The Jets finally made a move for a dynamic playmaker in Percy Harvin, but did they wait too long?
You never expect any major trades to happen during the regular season of any sport — much less the NFL — , and that’s why they always send shock waves throughout the league. On Friday, one of those trades happened, as the defending Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks shipped wide receiver/kick returner Percy Harvin to the New York Jets for a conditional draft pick. The pick is assumed to be a 2015 sixth-rounder that could become a fourth-rounder depending on Harvin’s performance.
It is hard to tell whether this trade was expected by those in the Seahawks’ locker room, as numerous reports are saying some players expected, while others were blindsided by the move.
Marshawn Lynch tweeted out “Damn they got my ni**a….”
Harvin has undoubtedly been a dynamic playmaker for Seattle since last season. Despite playing only one game in 2013, Harvin had a couple nice kick returns against Denver in their Super Bowl victory. This season, Harvin has been much more effective, with 133 yards receiving and 92 kick return yards that included a touchdown against San Diego.
Those stats don’t look too impressive, but that’s not necessarily his fault. ESPN’s Adam Schefter said Seattle didn’t feel Harvin was a fit there, which might help explain why he only had 26 targets in five games this season.
In addition, Seattle had other reasoning why Harvin was shipped to New York (via ESPN).
"As for why Seattle traded Harvin, several sources confirmed to ESPN.com’s Terry Blount that the team had grown tired of the receiver’s act, believing he had become too much of a destructive force in the locker room. In addition, two team sources said Harvin had physical confrontations in the locker room with teammates, especially on the offensive side of the ball.The Seattle Times reported that Harvin gave a black eye to Golden Tate prior to the Super Bowl and also cut the chin of Doug Baldwin during a fight this preseason."
Even if Seattle didn’t make these instances known to New York–which I would hope they did–Harvin is a good risk to take for a struggling Jets team that is 1-6 after losing to New England on Thursday night.
Even after signing Eric Decker in the offseason, Geno Smith and the Jets’ offense has struggled. The running game has looked great behind Chris Ivory’s 432 yards and three touchdowns, but Smith has had trouble leading the passing offense to success. Decker’s hamstring issues have held him back, leaving Smith in the position he was in last season: virtually no receivers to throw to. Whenever Decker goes down now, Smith will have Harvin to throw to assuming he stays healthy.
In the return game, Harvin will be able to make an impact, as well. Special teams scores can change a game as Harvin showed with the Seahawks. If he can break free for a score, or even just put them in better field position, Smith and the offense will have much less pressure to move the ball down the field if they’re a little bit closer to midfield every possession.
The Jets are in a good position here, because even if Harvin isn’t happy in New York and displays the same immaturity he did in Seattle, cutting ties with him won’t cost them much. They only traded that one 2015 draft pick away to Seattle in return for Harvin, and it was only a mid-rounder. I’m sure Rex Ryan and New York’s front office won’t be losing too much sleep over that one draft pick.
The only problem is the trade was made too late in the season. If New York was able to snag Harvin away from Seattle this time last week, or even just before Thursday night’s game against the Patriots, they could have a little more hope for this season. Smith looked a lot better than his previous few games versus New England, and in return the Jets only lost by a mere two points. If Harvin was a Jet for that game, New York could have crept just a little bit closer to New England in the AFC East standings.
At 1-6, the Jets season is all but over. Even if they somehow won the rest of their games, grabbing a wild card spot away from San Diego or Baltimore/Cincinnati/Cleveland will require lots of help from the rest of the league.
The Jets have to hope Harvin pans out, because even if he can’t help them much this season, he could be a huge weapon for them in the coming years. If he doesn’t, New York loses that draft pick for nothing. Oh well.
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