What will he say?
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- June
- 13
The Jets open their three-day minicamp tomorrow – their last three days of work until training camp opens the last week of July – and for one of the few times in Eric Mangini’s tenure, it has the potential to be a volatile day.
Veteran left guard Pete Kendall, extremely unhappy with his current deal and looking to renegotiate – something the Jets have shown little interest in doing – is expected to be in camp after leaving the team’s voluntary offseason training program. (Voluntary, of course, being an NFLPA-mandated word). Mangini, of course, was extremely displeased with Kendall’s absence and he made it clear last week he expects “everybody’’ to be here for minicamp.
And Kendall is expected to be on the field tomorrow. But Kendall is also a guy who’s always been good at expressing himself so there’s a chance he’ll have a few things to say if we get a chance to talk to him.
Somehow, though, I think it’s a 50-50 shot, at best, that Kendall will say anything to further inflame the situation. If I had to guess, he’ll come off the field and say he’s not talking about the subject.
Still, it makes for a little bit of intrigue. And the greater point is, this is something that Mangini has stayed clear of as Jets coach. Other than minor back and forths with Laveranues Coles or the time he may or may not have hinted that Chad Pennington’s job was in danger, Mangini has not had a he said-he said situation. Not that Mangini is in charge of contracts but he’s still the organization’s point man in terms of media relations.
This entry was posted
on Wednesday, June 13th, 2007 at 11:32 am by Andrew Gross.
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Jane McManus 
Andrew—
On the subject of contracts, I saw someone bring this up on another website—has there been any discussion of Woody extending or re-negotiating the contracts of Mangini and Tannenbaum? I’d hate to see either of these guys get picked off by another team . . .
You know at this point i just feel like we should give Kendall some more money. He wants a million more- lets give him 750 k. He has been a really good player, influence, mentor for this team and having content players pays huge dividends later on. Especially considered our line isnt the strongest to begin with.
Well Evan, if you want to see how Tangini handle a real crisis, they should follow your advice. Kendall gets $5+ mil last year (before the surge in salaries) to redo his contract (which had been averaging about $3 mil per) in order to get him to lower his salary to 1.7 this year. So after signing the deal (because other guys not much better than he get much better deals), he whines, complains, and sits out the voluntaries. What to do?
Right! Reward him for complaining about a team that only accellerated his payments last year (protection against injury) and added an extra mil (over the two years). I guess that entitles Cotch to complain next year. Or Coles or Penny anytime. Or maybe…
Redoing Kendall’s contract at his age and having already agreed to spend $7 mil on him last year and this year would be about as dumb a move as a team with a storied history of dumb moves could make). And that does not even take into account that he did not play all that well last year…
harlan
Not sure if yoiu know that Kendall got an extra 300 thousand last year BUT took 3 million off his base pay thi syear. It benefited both sides. I wonder if Kendal was promised they would redo his deal this year? I think the thing to do if your the JEts is pretend nothing is going on. If Kendal comes in and wins the job so be it. The smart thing to do may have been to give him a little cash at the end of last year after he did such a good job on the field and as a mentor, this way it would have looked more like the club rewarding a Vetern leader and not a guy holdiong them hostage for more loot.The horse has left the barn at this point.
[...] Gross ponders what Pete Kendall might say when he gets the chance [...]
It’s not a matter of “a deal’s a deal”..after all, the JETS brass were not bashful in asking Chad to rework his contract..but I think what’s going on is Kendall used the wrong tactic with Tangini.. what he should have done is shown up for OTA’s and quietly ( as in privately, no media splash) requested management to consider beefing up his pay..that way Tangini could have considered rewarding him.. this way, he’s put their backs to the wall publicly and I think they need to demonstrate they will not let a player hold them hostage.
We are seeing the business side of this sport rear its head. All we have heard about are the good things the Jets are doing in the camps and the workouts but this is the other side, we found this out with Justin Miller. There are 53 guys that have to be thought about. Kendall had ben a fixture and right now, the Jets do need him, the same is true for McCareins. We cannot let a few dollars hurt our depth and what we are trying to accomplish here.
All I know is that the Jets are more than likely to have a very suspect offensive line without him around this year. I don’t know what they have their sleeves, but as price gets driven by supply and demand, I’d be inclined to throw this dog a modest bone and keep him in house for one more year.
Just thought of this…Why not rework his contract completely to give him some more money this year but make this the last year of his contract?
Gang green man, if the Jets want other players to act like PK, to whine to the media through their agent or at pressers, miss OTAs, etc. they should give him more money.
These guys may not be rocket scientists, but they can all figure out make an ass out of yourself and be a distraction, and the Jets will give you money or let you be a FA early when you can sign with one of their division opponents for more money.
Is that the message you really want to send?
h
Harlan, you misunderstood my point.
If we rework his contract to give him an extra million and a half or so this year, but make this year his last year, we would be giving him less money then if we keep him around under his curent contract. We also wouldn’t have to deal with a potential locker room cancer…