THE calamitous summer-long Pete Kendall saga has come to a close. Good for the Jets, who feel like they’ve rid themselves of a distraction.
The Jets, who traded Kendall to the Redskins for a conditional draft pick (either a 2009 fourth- or fifth-rounder), feel like winners over the outcome. But by dealing away Kendall, have the Jets really made their team better?
Absolutely not.
Kendall was clearly the best left guard the Jets had on their roster, perhaps their best guard, period. Management’s treatment of Kendall, who was embroiled in a nasty contract dispute, went well over the line, becoming personal and vindictive.
The trade has left the Jets without a proven starter on the roster to replace Kendall a mere two weeks from the season opener. One of the truest adages in football is that teams should not mess with their offensive line. It’s the one unit that most demands continuity and chemistry. By unloading Kendall, the Jets dealt a blow to both the continuity and chemistry of their line.
Kendall, who was seeking a $1 million raise to bring his salary to a reasonable $2.7 million (which he’s now getting from the Redskins), made a rather rapid transition from his status last season as a solid, selfless veteran who was instrumental in tutoring first-round draft picks, left tackle D’Brickashaw Ferguson and center Nick Mangold, to a team cancer this summer.
Adrien Clarke, the journeyman with four NFL starts who was inserted ahead of Kendall for the first part of training camp, already has been demoted. Now the Jets have rookie sixth-round draft pick Jacob Bender, from Division I-AA Nicholls State, slated to start at left guard against the Giants tomorrow night.
Does that sound like they’ve bettered themselves for their Sept. 9 season opener against the Patriots?
“We’ve played rookies here on the offensive line in the past and [they] have played and done a really good job,” Eric Mangini said.
No offense to Bender, but those rookies Mangini referred to were first-round picks from major college programs.
As for the Jets’ stance about not renegotiating contracts, watch in the coming days while they renegotiate right guard Brandon Moore’s contract, making them look like hypocrites. Moore, like Kendall, is underpaid. After a summer of toying with Kendall’s psyche by demoting him and making him play center, a position he detests, the Jets’ spin yesterday was predictably positive.
“I think everybody who was involved has benefited from it, so I thought that it was a really positive thing for each party,” Mangini said.
Really?
Kendall, a locker-room leader, never wanted to leave the Jets. He was, in fact, very emotional Wednesday night when he met with GM Mike Tannenbaum after the trade was consummated.
It remains to be seen how this will prove to be positive for the Jets, who must now worry about protecting Chad Pennington, their injury-prone franchise quarterback, possibly with an untested rookie starting at left guard.
Bender had better turn out to be, at the very least, an adequate starting guard or Jets management will have some serious ‘splaining to do. If the Jets end up missing Kendall, which is a pretty good possibility, they’ll be left to wonder whether it was worth saving that $1 million to make a point.