John Butchko

It is Thursday, which makes it podcast mailbag day. Thanks once again to everybody who submitted great questions for the show. A mailbag wouldn’t be possible without mailbag questions. Apologies if your question went unanswered this week. Feel free to resend it next week if that was the case. On today’s show we look at how the looming expiration of the Collective Bargaining Agreement might impact free agency this year, whether we know how much salary cap space the Jets will have once the new league year begins, what winning free agency would look like for the Jets, whether Adam Gase’s...

As we move to free agency and the Draft, most of the focus is on players the Jets will add. The team will make signings and select Draft picks to upgrade the roster. The team will also bring back some of the players from the 2018 team to keep the status quo in some spots. Less attention is typically paid to internal improvements, but those are also very important. Even a team that is rich in cap space like the Jets will struggle to fill all of its holes with expensive free agent players. There are just too many holes to fill to make that a possibility. Some internal players need to step up....

ESPN’s Mel Kiper is out with a new mock draft. With the third overall pick, he has the Jets selecting Alabama’s Quinnen Williams. The Jets have several needs on both sides of the ball, and they don’t have their extremely valuable second-round pick (No. 34) in this draft as a result of the Sam Darnold trade up last year. I wouldn’t be surprised to see quarterback-needy teams try to trade up to this spot, which would help GM Mike Maccagnan get back some of the capital he lost in 2018. If the Jets stay at No. 3, Williams, a 3-technique penetrator with a high motor and advanced...

I hope everybody enjoyed their long weekend (or that the last few days have been manageable if you did not have a long weekend). We are back today with a new podcast. The focus is the Draft. This is the time of year when many people really start to key on the upcoming NFL Draft. The Jets are still a team in rebuilding mode and currently own the third overall selection. This is the time of year when I typically hear a number of strategy ideas pertaining to the Draft that I disagree with. That is the focus of today’s show. I will explain why I disagree with people who say the Jets need to...

Every week on our podcast we try to do a mailbag. Usually there are too many questions to answer all of them. This week I decided to do a bonus mailbag to finish up the unanswered questions. Once again thanks to everybody who submitted something to the mailbag. We couldn’t do it without you. Today we look at free agent options for the Jets on the offensive line, what a realistic timeframe is to rebuild the offensive line, what it would mean for a team that used a pick on Kyler Murray if he went back to school, whether the Jets should borrow their new uniform concept from an AAF team,...

Happy Thursday to all! Thursday is podcast mailbag day. Thanks once again to everybody who sent in questions for a podcast mailbag. It could not happen without you and your questions. Today we look at which teams are potential trading partners with the Jets in the first round of this year’s NFL Draft, whether the new stadium is a good place to view a game, whether it is better to win a championship followed by years of losing or to put together winning seasons without winning a championship, whether it would be good for the Jets to appear on Hard Knocks, what an ideal trade down would...

We are in the offseason moving toward free agency. The Jets cannot speak with free agents under contract to other teams for a few weeks, but they can negotiate with their own free agents if there are any worth bringing back. Yesterday’s podcast focused on Jets free agents from the offensive side of the football. On today’s show we turn our attention to the defensive side. No 4-12 football team is going to have a ton of must-sign free agents, but it could make sense to retain some of these players under certain circumstances. Tune in as I go through all of the projected free agent...

Former Jets center/guard Spencer Long has signed with the division rival Buffalo Bills. Signed to a three-year contract: C/G Spencer LongSigned to a one-year contract: CB Lafayette Pitts pic.twitter.com/kJesdN4p00— Buffalo Bills PR (@BuffaloBillsPR) February 12, 2019 Long's 3-year deal is worth $13m, with upside to $15m. https://t.co/uHqMcdzJKG— Adam Caplan (@caplannfl) February 12, 2019 Long was the Jets’ big money offensive addition last year. Brought in to stabilize the center position, Long did anything but. Although Spencer battled injuries, he was ineffective both...

We are on the way to free agency. The Jets cannot start using their cap space to sign free agents from other teams until the new league year begins. Before that, they can address internal matters. The team has a striking number of free agents this year. One of the reasons the Jets are projected to have so much cap space is they have so few players under contract for 2019. A team coming off a 4-12 season needs a major makeover, Many free agents should not return as the Jets should be in the market for upgrades. There might be logic in retaining a few free agents, however, if the price is...

Back in 2010 HBO’s training camp documentary Hard Knocks chronicled the Jets preparing for their season. It was perhaps the most compelling year of the HBO series. Manish Mehta reports that Hard Knocks wants to feature the Jets again, but the feeling is not mutual. Although I’m told that people putting together the annual docuseries have interest in having the Jets on air, the feeling isn’t mutual. People on One Jets Drive have privately expressed their desire to me to steer clear of the show for myriad reasons. Translation: Don’t expect the Jets to volunteer for Hard Knocks. As...

The Alliance of American Football kicked off over the weekend. The results were a mixed bag. Saturday’s opener produced generally favorable reviews. Sunday was a different story as the biggest development seemed to be the struggles of former Jets second round Draft pick Christian Hackenberg. Can the AAF survive over the long haul? I think it will be difficult. I think it is good for the sport for another football league to exist. There are parts of the league’s model that I think are promising. Ultimately I think there are other flaws in the league’s model which will make things...

A new spring league, the Alliance of American Football, begins play today. The league profiles as a developmental and second chance league for players trying to make the NFL. Among the participants are former Jet luminaries Christian Hackenberg, Dexter McDougle, and Dylan Donahue. The league has a few gimmicky rules such as no extra points or kickoffs. Teams have to go for two after touchdowns. Instead of kickoffs, teams start off on the 25 yard line. A scoring team has the option of running a fourth and 12 play from the 28 in lieu of an onside kick in some situations. The league has a TV...

Over the last few weeks I found it a bit odd how little we had heard about Adam Gase’s coaching staff. The Jets had announced their coordinators, but their position coaches had not been named. Apparently the team was waiting for the full staff to be in place to make an announcement. Today the team announced its full staff. Coach Gase's staff is complete.— New York Jets (@nyjets) February 8, 2019 The coaching staff: Head Coach Adam Gase - Head Coach Coordinators Dowell Loggains - Offensive Coordinator/Quarterbacks Coach Gregg Williams - Defensive Coordinator Brant Boyer - Special...

There might have been a day in the NFL when offensive skill positions were rigidly defined. Running backs lined up in the backfield and took handoffs. Wide receivers lined up out wide and ran routes. Tight ends were in-line and blocked while sometimes slipping out into patterns. While there are still players who fit these descriptions in the NFL, today’s league is much more flexible in dealing with unique talents. Many players have skills that fit multiple positions, and teams use them accordingly. Zach Ertz might be listed as a tight end on the Eagles roster, but his skill as a receiver...

ESPN’s Todd McShay is out with his first mock draft of the year. He has the Jets looking at a defender from Michigan. Rashan Gary, DE, Michigan* Henry Anderson is a free agent, and Leonard Williams has one year left on his contract, so defensive end is a need for Gang Green. Gary has good size (6-foot-5, 283) and athleticism with an explosive closing burst. McShay mocked Nick Bosa to the Cardinals with the first overall pick and Josh Allen to the 49ers with the second pick. Just a few weeks back SB Nation’s Dan Kadar also mocked Gary to the Jets with the third pick. By all accounts,...