Back for another flight: New York Jets re-sign high upside cornerback Arthur Maulet
Arthur Maulet becomes the third player re-signed by the New York Jets this offseason, the cornerback fitting the mold – and contract – that seems to be the favored approach for general manager Joe Douglas thus far through free agency.
The 26-year old Maulet signed a one-year contract with the Jets which he announced Friday morning via social media. The one-year deal gives the Jets immediate cover at cornerback, where the team is thin from top-to-bottom.
The deal also, perhaps most importantly, gives the Jets some flexibility moving forward.
Maulet was solid for the Jets in 2019, his first season with the team. He appeared in 12 games with six starts. He had 38 tackles, two passes defended and an interception. The numbers were easily the best of his three years in the NFL to date.
Pro Football Focus, an analytics site, gave Maulet a 65.2 overall grade on the season.
Maulet joins fellow nickleback Brian Poole, who re-signed two days earlier with the Jets. Like Maulet, last year was Poole’s first season with the Jets.
This most recent signing falls in line with Douglas’ mentality for much of the offseason. The Jets came intro free agency with roughly $53 million in salary cap, fourteenth most in the NFL. It is a decent amount of freedom with which to work, but the Jets multiple holes on both sides of the ball greatly constrict their ability to swing for the fences and add big name, marquee players.
Instead, the Jets have sought to find value and depth in the Tier II and Tier III free agents while not restricting their ability this offseason and next to go after bigger names if they fit their need and budget.
Re-signing players such as the cornerback duo of Poole and Maulet addresses immediate needs on the roster while giving the team flexibility heading into the all-important 2021 offseason where they will have nearly double the salary cap space.
Should Poole and Paulet perform well this year, 2021 could be the offseason where the Jets are able to sign the cornerbacks to multi-year contracts.
