Before Kirk Cousins signed with the Vikings, the Jets pursued the free agent quarterback and are believed to have offered him more money than he got in his deal in Minnesota.
Speaking from the league meetings on Sunday, Jets CEO Christopher Johnson didn’t delve into specifics of the offer but did admit to “absolutely” being disappointed that they could not bring Cousins into the fold. He quickly pivoted to a wholehearted endorsement of the team’s quick pivot to other plans at the position.
The Jets re-signed Josh McCown, signed Teddy Bridgewater and made a trade with the Colts that moved them up to the No. 3 pick in the draft.
“We moved very quickly to Plan B,” Johnson said, via the New York Daily News. “It’s almost a shame to call it Plan B, because it’s shaping up as something pretty magnificent. I’m pretty excited about it. We did so swiftly. It doesn’t hurt it all that we now have an awful lot of money that we were thinking we might be sending out the door to one player. Now [we] have that back with us and we can spread that out over a lot of other players over the next few years.”
If the Jets do come up with something magnificent at quarterback, missing out on Cousins will become a sidebar in a bigger story about the team finally getting it right under center. It will be some time before we know whether Johnson’s faith in that outcome will come to fruition.