Why I think we should franchise Jake Long

[aquabob]

I'd like to start by saying that I do not believe Jake Long is anywhere near worth $15m per year. However, with the franchise tag, that $15 million will be a one-time cost. It will not cripple our cap for years to come. This would give us a chance to see if Jake can come back from his injuries. If he plays like he played last year, we let him walk. If he steps up and plays like the franchise LT we came to expect, we sign him long term. IMO, our oline will deterioate significantly without Long. I like Martin, but he was flat out getting owed in the NE game. It was painful to watch. He is just not ready to start at LT in this league. I like him as a RT, but not as a LT. If we let Long go, we are again CREATING A BIG GAPING HOLE, just as we did when we let Marshall go. We can't keep creating holes and expecting to get better. This needs to be an offseason where we get better, where we fill holes not create them. Franchising Long would free us up from needing to take an OL early in the draft. We have plenty of cap and using $15m for just one year to see what we have in Jake is worth it.

I know the cost is steep, but it really won't affect us long term (and we have plenty of cash in the short term), so why not? I'd rather pay Jake $15m for one year and if he sucks, let him go. If he ends up playing great, how miserable would we all be? Especially if our Oline starts looking like it used to in the 2004-2006 time frame. We need to protect our young QB just as much as we need to get him weapons. To me franchsing Long is the best risk/reward option we have. If we sign Jake long term with a big contract and his play continues to decline, that would be a much bigger risk than simply paying $15m for just one year and then cutting ties completely. Also, letting him walk is a big risk too as we do not have enough depth at tackle.

What say you?

[DDTDON]

I like your reasoning on this. I like Jake, I agree with this.

[NorFlaFin]

If Long qualifies I'd rather give Jake the 1st round tender and hope somebody gives me 1st or later round pic for Long.

[Tailgun]

Yeah, the only way I franchise tag Jake Long at this point would be if I thought I could get the Bears (#20) or the Colts (#24) to trade us their first round pick for him (both teams are very happy with their recent Fins exchanges so maybe we could sucker them one more time). That would be some sheer sorcery for the FO, of course, so I doubt it's in the cards. Time to move on...

[miamiron]

Jake Long and the draft class = half the available salary cap
Jake Long is not ideal for a zone blocking scheme
$15.36 million could get us two very good offensive free agent lineman
TIME TO MOVE ON

[SCall13]

Jake Long and the draft class = half the available salary cap
Jake Long is not ideal for a zone blocking scheme
$15.36 million could get us two very good offensive free agent lineman
TIME TO MOVE ON

I agree. I realize that Martin is not as good as Long at LT (when Long was playing at a high level). But Martin also didn't have a complete off season to practice/improve at LT. I don't want us to end up using our 12 for another O-lineman and I'd hate to spend big $$$ on Long when we can use that cap space to bring in play makers to help this team. It's a gamble, but one worth taking on Martin, IMO. Not really much of a bigger gamble than throwing $15 million at Long and end up not getting much in return. If he walks, it's more advantageous to us really. We keep the $$$, no early draft pick on a tackle, we give Martin a chance to develop, and we get a pretty high comp pick for Long next season.

[DzakkH13]

No to tagging Long. It's a no win scenario.

If he stays healthy and plays well on the tag, then you have set the bar for his new contract negations at $15 million per year.

$15 million per year is to much for any position not named Franchise QB.

[Birdmond]

I believe the days of offensive lineman getting big bucks is coming to an end. With the rookie cap there is just no reason to put huge money on one position on the OL. You will see 5 lineman making a total of 20 million and not one guy making 15 million. It just makes sense from a cap standpoint. Put your money on playmakers and guys that sack the QB. Just watch, after Flacco gets his 20 million the Ravens will adopt this approach.

[AJFins87]

Yeah, the only way I franchise tag Jake Long at this point would be if I thought I could get the Bears (#20) or the Colts (#24) to trade us their first round pick for him (both teams are very happy with their recent Fins exchanges so maybe we could sucker them one more time). That would be some sheer sorcery for the FO, of course, so I doubt it's in the cards. Time to move on...

If we could get one of those 1st round picks I am all in. That would mean trade back from 12 to like 18ish, and have 3 1st round picks. Patterson, Eifert, and Rhodes or Lane Johnson. Then we still have 2 second round picks to address other needs. Just saying dreaming is fun. lol.

[Imperium]

The problem with giving jake $15M is twofold imo. First it affects the team’s ability to resign or acquire talent. Half that amount probably gets us a top free agent guard who you could argue could have a bigger impact on the OL's overall performance than transitioning from Long to Martin. 2nd that number isn’t too far off of Long's potential cap hit over the first two years of a long term deal. The Dolphins are reportedly offering him something in the $5M-$8M range. That is a fair number for the risk the team will take given his injury history.

I admittedly only watched the NE game on tape delay & since I already knew the dreadful outcome, I didn’t pay very close attention to the game. But my recollection is that Martin didn’t play all that poorly. I recall most of the pressure coming from the right side. Am I way off base on that?