New York Jets: Will team regret not re-signing Austin Seferian-Jenkins?

The New York Jets didn’t re-sign now Jaguars tight end Austin Seferian-Jenkins. Will they live to regret it?

Now that the 2018 NFL Draft is over, let’s examine the offseason for the New York Jets. They re-signed seven of their own free agents, but one is absent from the list — Austin Seferian-Jenkins.

That left a huge hole at the tight end position. However, will they come to regret the decision to be frugal when it comes to his contract? That depends on the performance of several players that were already in the NFL, namely Terrelle Pryor, Quincy Enunwa and Jordan Leggett.

Let’s be honest with our assessment of the offseason; the presence of Seferian-Jenkins was very important to the Jets in 2017. That, however, was due to the losses of Enunwa and Leggett before the season began. They had mostly blocking tight ends and young wide receivers who weren’t ready to step up and make big contributions.

The Jets also drafted a tight end they hope will become a weapon (Chris Herndon) and signed a player as an undrafted free agent who can play multiple positions, including tight end, in Dimitri Flowers.

In the long-run, the team has to ask themselves if it was worth spending the cap money on him when they can get his production in other ways. They determined the answer was yes. So, they let him head south to Jacksonville.

In the end, it might turn out to be terrible. At the moment, it seems like they had all their ducks in a row and had a Plan B in place if they couldn’t sign ASJ.

Next: NFL Power Rankings 2018: Post-draft edition

His production was good in 2017, given the situation. However, if he didn’t produce more in the length of the contract, it wouldn’t have been worth it. Mike Maccagnan and and Todd Bowles made a calculated risk. For what it’s worth, it seems like they made the correct decision — for now.