E-Boland & Gang Green

Well, the Kerry Rhodes extension is finalized. It's for five years and is worth $33.5 million with guaranteed money of $20,002,000.00. Why is that $2,000 significant enough to talk about? Because it gives Rhodes the most guaranteed money of any safety in NFL history, bettering the flat $20 mil that Bob Sanders got last year by two grand. Now all Rhodes has to do is win the Defensive Player of the Year award like Sanders did.

As I wrote in an earlier post, this is probably the most important signing of the offseason for the Jets because of its public relations appeal -- Rhodes is a good AND popular player -- and its message to the team that players will be rewarded. It would have been easy for the Jets to let Rhodes play out his contract and then tag him for two years (the tag for safeties is pretty low, around $4 million and change per year depending on whether it's exclusive or non-exclusive; compare that to corners who are tagged at around twice that amount). The cap hit would have been about the same, though it could have created some ill will, holdouts, and all of the ugliness that attracts people like myself.

The Jets did the right thing.

Now they have to do something about Dewayne Robertson to free up some cash if they hope to sign their draft picks. I'm still expecting a deal to the Broncos on the weekend of the draft, probably for a second-day pick. I've been told that Robertson and the Broncos already have a new contract in place for just such an occasion.