New York Jets: Roster must be built year by year until 2020

The New York Jets, like the rest of the NFL, aren’t in a position to build long-term, and they must try to catch lightning in a bottle to win one Super Bowl over the next three years.

On Aug. 4, 2011, the NFL and the NFLPA ratified the current collective bargaining agreement (CBA), and it secured labor peace for 10 years. We are coming to the end, and that’s part of the reason the franchises in the NFL — especially the New York Jets — didn’t sign a lot of long-term free agent deals this offseason.

The current CBA ends after the 2020 season. That’s why the Jets only signed two deals longer than four years, because no one knows the ramifications of the deals they sign past that season. So, it would behoove the team to not lock in long-term past 2020.

Fans are demanding this team put its best possible team on the field to compete long-term, and that’s not feasible. The Jets may have had a lot of cap space in 2018, and according to Over the Cap, they will have a lot in 2019. For the Jets, that may be the norm for 2019 and 2020. Expect a lot of shorter deals trying to catch lightning in a bottle, at least before a new CBA is reached.

No one knows what the salary landscape of the NFL will be after this new CBA. There could be a demand for fully guaranteed contract, which would drastically change how they would have to have a salary cap, and even if the salary cap would be viable with fully guaranteed contracts. There could be insurance given to retired players, and that would effect the income of the players, because it would have to come from somewhere.

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In the end, it’s only about 2018 this year. It’s not about five years down the road or even three years down the road. It’s one year at a time, and will be until the CBA is finally ratified.