It could be worse: The "Parallel Universe" edition

Throughout this series, we've looked at aspects of other teams around the league and compared them to some the main areas where the Jets have been struggling in order to underline the fact maybe they're not as bad as we think.

This week, we're going to take a more literal look at the phrase "it could be worse" and consider what state the Jets might be in right now had they managed to pull off some of the offseason moves they have targeted in recent times.

Let's consider five moves they were rumored to have tried to make, what they would have cost and how those players are faring now:

Dont'a Hightower. The Jets made a push to sign Hightower in free agency before he ultimately re-signed with New England for just under $9 million per year. CBS and Bleacher Report had originally reported that the Jets were offer him $12 million a year but later reports suggested that sources were saying their offer was not close to that amount.

Either way, it seems the Jets were prepared to pay Hightower a ton of money to anchor their defense alongside Darron Lee. However, he recently was ruled out for the rest of the season with a torn pec.

Of course, we can't be sure that Hightower would have suffered a season ending injury as a Jet, or that he won't recover to be worth the money, but his durability was a concern even before the Jets made an offer and that's why many experts and fans had major reservations.

If the Jets had made this move, they'd have about $10m less of cap space for next year and if Hightower's season ended prematurely, then that would leave a big hole in the middle of the defense and perhaps stunt Lee's growth.

Mike Glennon. Other than the Bears, the Jets were the other team linked with a potential move for Glennon during the offseason, opting not to make a move because they were wary of getting into a bidding war.

That appears to have been a wise move as the Bears - even without a bidding war - gave Glennon a $15 per year contract and handed him their starting job. He kept that job for a month before the 1-3 Bears benched Glennon and replaced him with youngster Mitch Trubisky, who is playing well enough that you can probably assume he'll keep it from now on.

Many people weren't sold on Glennon's potential as a starter and he was unimpressive in his four starts, averaging just six yards per attempt, 208 yards and one touchdown per game. He also threw five interceptions and fumbled five times.

Had the Jets made this move, Glennon perhaps would have lasted longer because the Jets don't have a young quarterback with Trubisky's immediate potential. He might even have had a better chance to regain the job if he ever lost it. However, it doesn't seem likely this would have been a good investment.

Still, it was a better investment than trading Muhammad Wilkerson or a first round pick for him, which is what Manish Mehta of the Daily News suggested the Jets should have done in 2016.

Laremy Tunsil. During the 2016 draft, Tunsil's stock started to fall after his accounts were hacked and a controversial video landed on social media. The Jets reportedly were trying to move up from their 20th pick to 7 or 8 to land him.

So far, Tunsil hasn't lived up to his potential, which saw most people projecting him as a top five pick and potentially even the first overall selection. His career got off to a pretty good start at left guard, but he seemed to hit the wall halfway through the season and he didn't fare well whenever they put him at tackle.

This year, he's the full time left tackle and he's already given up two sacks and five penalties after only having given up one sack and six penalties all season in his rookie year.

Tunsil will probably be good eventually, but it's taking a while and they'll probably have to decide in a few years whether or not he's worth a huge contract. From the Jets' perspective, he would have been a nice piece to have, but the key factor here is the cost of acquiring him.

To move from 20 to 8, the draft value chart says the cost would have been 650 points. In order to balance that out, the Jets probably would have had to give up their 2018 second rounder in addition to a couple more 2017 picks, so there'd be no Marcus Maye on the roster right now. There probably also wouldn't be Darron Lee, Christian Hackenberg and Juston Burris either, although that is probably a lot easier to swallow in each case.

Olivier Vernon. The Jets were also rumored to be making a push for Giants pass rusher Olivier Vernon, reportedly in the mix right up until the price crept over $15 million per year. He eventually signed for $17 million.

Had the Jets opted to go the extra mile and beat that offer, they'd essentially have been resigning themselves to the fact that Muhammad Wilkerson would be leaving rather than signing an extension. And with the benefit of hindsight, perhaps that would have been for the best, although there is faint hope that this recent mini-resurgence means he's heading back to his old self.

Would Vernon have been a better investment though? He's been banged up this season and has played in just four games with 13 tackles and two sacks, missing the last three after having been kicked in the ankle. What if he played hurt and struggled to produce in those other games? Would everyone be writing him off as they have been doing all year with Wilkerson? He's only a year younger than Wilkerson, after all.

Vernon was a big part of the Giants pass rush last year and no doubt they are struggling without his contributions this season. However, he hasn't had a double-digit sack season since 2013 and his number of quarterback hits in 2016 fell from a league-leading 40 to just 25. For a one-dimensional speed-to-power edge rusher, does this production warrant such a high contract? Of course the same questions will follow Wilkerson around too unless he regains his pro bowl form more permanently.

Tony Jefferson. Jefferson was another player the Jets targeted during the offseason. Once again reports suggested they had offered more than he eventually signed for although again later reports downplayed that. He eventually signed for $9 million per season.

Had they signed Jefferson, the Jets likely wouldn't have placed such a high priority on the safety position during the draft. However, Jefferson isn't having a great season so far.

Jefferson has already missed more tackles (six) than he did all of last season and he's been beaten for four touchdowns in coverage. That's only one off the league lead for safeties, although current Jets starter Jamal Adams is one of the players with five - all of them over the past four games.

Since adding Jefferson, the Ravens have the 22nd ranked defense in the NFL and the third worst run defense. However, he had a good game as they shut out the Dolphins last week.

For this to have been a good move, Jefferson would have had to play at an elite level with the Jets and that certainly isn't happening for him with the Ravens right now. The Jets will instead be hoping that their young safeties can develop together and play at a similar level for a fraction of the cost.

Conclusions

They say that sometimes the best moves are the ones you don't make and that certainly seems to be the case in some of the examples above. However, perhaps we should be concerned that the Jets even tried to make these moves which we can now say with the benefit of hindsight probably would have backfired.

So, it doesn't necessarily reflect well on the front office, especially when weighing up some of the moves they actually made instead. However, in terms of where they stand looking forward they seem to be in better shape than they might otherwise have been.

They're heading into 2018 with some good draft capital, a ton of cap room and some promising youngsters around whom they can continue the rebuild process. Had they made all of the above moves, they wouldn't have anywhere near as bright of a future and fewer assets with which to improve.