Report: New York Jets Could Trade Antonio Cromartie Instead of Revis
By Josh Hill
Last week, new Jets general manager John Idzik hinted that we could be seeing some seismic changes in New York. Darrelle Revis’ contract is up after this season and New York won’t be able to franchise him, meaning they either have to pay the man or let him walk. The Jets could let him walk after the 2013 season, but they’d much rather get some tools for the future and trade him well before then.
But while all the trade talk has focused on Revis, a new report suggests that the Jets could be trading their other cornerback, Antonio Cromartie, instead.
"Let’s think about this for a second: Cromartie’s trade value never will be higher; he’s coming off arguably his best year. A Cromartie trade would clear $8.2 million in cap room (only $2.5 million in dead money); a Revis trade would actually cost the Jets cap room ($12 million in dead money, as opposed to his current cap charge of $9 million).-ESPN New York"
According to other ESPN New York reports, a “small segment” of the organization prefers trading Cromartie over Revis, including head coach Rex Ryan. The idea behind trading Cromartie over Revis, besides the money aspect of it, is that Ryan wants to clear out some of the less favorable locker room characters and Cromartie is regarded as more of a problem than a solution.
But a problem does exist with Revis. He wants to become the highest paid defensive player in the NFL and he’s coming off of reconstructive knee surgery too. If the Jets don’t re-sign him now they have to trade him now as letting him play out the 2013 season doesn’t really make a whole lot of sense. Mo matter how Revis performs this upcoming season, he’ll command serious money on the open market and someone is going to give it to him.
The Jets would like to free themselves from the financial mess they’ve been put in and tying up more money in Revis isn’t the ideal way to do that. But if they can get something close to what they’d have gotten for Revis by trading Cromartie, Idzik might be able to convince himself that keeping Revis is something he’s interested in doing after all.