Jets have the cap space to spend big in free agency, but don't be surprised if they take a different approach

INDIANAPOLIS – There are only a handful of NFL teams with more salary cap space than the Jets, and they still have room to make some cuts that would clear $10 million more. They are poised to be one of the most active and biggest spending teams when the free-agent market opens in two weeks.

That just might not be the approach they take.

Though Jets GM Joe Douglas didn’t lay out his exact plans on Wednesday when he spoke at the NFL scouting combine, he certainly did seem to pump the brakes on everyone’s expectations for how they’ll use their $50-60 million in salary cap space. He talked about free agency as just one of “a lot of different tools to improve your roster,” and he expressed his long-stated desire to maintain the Jets’ future financial flexibility.

And when discussing how a team could use free agency to help itself suddenly become a contender, he pointed to the AFC champion Cincinnati Bengals, who were hardly among the biggest spenders last year.

“I think Cincy did great in free agency last year,” Douglas said. “They didn't blow the doors off in terms of signing super high-priced guys. They brought in guys who fit exactly what they wanted to do.”

In other words, the Bengals were targeted in their spending. They didn’t simply go after the biggest names or top players on the market. They spent good money on players like defensive end Trey Hendrickson (four years, $60 million), cornerback Chidobe Awuzie (three years, $21.75 million) and cornerback Mike Hilton (four years, $24 million), and surrounded them with lesser free agents on much smaller deals.

Notably, none of their Big 3 free agents are among the 15 highest-paid players at their position. All of them started for the Bengals in Super Bowl LVI.

That is very similar to the play Douglas employed last year when he mostly shunned the top tier of the free agent market. He spent decent money on defensive end Carl Lawson (three years, $45 million) and receiver Corey Davis (three years, $37.5 million) and surrounded them with lesser free agents on smaller deals.

That’s his way of improving the Jets with reasonable contracts and maintaining his prized “financial flexibility” by not saddling the team with onerous long-term deals.

“We always want to be financially flexible,” Douglas said. “We always want the opportunity to strike if the right opportunity presents itself. So I think that’s something we’re going to be looking to do moving forward.”

In other words, for anyone dreaming of a $100 million run at receivers like Davante Adams or Mike Williams, or a slightly smaller run at cornerback J.C. Jackson or guard Brandon Scherff, it doesn’t sound like that’s in the Jets’ future. They may end up doing just what they did last year – bypassing the top end of the market and spending aggressively to sign very good players in the second tier.

That’s not the worst strategy, by the way, and not just because it helped the Bengals build the core of a Super Bowl team. The Jets don’t have to look anywhere beyond their own recent history for examples of how a wild spending spree can hurt a franchise – like in 2019 when they signed running back Le’Veon Bell (four years, $52.5 million) and linebacker C.J. Mosley (five years, $85 million) to crazy contracts, or the year before when they gave cornerback Trumaine Johnson (five years, $72.5 million) one of the worst contracts in their history.

The Johnson and Bell deals hurt the Jets for years. And while Mosley has come back from injuries to become a valued leader on the Jets’ defense last season, his deal makes him uncuttable and virtually untradeable until next year.

Those are the kinds of deals Douglas wants to avoid, though that doesn’t mean the Jets won’t still be somewhat active in the market. It’s a good bet the Jets will pursue what could be a deep class of free agent tight ends, which could include Dalton Schultz and Mike Gesicki. He might also look into the second tier of cornerbacks or offensive linemen, too.

He just prefers to build in other ways – either through the draft, as he did with his stellar draft class from last season, or using the assets he’s acquired to make a trade.

“If the right opportunity presents itself in the trade market,” Douglas said, “we’re ready to strike.”

They’ll be ready to strike in free agency too. They’re just not going to be the ones to set the market. The Jets may need help at an array of positions, but Douglas has never seen free agency as the quick fix that some teams do.

“I would say there’s a lot of different avenues, a lot of different tools to improve your roster,” he said. “Free agency is one of those tools. And so I think we have a good opportunity. We have assets that we’ve acquired and we have financial flexibility.

“We’re going to get this team better any avenue we can.”