In the year-and-a-half since Eric Mangini became the Jets’ head coach, the team has made no secret that it wants to copy the strategies that made Mangini’s former employer, the New England Patriots, three-time Super Bowl champions. Those strategies encompass everything from the defense Mangini implemented to the way the Jets evaluate draft picks.

For guard Pete Kendall, the Jets’ use of the Patriots’ approach is bad news. Kendall, who is due to make $1.7 million this season, has been outspoken about his anger with his contract and the Jets’ refusal to renegotiate it. Kendall’s salary is well below what a player of his skills could make on the open market, and he has threatened to hold out or be a disruptive force in training camp if the Jets won’t give him a raise of another million dollars a year.

But there’s no chance of the Jets giving Kendall a raise because the Jets follow the Patriots’ model of holding the line against aging players who complain about their salaries. More than any other NFL team, the Patriots have developed a reputation around the league for refusing to overpay for veteran players. That reputation was earned in hard-nosed negotiations with players, including safety Lawyer Milloy (who was released just days before the start of the 2003 season when he refused to take a pay cut), wide receiver Troy Brown (who ultimately agreed to take less money playing for the Patriots than he could have made elsewhere), and wide receiver Deion Branch (whom the Patriots traded to the Seattle Seahawks after a training camp holdout).

Considering that the Patriots have won the AFC East five of the last six years and the Super Bowl three of the last six years, no one will dispute that the hard-line approach is the right approach. No one except Kendall, that is.

As outspoken as Kendall has been, the Jets have met his complaints mostly with silence. When reporters asked Mangini about Kendall at a press conference during the Jets’ off-season activities, Mangini answered with generalities about the way NFL contract negotiations work and never even mentioned Kendall by name.

Mangini and Jets general manager Mike Tannenbaum might actually be glad that Kendall is publicly complaining, because it gives them a chance to demonstrate that they won’t back down. No matter what the resolution to the dispute is — Kendall could be traded, he could be released, or he could play under his current contract — the Jets can use their refusal to back down to demonstrate to every player agent in the league that they won’t be bullied in future contract negotiations.

While the Patriots’ approach toward veteran contracts usually works, its success rate isn’t 100%. With the benefit of hindsight, the Patriots probably would have been better off giving in to Branch’s demands before last season — a go-to receiver for quarterback Tom Brady might have been the difference in getting the Patriots past the Indianapolis Colts and into the Super Bowl. But that says more about the lack of a backup plan for the Patriots than it does about the Patriots’ negotiating style.

Do the Jets have an effective Plan B if Kendall isn’t on the team this season? That is up in the air. His replacement would likely be one of three backups currently on the roster, Adrien Clarke, Wade Smith, or Matt McChesney, none of whom has much experience. Clarke showed promise when he played 14 games and started four for the Philadelphia Eagles in 2005, but he missed all of 2006 with a back injury. Smith played in seven games, all as a backup, for the Jets last year. McChesney previously played defensive tackle, but the Jets sent him to the Frankfurt Galaxy of NFL Europa so he could spend the off-season getting experience at guard.

None of those players is as good, right now, as Kendall, which might be a problem. The Jets’ running game was subpar last season, and losing Kendall could make it even worse. Kendall’s importance to the Jets’ running game last year is best demonstrated by the Jets’ statistics in the two games Kendall missed. In those two games — a loss to the Patriots and a win over the Buffalo Bills — the Jets averaged 63 rushing yards, 2.6 yards a carry and three rushing first downs. In the 14 games Kendall played, the Jets averaged 115 rushing yards, 3.6 yards a carry and seven rushing first downs.

But Kendall isn’t as important to the team as he was a year ago. Last year Kendall’s experience was invaluable, as he provided stability lining up at left guard between two rookies, left tackle D’Brickashaw Ferguson and center Nick Mangold. But Ferguson and Mangold are more experienced now, meaning they’ll need less veteran help. And Jets offensive line coach Tony Wise has been an NFL assistant for 18 years and earned a good reputation for developing young talent. Clarke, Smith, or McChesney would be a step down from Kendall, but the Jets will manage without him.

And that means even though Kendall is correct in thinking that, by NFL standards, he is underpaid, the Jets have no reason even to consider renegotiating his contract. The Patriots have shown that the way to build a great NFL team in the salary-cap era is to be frugal. If the Jets are ever going to win a title, they’ll need to follow the Patriots’ lead, even if veteran leaders like Kendall don’t make it to the Super Bowl with them.

Mr. Smith is a writer for FootballOutsiders.com.