The Jets are open to the idea of retaining left tackle Ryan Clady for the 2017 season, but are “not inclined” to pay him his $10MM base salary for the upcoming campaign, tweets Jason La Canfora of CBSSports.com, suggesting that Clady would need to agree to a paycut in order to avoid release.
[RELATED: Jets Researching Deshaun Watson]
The Jets restructured Clady’s contract at the end of last month, but as Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk subsequently reported, the alteration didn’t do much to change Clady’s status. New York is still faced with a $1MM decision on Clady later this month thanks to a roster bonus, and Clady’s $10MM non-guaranteed base salary remains intact. As Florio speculated, the Jets could pay the roster bonus and then attempt to talk Clady into a pay reduction, but that could be unnecessary risk and a potential waste of $1MM.
Clady, 30, played in only eight games last season before suffering a season-ending rotator cuff injury, the latest in a long line of health issues that Clady has dealt with throughout his career. In that half-season of play, Clady wasn’t all that effective, as Pro Football Focus graded him as the league’s No. 62 tackle among 78 qualifiers. Clady’s replacement, Ben Ijalana, wasn’t much better (No. 60), and is now scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent.
If Clady is released and hits the open market, he’d join a barren left tackle group that includes Andrew Whitworth, Riley Reiff, Matt Kalil, and Mike Remmers, among others.
A “barren” LT group? Not clear what you meant by that.
It’s self explanatory, there isn’t any good LT available and the one that is good is in his mid 30s