Shaun Ellis agreed to terms on a one-year contract with the New England Patriots over the weekend, ending his 11 year stay with the New York Jets.
The Jets offered Ellis a one year deal worth the veteran’s minimum ($910k), but Ellis rejected their offer and headed north to Foxboro to join Bill Belichick.
Ellis was actually drafted by the Jets with one of the picks they received for compensation for letting Belichick sign with the Patriots.
It’s not hard to see why Ellis joined the Patriots. He will make $4 million this year with an extra $1 million available in incentives, more than 4 times the Jets were offering.
But that begs the questions, why were the Jets only willing to offer the veteran’s minimum to their longest tenured player who also was a valuable piece to their defense?
We still don’t know for sure, but ESPN’s Ross Tucker offered an explanation. Tucker said that Ellis wasn’t a great practice player and that he was the one guy who never seemed to buy into what the Jets were doing. As a result, they thought he would be a bad influence on the young defenisve lineman (especially Muhammad Wilkerson and Kenrick Ellis) and they didn’t want him around them.
It’s a plausible explanation and one I’m more interested in hearing about.
I think Rex Ryan said it best. “The fact that he chose them … there’s no way I’m going to wish him well. There’s no chance of that.”
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