Muhammad Wilkerson already on wrong side with Jets

By Luis Tirado Jr. | Jun 4, 2015

Defensive end Muhammad Wilkerson is already handling his contract situation with the New York Jets in all the wrong ways. Instead of supporting his team during a rebuilding stage with a new leadership regime and mentality in place, he’s holding out from attending organized team activities due to not getting a new contract extension done. While many understand where he’s coming from, his stance is one that will only lead to more frustrations since general manager Mike Maccagnan is not budging to get it done at this point in time.

At the current moment, there is no sense of urgency to get Wilkerson’s contract extended. He’s under contract until the end of the season and is currently set on making $6.9 million this year. The Jets have done a fantastic job with their salary cap situation thus far and aren’t in any rush to redo his contract for that matter considering that he’s signed until next year.

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When that time comes, the Jets also have the franchise tag in their back pocket if things still aren’t settled between both sides. Wilkerson should have taken the golden advantage of working with his new leadership and teammates to set the example of what a veteran should be doing during organized team activities. I’m sure the higher-ups would have taken notice and remembered that when they were ready to make a new contract offer to him.

Instead, Wilkerson is holding out and doing cryptic tweets when other defensive lineman in the NFL around him are getting their contract extensions done. Take a look at what he tweeted about the subject when Cameron Jordan got his contract extended by the New Orleans Saints:

Yup I see how this works

— Muhammad Wilkerson (@mowilkerson) June 2, 2015

Needless to say, he has a chip on his shoulder but it’s not like he’s getting paid chump change this upcoming season. Close to $7 million dollars earned for 2015 isn’t anything to sneeze at but with him acting like this, he’s actually making things even harder to get a deal done with the Jets in the future.

If he attended every organized team activity this offseason, proved his worth to both Maccagnan and new head coach Todd Bowles while doing his part to get all the new faces acclimated to life on the Jets, he would have definitely made his case to get a new contract in the works done due to taking the high road.

Instead, he chose the route that many athletes do in his current situation and is still holding onto hope that the Jets throw a huge long-term contract and millions of dollars his way based on his past performance. This situation could end up being quite the frustrating one since the ball is definitely in the Jets court as they are looking more and more likely to handle all his contract situation in the 2016 offseason.

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