After coming within one game of making it to the Super Bowl for the second straight year the New York Jets are looking to bolster their roster to take the final step and get to and win a Super Bowl. Coming into this off season the Jets had a lot of questions facing them with many key pieces to their team becoming free agents.

So far the Jets haven’t made a “splash” in free agency, but have made some key moves to sure up there team going into this season and haven’t been shy about throwing money around. The first move was to place the franchise tag on David Harris which he signed a tender for $10.4 million. He has since reworked his contract and signed a 4 year $36 million deal.

From there they moved onto the harder part of deciding which key members to retain. With Santonio Holmes, Braylon Edwards, Antonio Cromartie, Brad Smith, Shaun Ellis, Eric Smith, Brodney Pool, as well as kicker Nick Folk and punter Steve Weatherford all due to be free agents there was quite the daunting task facing GM Mike Tannenbaum.

Tannenbaum made Holmes their top priority and re-signed him to a 5 year $50 million deal. The Jets then turned their focus to arguably best available free agent Nnamdi Asomugha and for a few days it seemed as if the Jets were the front runner to land him and potentially have the two best corners in the game on the same team.

Asomugha eventually chose Philadelphia as his destination and the Jets then worked out a deal with Antonio Cromartie signing him to a 4 year $32 million deal. However, due to the Jets waiting on Asomugha to decide they lost all purpose WR Brad Smith to the division rival Bills. Now for all of you counting at home, so far that’s a whopping $118 million between 3 players.

This unfortunate tally ultimately lead to the Jets lack of interest in other big name WR Braylon Edwards. Rumored to have interest in other FA wide receiver Randy Moss, the Jets went with Plaxico Burress and have since signed the former Giants player who recently was released from prison stealing him away from his former team and following in the path of the Eagles who did the same with Mike Vick.

The Jets while taking a gamble on Burress as no one is sure what kind of shape he’s in or where his skills are at after two years away, were able to get him a much cheaper cost than Braylon Edwards and both have the same skill set of a tall deep threat receiver. The Jets have also re-signed S Eric Smith to a 3 year $7.5 million deal helping to sure up their secondary where they are somewhat thin past Revis and Cromartie.

So far the Jets staff has done a great job in being able to hold onto the key pieces they might have lost in free agency and adding talent to make up for what they have lost. With the season only a month away and some cap room still to work with don’t put it past Tannenbaum and coach Rex Ryan to make another big move or two to bring in more talent to a team on the brink of a championship.

Don’t be surprised if they re-sign DE Shaun Ellis to a short deal or go out and make a move for a pass rusher, Osi Umenyiora being the big name out there right now available for trade due to being unhappy with the Giants. So far this hasn’t been the off season of miracles for the Jets as the Eagles with all there big FA signings win that one, but has none the less been exactly what the Jets need to gear up for another shot at the Super Bowl.

Debby Wong / Shutterstock.com

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About the author

Jonathan Ellish
My name is Jonathan Ellish and I'm a recent graduate of URI. I'm a sports fanatic and love New York sports especially. I extensively follow the Jets, Mets, and Knicks.

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