Mike Maccagnan Getty Images
By Glenn Naughton
Given how frequently we hear of Jets General Manager Mike Maccagnan’s excessive coffee consumption, you wouldn’t expect him to be calm, cool and collected at the negotiation table while hammering out a deal.
Manish Mehta of the New York Daily News is reporting that the Jets and Maccagnan have made multiple offers to free agent quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick in recent days as the start of training kicking off later this week.
The report comes just a couple of weeks after the team shocked many by signing defensive end Muhammad Wilkerson to a long-term deal at the eleventh hour, before the team’s only option would be to have Wilkerson play 2016 under the franchise tag.
Many have speculated that a deal between Fitzpatrick and the Jets wouldn’t come any sooner than this week, and if the two sides are talking actively negotiating once again, those prognosticators, wide receiver Eric Decker included, may be proven right in the coming days.
A deal between the Jets and Fitzpatrick would bring an end to one of the least dramatic long-term standoffs in recent memory as the team named Fitzpatrick their starting quarterback way back in January and the quarterback generated very little interest in the free agent market.
Any failure to get a deal done at this point would have to fall squarely on the shoulders of Fitzpatrick who has no other guaranteed starting jobs staring him in the face. Finding a way to lose the starting job to Geno Smith would have to go down as the biggest gaffe in Fitzpatrick’s steady, yet far from spectacular career.