Report: Jets Told Ryan Fitzpatrick They Were Moving on If He Didn't Sign Today

Ryan Fitzpatrick is back in the fold for the Jets. Some of the details have emerged on the last minute maneuverings to get a deal done.

Jets increased their offer Wed from $8M to $12M and gave Fitz until 7 p.m. ET to take deal or team would be "moving on," per @AdamSchefter

— Rich Cimini (@RichCimini) July 27, 2016

This speaks to a few things.

Mike Maccagnan was a man of his word when he said the deadline was the start of training camp to get something done with Fitzpatrick.

We are also seeing a pattern emerge with Maccagnan in his negotiating style. He doesn't seem to show his cards until the game is almost over. He saves his best offer for the very end. We can assume his limit with Fitzpatrick was always $12 million from the very start. He held off on this offer to see whether he could get the quarterback to bite on a cheaper deal. He showed a similar style in his negotiations with Muhammad Wilkerson and Darron Lee as well. All three negotiations went to the last minute. All three had happy endings.

I think it's tough to dislike this deal from the Jets perspective. I have never been overly focused on the total dollar amount for Fitzpatrick. For me, it was always about limiting the commitment to one year. In the short run, he probably is the best bet for this team. He certainly isn't a viable long-term answer, though. I'd rather pay a little bit more on a short deal to limit the risk and have the flexibility to move on after a year should Fitzpatrick stumble.

Maccagnan comes out of this looking pretty good. He played poker and won. He didn't tie himself to Fitzpatrick long-term or cave to the quarterback's $16 million demands and still got his man.