The Jets Aren't Rebuilding This Offseason, They're Surrendering

The Jets have been many things during their long era of futility: near-contenders, pretenders, overspenders, chest-thumping blowhards, quarterback-punching drama junkies, Tebowmaniacs, bumblers, butt-fumblers and pesky mosquitos who sting the Patriots just enough to make them scratch once in a while. 

But the Jets have never been quitters, until now. Wednesday will be remembered as the day the Jets just gave up.

The white flag might as well have flown over Jets headquarters when Dont'a Hightower re-signed with the Patriots after a long courtship with the Jets (and, briefly, the interloping Steelers). The Patriots offered Hightower annual Super Bowl trips. The Jets reportedly offered more money, plus cupcakes, per ESPN.com's Rich Cimini.

Cupcakes? Did they think they were pursuing Eddie Lacy?

The Patriots pursued Hightower at their leisure, letting him test the market while they reloaded their championship roster with Stephon Gilmore, Brandin Cooks, Kony Ealy and Rex Burkhead. But for the Jets, Hightower represented a last-gasp opportunity to restore a little dignity, keep up the appearance of competitiveness, weaken their perceived divisional archrivals and replace linebacker David Harris, who should have been replaced circa 2014.

Hightower eventually signed for a reported $43.5 million over four years. Bleacher Report's Jason Cole reported the Jets offered as much as $12 million per year. Later reports—from Newsday and NJ.com—denied this but had a suspicious jilted-lover Jets were never really all that interested in the first place ring to them.

The Jets probably drove the Patriots' price up a bit. That's what passes for a victory at Jets headquarters these days. Even the Browns and Jaguars are capable of using big bucks to lure big-name veterans away from contenders. The Jets can't even do it when they throw in baked goods.

If they can't even expect to fill inside linebacker, imagine what they will get at more important positions.

Gregory Payan/Associated Press

At quarterback, the Jets appear content to wait for the draft, wait for Bryce Petty or Christian Hackenberg to play like the mid-round draft picks only the Jets thought they were or wait for Geno Smith to return from his free-agent visits with no better options. If Petty and Hackenberg (the only quarterbacks currently under contract) were serious prospects, Smith would already be a distant memory.

There are worse fates than dickering around with an out-of-better-options Smith for a fifth year, and the Jets may yet explore them. There's Jay Cutler, who would have to be in full take-the-money-and-run mode to sign with them. Or Josh McCown, one of the few obvious downgrades from Ryan Fitzpatrick on the antique journeyman quarterback market.

There's also Brock Osweiler, the guy the Texans paid a future second-round pick to have hauled off their property and the Browns are only keeping for accounting purposes. Or Chase Daniel, who just lost his job to Nick Foles, who was once traded for Sam Bradford, who lost his job to Carson Wentz, who beat Daniel for a starting job.

Given these options, Mark Sanchez and Tim Tebow look like Joe Montana and Steve Young. But the quarterback situation is just one of the major problems the Jets have been putting off while wooing Patriots linebackers.

Take Sheldon Richardson (please), for starters. Richardson is scheduled to earn $8 million in the option year of the contract he signed as a rookie. Not only is Richardson a poor fit in coach Todd Bowles' scheme, but he also earned a promotion from Occasional Problem to Resident Malcontent (both might as well be official spots on the Jets depth chart) by the end of last season.

Richardson has been the subject of trade pipe dreams for weeks. Richardson for Brandin Cooks? Richardson for AJ McCarron? Jets fans can fantasize, but the Patriots are the ones pulling the trigger on all of the bold trades this year. The Jets are just watching the clouds roll past.

George Gojkovich/Getty Images

Meanwhile, the Jets have gaping holes at center, tight end, cornerback and wide receiver. They need depth at every position except perhaps the defensive line. They have virtually an entire roster to assemble.

The Jets are in this predicament because of their mighty 2015 spending spree. They acquired Brandon Marshall, Darrelle Revis, Antonio Cromartie, Ryan Fitzpatrick and others in a veteran splurge so effective that it almost nabbed them a playoff appearance. GM Mike Maccagnan was hailed as the latest Jets genius, leading him to double down on expensive old-timers like Ryan Clady and Matt Forte in 2016.

Who would have thought that a team of pricey veteran 30-somethings would get old so suddenly? Well, everyone would have thought that but the Jets, who put zero effort into developing prospects to replace the mercenaries.

When D'Brickashaw Ferguson retired last year, Maccagnan signed Clady and didn't draft an offensive lineman until the fifth round. (The Jets are still throwing money at this problem, having signed Jaguars castoff Kelvin Beachum to play left tackle). When Nick Mangold got injured, on-and-off practice squader Wesley Johnson became the starting center. When Fitzpatrick, Revis and Harris grew ineffective, their replacements were…Fitzpatrick, Revis and Harris.

The Jets finally started purging salaries in February, releasing Revis, Marshall, Mangold and some second-tier veterans while voiding the second year of Fitzpatrick's contract. The team will do over $13 million of dead-money penance this season. Yet its budget is still top-heavy with overpriced veterans like Eric Decker ($8.75 million in 2017 cap space), Buster Skrine (a mind-boggling $8.5 million), Harris ($6.5 million) and Forte ($5 million).

There's still time for the Jets to go Full Browns Moneyball by banishing more veterans to Revis Island, taking their dead-money medicine all at once and starting 2018 with a fresh-scrubbed ledger. The bottom of the Jets roster is so talent-starved that the team would struggle to go 3-13, but they're destined to only win about six games anyway, unless the man who reached for Hackenberg and drafted a punter last year suddenly assembles the best draft class in history.

Unfortunately, general managers and head coaches who gut the roster to serve the future in year three of their contracts are rarely around to see what happens in year four. The Jets can't afford to properly rebuild right now. They are in no position to compete, either.

Mel Evans/Associated Press/Associated Press/Associated Press

As a sad coda to a bad day in Florham Park, the Jets announced tight end Austin Seferian-Jenkins received a two-game suspension for violating the league's substance abuse policy. Also, assault charges against Revis from a late-night incident last month were dropped, per CBS Sports' John Breech. Revis wouldn't have done the Jets a lick of good this year, but the news that their free-agent prize of 2015 had become a headache they'd rather release was a sad reminder of how far they had fallen in just two years.

Under the circumstances, maybe losing out on Hightower was for the best. The Jets shouldn't be in the sexy free-agent splash business. But they need to be in some business. The "bridge quarterback" business. The "trade down for more picks" business. At least the 49ers and Browns know what they are and seem to have a plan to escape their predicaments. The Jets are mostly sitting back and letting this offseason happen to them.

These just aren't the Jets we know and love. The old Jets blundered boldly into massive trades, gave Brett Favre the keys to Manhattan and guaranteed Super Bowls despite .500 talent on the roster. They were always eager to launch another get-rich-quick scheme to get them out of the hole they dug for themselves during the last get-rich-quick scheme.

The peak-and-trough cycle was at least an entertaining ride that sometimes had a slim chance of working. This is just helplessness.

It turns out that the only thing worse for the Jets than making bad decisions is making no decisions. And the only thing worse than losing a major free agent to the hated Patriots is the realization that, at best he would not have made much of a difference anyway.

All cap figures courtesy OverTheCap.com. Mike Tanier covers the NFL for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter: @MikeTanier.