Thursday, March 22, 2012

Jets and Patriots - the Difference in a Nutshell

Yesterday was very instructive when it comes to showing the difference between how the New York Jets are run and how the New England Patriots are run.

Early in the day the Jets announced that they had traded for Tim Tebow but the problem was they never read Tim Tebow's contract and were unaware that they would owe $5 million as part of the deal. This caused a snag. While this financial detail was worked out the bungle allowed renewed speculation about Tebow to Jacksonville and renewed derision about the Jets being more of a circus than football team. The funny thing is even though the Patriots weren't involved in the deal - they still had a better understanding of the financial ramifications of the deal than the Jets since Josh McDaniels was in Denver when Tebow's contract was negotiated and signed.

Speaking of contracts - while the Tebow on-again off-again circus was going on in New York the New England Patriots had their own QB contract issue going on as the Patriots renegotiated Tom Brady's contract to free up $7.2 million in cap space. This renegotiation was done quietly and without any fanfare. It can be argued that this extra cap space and the roster depth it will help add to the 2012 team will have a bigger impact than any wildcat package Tebow will add to the Jets offense.

The two moves by the two franchises were very instructive in illustrating how things are done by the Patriots versus how things are done by the Jets.