Two blogs are throwing around the idea of the Jets and Giants making a trade that would send safety Kerry Rhodes to the Giants and defensive end Osi Umenyiora to the Jets. The Giants and Jets blogs at SB Nation started this idea and I jumped into the comment discussion below the posts. It was interesting to see what the fans of the two teams had to say about the wild idea.

Fans were split about the proposed “fake” trade and it is highly unlikely a trade of this nature would occur. That being said, if hypothetically the trade was made of Rhodes for Umenyiora straight up, who would have gotten the better end the deal?

The Giants didn’t have great play out of their secondary this year, especially their safeties, but the defense as a whole struggled too. The secondary’s struggles were from a combination of things.  The front seven didn’t have a good enough pass rush this year and the Giants had some injuries in the secondary forcing some back-ups, like CC Brown and Aaron Rouse, to play. Michael Johnson was the Giants primary free safety, but he didn’t have a good season by any means. The Giants’ stud strong safety, Kenny Phillips, played in two games before being placed on the IR for the rest of the year. If Phillips comes back healthy, adding Kerry Rhodes at free safety would create a formidable duo of safeties in the Giants secondary. Rhodes is a better player than any of the players that stepped in at either safety position last season. Rhodes would be a pretty good upgrade for the Giants compared to who they put out there last year.

The Jets are going to need to add another outside linebacker/defensive end and trading Kerry Rhodes, a guy that didn’t excel in Rex Ryan’s defense like people thought he would, for an OLB/DE would be great. Kerry Rhodes’ trade value is around a 4th round pick, 3rd rounder at best according to some sources at Newsday on twitter. The thing is, Umenyiora may not fit into a 3-4 defense. Rex does like to run a good amount of 4-3, but in the base 3-4, would Osi be a defensive end or an outside linebacker? Could he play well at either position? I can’t see Umenyiora playing a major role in a 3-4 defense. Questions arise as to whether he can cover the pass while playing outside linebacker and whether he can stop the run as a defensive end in the 3-4 defense. In the fairy tale land of this trade happening, the two teams should be allowed trial runs with the proposed incoming players before the deal is finalized.

It is being said that Kerry Rhodes will talk about his future tonight on SNY. The fog around Rhodes’ future with the New York Jets may clear up  after tonight. As fun as it is talking about a trade of two New York players, it’s extremely unlikely a trade of some sort would be made between the two New York teams that include Rhodes and Umenyiora.