The suddenly public (sort of) back-and-forth continues between the Jets and quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick.
Two days after the Jets (and, yes, it was the Jets) leaked to anyone who was listening that their longstanding offer to Fitzpatrick pays out $12 million in the first year of a three-year deal, multiple reports (undoubtedly instigated by Camp Fitz) indicate that the deal has a total base value of $24 million over three years.
The $8 million annually average would put Fitzpatrick below all starting quarterbacks not named Tyrod Taylor or not otherwise operating under a wage-scale rookie deal.
The bigger takeaway is that the nothing-personal situation between team and player is quickly getting personal, starting with sympathy OTA absences by receivers Brandon Marshall and Eric Decker, continuing with the team’s obvious effort to make Fitzpatrick look greedy, and culminating in Fitzpatrick’s effort to expose the Jets as cheap.
Meanwhile, we’ll continue to say what we’ve been saying for most of the last week: These two sides need to go into a room, lock the door from the outside, and work this thing out. If they can’t, they should shake hands and go their separate ways.