Rob Ninkovich Says There are a Lot of Red Flags with JC Jackson. So it's Buh-Bye, JC Jackson

Give Rob Ninkovich a ton of credit for one thing, he knows how to use his podcast to generate buzz. If I'm being honest, when he first started to make the rounds giving interviews after his retirement in 2016, he came across as a little too introverted. A bit too self-conscious for a media job. Carefully watching what he was saying, like he was still taking directions from the team not to step into any controversies. But once he got out from under Belichick's shadow, he's learned to drop the occasional well-placed bomb. Like the time he went viral saying Mac Jones was teaching Cam Newton the playbook or ripping Sean McDermott after the Patriots beat the Bills in Buffalo. (Maybe that one didn't age like a prime rib, but it was fun at the time.) He's essentially doing in the media what he did after coming to New England after playing eight games in three seasons for New Orleans and Miami: Reinvented himself. 

And this JC Jackson stuff, vague though it may be, is pretty incendiary. Ninko is a member of the Dynasty's Two Ring Club. Some of the players and coaches he won his last title with in 2016 are still with the organization. His texts still get answered. One has to assume that if he's getting intel on Jackson, it's coming from reliable sources. First hand accounts, as they say. As opposed to the report I got, from a woman I met once three years ago at Baseball Tavern who texted me after something I wrote saying she has friends who work for the team and ...

Which meant I couldn't even go with it. And even that was less of a red flag than a light, grayish pink. 

The larger point being, there are people on the Patriots staff who are concerned about investing the projected $70+ million, $55+ million guaranteed over four years it will take to keep him. 

And since I can already hear how this conversation with Ninkovich will be portrayed on sports radio, with the Pats getting accused of using their minions to trash a player on the way out the door, it's not that at all. This is purely a football decision. Like it was with Malcolm Butler. The coaches, personnel staff and the payroll department all have to come together and determine the player is worth the commitment. Or, if in the case of Butler, if they feel the odds are better he'll keep earning the money, or that they can replace him. In other words, do you gamble on him, or on your own ability to find the next him. In that case, it paid off as within a year, Butler was (at best) the third best corner on the Titans, while getting paid like the CB1 he never was. And they replaced him with Jackson, who has been better. 

I don't agree that with the notion that Mr. INT gets so many INTs because opposing quarterback's don't respect him. I think it's more a function of him taking on so many team's primary targets in a man-heavy scheme. But given the fact the two sides haven't talked since Jackson turned down an offer in midseason and the team took a big pass on franchising him, it's obvious that the red flags Ninkovich is talking about, the missed sessions with the therapists and trainers and so on, mean Belichick and his staff would rather trust their ability to find and develop the next Jackson, rather than be on the hook for north of $50 million to keep this version. As always, it's nothing personal. Just business. And the cornerback business in New England is about to get really interesting.