Stay or Go: Should Jets bring back Sheldon Rankins for 2023 season?

The Jets signed former first-round pick Sheldon Rankins to a two-year contract in 2021, and he was a productive player as New York saw plenty of improvements on defense. In 2022, he started 15 games alongside Pro Bowler Quinnen Williams. He’s now a pending free agent and the Jets will need to make a decision on whether to bring him back.

So, should the Jets do it?

Why Rankins should be back

Rankins is talented, but had dealt with some injuries in the years leading up to his signing with the Jets. However, he’s stayed healthy for the past two years, playing in 31 of 34 possible games and racking up 75 tackles, including a career-high 43 in 2022. He also had three sacks and seven quarterback hits in each season.

The Jets also reportedly value Rankins’ leadership in the locker room and aren’t a team with many core veterans who have plenty of experience, which could make bringing him back more of a priority.

The team needs to fill out its defensive tackle rotation because Williams is the only one of the four players in the rotation at that position last season who is already under contract for 2023. Rankins had a significant role in 2022 as he was on the field 55 percent of the time.

Why Rankins shouldn’t be back

Rankins signed a contract that included a lot of incentives in 2021 and, by staying healthy, he presumably earned most of these. The base deal was worth just $5.5 million per year but he had the opportunity to earn an extra $3 million in each season. Now that he’s proven his health and shown he can be a viable starter, his next contract could be expensive. With the Jets already expected to break the bank to extend Williams, can they justify spending much more?

Although he won’t turn 29 until April, Rankins’ upside might be viewed as limited, and the Jets rotate their linemen so much that they may not consider they’ll be getting value for money if replacing him will prove so costly. He may also prefer a chance to remain as a starter rather than finding himself in a situation where someone younger is gradually phased in to relegate him to a rotational backup role.

Although the Jets almost have a blank slate at the defensive tackle position, they do have other in-house options in Nathan Shepherd and Solomon Thomas. It seems unlikely they’ll be able to bring back all three, so they may seek to tempt back one or both of them on a more reasonable contract with the promise of an opportunity to earn a bigger role. Bringing in a youngster via the draft to develop into a starter over the next few years would also seem like a good idea.

Verdict

Whether or not to bring back Rankins is an interesting dilemma for the Jets. He is a solid player but doesn’t necessarily seem like a difference-maker. The team generally coped well in the games he missed over the past few years, so it may be possible to get equivalent production for less money.

As noted, the Jets do value Rankins’ leadership and would probably bring him back without a second thought if the cost wasn’t a potential issue. While Rankins no doubt appreciates and values the Jets’ faith in him over the past few seasons, and the opportunity they gave him to re-establish himself as a starter-level player, that doesn’t necessarily mean he’ll be prepared to sign a team-friendly deal by way of a thank you.