Mike Tannenbaum: 'It's up to us to find solutions'

The New York Jets have a challenge facing them beyond their demanding AFC East schedule.

How will they hammer out long-term deals for cornerback Darrelle Revis, center Nick Mangold, offensive tackle D'Brickshaw Ferguson and linebacker David Harris?

And how will they maintain a happy locker room if they're unable to strike at least a deal for Revis?

"Moving forward, that’s been our plan, that we want to keep as many of our good young players as possible," Jets general manager Mike Tannenbaum told reporters, per the Newark Star-Ledger. "So as we’ve built our team over the last couple years, we’ve kept that in mind and, moving forward, that remains our priority. When those deals will happen, that’s hard to say. But from where I sit in the world, the same passion and energy and the same talented people that acquired Darrelle Revis and David Harris and D'Brickashaw, it’s the same organization that trained them, developed them and coached them, and now it’s up to us to find solutions to keep them long-term. It’s the next step of the process. We have to go get the players, we've got to coach them and develop them, and now we've got to go ahead and figure out a way to sign them and come up with deals that are good for both sides.

"I wouldn’t say that there's any one factor that’s outcome determinative. I would just say it’s a myriad of factors because of all the things you look at it -- again, just knowing what class they're in. For example, we've had guys on this team that have been an unrestricted free agent, now they're a restricted free agent; they could remain a restricted free agent. Is there a cap? What's the cap? Is it 20 percent lower? Is it 20 percent higher? What's the penalty if you go over the cap? Franchise tags, transition tags. How long can you prorate money in the new system? There’s so many variables that take into account what I would consider a strategic plan."

Is he optimistic that deals will be struck?

Not exactly.

"In these jobs you either embrace challenges or it's not the industry for you, so I love the challenge," Tannenbaum said. "I hope all four of those players will be here long-term. I sit here today, and I have every reason to believe they will be. Again, will they sign today or tomorrow, that’s really hard to say, but over the next two to five years I expect them to be Jets and should be jets fro a long, long time.

"I wish it could all be done tomorrow, that would make my life a lot easier, but I just don’t think that’s realistic, given the set of circumstances we’ve been dealt. We’re proceeding, but I don’t think there will be four long-term deals done this year. Could it happen? Sure. But I think that’s going to be hard to accomplish, again, given all the rules."

Revis is the Jets' top priority. 

"We’re working hard to see if there’s a landing spot that’s good for both sides," Tannenbaum said. "Darrelle is a guy that’s done everything we’ve asked on the field, off the field, he’s a leader, he plays hurt, he’s done everything that we could ask any of our players to do. It's incumbent upon us to embrace challenges and not -- I think the easy solution would be, 'You know what, this is not a great year because the CBA is going to be up in six months and you know what, we’ll just wait.'

"And that day may come, but I'm committed to working tirelessly, my staff and I, talking with (owner) Woody (Johnson) and (head coach) Rex (Ryan) on a day to day basis. We’re looking at every conceivable way to see if there’s a landing spot that’s good for both sides, because I think that’s the right thing to do. Again, I think the easy thing to do would have been to do nothing, but Darrelle truly deserves a new deal, and hopefully there’s a spot that’s good for both sides."

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