Five Mo years.
The Jets and star defensive end Muhammad Wilkerson pulled off a stunner Friday, reaching an agreement on a five-year, $86 million contract just before the NFL deadline for franchise tag players to sign one.
The move comes after months of stalled talks and frustration mounting on both sides at the failure to get a deal done. The 4 p.m. deadline Friday gave the sides the push they needed to hammer out a deal. If they had failed to reach one, they could not have negotiated again until after the season and Wilkerson would have played under the $15.7 million franchise tag.
Instead, the 26-year-old was rewarded with the contract he has sought for two years. The deal includes $37 million guaranteed in the first two years and $54 million over three years.
The two sides began to talk about a week ago and negotiations picked up Friday morning. It went right down to the deadline before the deal was reached.
Wilkerson, the team’s first-round pick in 2011, had a monster 2015 season with a career-high 12 sacks and made his first Pro Bowl, but it ended with a broken leg in the season finale in Buffalo. He is expected to be fully recovered for the season, though.
The signing is a major victory for general manager Mike Maccagnan, who has had two major issues hanging over his head this offseason: Wilkerson and free agent quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick. Locking up Wilkerson, a homegrown Jet, was huge for Maccagnan and owner Woody Johnson, who ultimately writes the checks.
Now, Fitzpatrick is the only loose end for Maccagnan, but it is a huge one. Wilkerson’s signing should free up some salary cap space. He was scheduled to count $15.7 million against the cap if he played under the franchise tag. The cap number for 2016 under the new deal is probably less. Cap space has never been the major issue in the Fitzpatrick negotiation, though. It is about what he sees as his worth versus what the Jets see as his worth. It could allow Maccagnan more creativity with the deal.
Wilkerson’s deal likely won’t have any immediate effect on fellow defensive lineman Sheldon Richardson, either. Richardson is under contract through 2017. After the 2017 season, the Jets then may face the Wilkerson or Richardson choice, having to decide whether to trade one of them.
This is the first time the team has given one of its drafted players a big-money deal since Mark Sanchez’s extension in 2012. It also bucked the trend of the Jets letting their star players leave, from Keyshawn Johnson to John Abraham to Darrelle Revis.
Locking up Wilkerson avoids any training camp drama that would have ensued had it not gotten done. Wilkerson was prepared to sit out camp if the Jets did not sign him long-term, which would have created a distraction for the team.
The Wilkerson contract saga has stretched on for two years, with him first seeking a new deal in 2014 when John Idzik was the general manager. Nothing came close to happening then. Last season when Maccagnan took over, the two sides had negotiations but failed to reach a deal by the season, when Wilkerson and agent Chad Wiestling cut talks off.
This winter, the Jets offered him a contract he did not accept before putting the franchise tag on him. The defensive line market exploded in March and Wilkerson’s price tag went up. He skipped the voluntary offseason program, but returned to the Jets’ headquarters to get treatment on his leg beginning in late May. It was a sign of goodwill from Wilkerson because the Jets were upset he was rehabbing the leg in Arizona, not under the supervision of their doctors.
Last month, Wilkerson then expressed his frustration with the situation in an interview with The Post during the week the Jets were holding minicamp.
All of the bad feelings vanished Friday when the Jets kept Wilkerson.