As the Jets prepare for a season with Super-Bowl-or-bust expectations, one of their key players has something else on his mind.
Getting paid.
Center Nick Mangold says that he wants a new contract before the season begins. “I’d love to get something done before the season,” Mangold said, according to Manish Mehta of the Newark Star-Ledger. “It’s a security thing.”
Mangold says that his desire to get a deal done with one year left on his rookie contract has been motivated in part by the fact that former Jets running back Leon Washington suffered a serious leg injury during his own contract year. Given that Washington has been traded, Mangold seems to fear that he’d suffer a similar fate if he sustains a serious injury during the final year of his own contract.
For now, it doesn’t sound like owner Woody Johnson would be inclined to move Mangold. “He’s one of our guys,” Johnson told Mehta. “The timing of all those [potential contracts extensions] is difficult. We’re living with very tenuous rules in terms of who we can pay and how much we can do at this point. Within those rules, we’re trying to do the best job we can.”
Johnson is referring, in a roundabout way, to the 30 percent rule. But for a guy who is entering the final year of his deal, with a base salary of $3.3 million, they should be able to make it happen, Cap’n.
