannenbaum was more successful.
Tannenbaum, the Jets' GM, is here at the meetings along with Jets owner Woody Johnson. One of Rosenhaus' clients is Jets running back Thomas Jones, who has been skipping the team's voluntary workouts this spring due to dissatisfaction with his contract. But Rosenhaus' latest "tweet" gives a strong indication that he met with Tannenbaum Tuesday and the situation has been addressed:
There is this story out of the Twin Cities today that says Brett Favre has hired a personal trainer and is planning a comeback. Or at least that's the rumor.
Favre retired a few weeks ago from the Jets and his agent Bus Cook told FanHouse that nobody, and we mean nobody, has called asking for the legendary quarterback to return.
At this point in the proceedings, less than 24 hours from Roger Goodell making his way to the podium to announce the first pick of the 2009 Draft, no one believes anything they hear. And yet the flow of misinformation continues unabated. In fact, it has intensified; almost as if NFL teams are running presidential campaigns, the election's tomorrow, and this is an 11th-hour, last-ditch effort to get the message out.
Fans know this. The media know this. And presumably, NFL teams know this. But general managers, coaches and scouts are still ordering draft boards, quadruple-checking player references, and haggling over which need will be targeted in which round.
FLORHAM PARK, NJ -- For a guy who was generally acknowledged to be "winning" the first couple of days of the competition, Kellen Clemens had an interesting take on the fight for the Jets' starting quarterback spot.
"We're getting a lot of attention through all of this, but really, if you look at the five guys in front of us, our offensive line, they're going to make it easier for whoever the quarterback is," Clemens said. "Add in our special teams and our defense, and the way I look at it, whoever's playing quarterback for this team, the group that surrounds him is going to make it easier to perform."
Coming as it does from a man who very much wants the job, this is a jolting dose of perspective. Clemens is almost saying that it doesn't matter who the Jets' quarterback is, because the rest of the team is so good. But maybe it shouldn't be a surprise that Clemens has done so much deep thinking about this. After all, the competition for the Jets' starting QB job can't really start until after this weekend's NFL draft is over.
With the draft approaching, we ignore projections and identify the dream scenario for each team in a series we call The Perfect Draft.
The 2009 draft finds the New York Jets in an uncomfortable predicament. They have spent the last two years spending on free agents to put many aspects of a contending team into place. That's a big part of the reason why they started last season 8-3, and briefly had Jets fans thinking that big things were in store for their team. But a strong running game, sound defense and dangerous special teams are being undermined by an invisible passing attack.
Jay Cutler's dreams are finally coming true: the Broncos have agreed to trade him. Of course, if he weren't so sensitive -- or if new head coach Josh McDaniels had better controlled the flow of information -- it never would've come to this.
In late January, speculation had Brett Favre cluing us in on his career plans in a week or so. We're 10 days into February and so far, nothing. And there's no indication that'll change anytime soon.
Jets general manager Mike Tannenbaum told the New York Post that he'd love to know something by the start of free agency (Feb. 27), although the team hasn't given Favre a deadline to make a decision -- and worse, they're not pressuring him on the matter.
On Monday, Sports Illustrated's Peter King wrote that "You're kidding yourself if you think [Brett Favre's] going to move back to New Jersey for 12 to 16 weeks in March. 'I've never been in a [full] offseason program,' Favre told me a month ago..."
This was in response to Jets owner Woody Johnson, who during a radio appearance last week, offered this: "If [Favre] wants to play and he comes in early, which he will, and goes through the training like everybody else, we'll ... (Brian) Schottenheimer will give him a playbook and he'll have a lot more time to prepare."