The Kerry Rhodes trade is truly an addition by subtraction after listening to him during an interview with Michael Kay on 1050 ESPN radio. Rhodes left some parting shots in the interview and on twitter. On a side note, I find it funny that Jets fans’ knock on Rhodes is that he can’t tackle and Chargers fans’ knock on Jets newly acquired cornerback, Antonio Cromartie, is that he can’t tackle either. 

Articles like these make me want to destroy Bleacher Report. There are plenty more terrible articles on that website. 

Thomas Jones has signed a two-year deal, $5 million deal with the Kansas City Chiefs which officials puts an end to his career as a New York Jet. 

Former Jets receiver, Laverneus Coles, has expressed interest in rejoining the team for a third time and the NY Daily News heard the Jets have similar interest. I’m not in favor of Coles coming back to New York. He’s 32-years old and may not be able to bang in the middle of the field as a slot receiver. I’d rather see the Jets use their second round pick in the draft on a receiver. Coles credits a poor 2009 season to Bengals quarterback, Carson Palmer, only liking to throw to tall receivers. 

The market for Leon Washington is currently rumored to be the 49ers and there is speculation at ESPN that the Patriots could use him too. A team would have to give up a second round pick to sign Washington from the Jets. 

Free agent veteran running back LaDainian Tomlinson will visit with the New York Jets Friday, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter. He is visiting with the Vikings Thursday. If he doesn’t strike a deal with Minnesota, he’ll be visiting with New York. 

Mike Tannenbuam and the Jets have their work cut out for them this off-season to make the team better.

On Saturday, Rhodes was traded. The Jets traded Rhodes to the Cardinals for a fourth round pick in this year’s draft and a seventh round pick in next year’s draft. Rhodes will fill in at safety for Antrel Rolle, who was recently signed as a free agent by the New York Giants. 

The Jets didn’t get a good value for Rhodes. A fourth round pick will rarely turn out to be a player with a similar caliber as Rhodes. But Rhodes and the Jets’ coaching staff weren’t seeing eye-to-eye, so the Jets probably are happy that they are moving forward without Rhodes, which to them, is worth the low value in return. 

Personally, I’m elated Rhodes is gone. It was worth the trade for the fact that the Jets got rid of Rhodes, more so than receiving a fourth round pick.

If rumors a few days ago were true that the Cardinals would have sent Anquan Boldin to the Jets for Rhodes, I don’t understand why the Jets wouldn’t have gone that route instead of acquiring a fourth round pick for him. Although there are some question marks surrounding Boldin, acquiring him and signing him to a three or four year deal wouldn’t have hit the Jets’ pockets too hard since they got rid of Rhodes’ contract. It would have been a few million dollars more a season. It’s not like they were adding Boldin and a a new contract salary without losing a salary, like the Ravens did when they acquired Bolden for draft picks. The Jets would have dropped Rhodes’ salary at the same time. Maybe the rumors weren’t true or maybe the Jets weren’t so high on Boldin. 

With the absence of Rhodes, what do the Jets do at safety? Are they content with Eric Smith, who stepped in as the starter when the coaching staff benched Rhodes for a number of games in ’09? Or do they feel they need to acquire a different safety or draft one?

By trading Rhodes, the Jets get rid of his salary and also don’t have to pay a $2 million roster bonus he was due next week.

I’m done trying to make any sense out of what the Jets are doing this off-season. They have some sort of plan that Jet fans can’t put a finger on. Godspeed, Jets.

There is a lot of noise surrounding the Jets tonight and working under realistic terms and with rumors that have surfaced, here is my best case scenerio of how the off-season should play out for the Jets:

- Trade Kerry Rhodes to the Arizona Cardinals for Anquan Boldin.
- Don’t match an offer for Leon Washington and accept a compensatory second round pick. By acquiring Cromartie, the Jets may not need the additional second round pick and if a team doesn’t make an offer to Washington, the Jets would be happy to keep him.
- Sign Adalius Thomas at outside linebacker.
– Make an offer to the Panthers for CB Richard Marshall who was tendered for a second round pick and hope they don’t match it. (via David Wyatt of Gang Green Nation)* Jets have acquired cornerback Antonio Cromartie from the San Diego Chargers.
- With the 29th pick in the draft, select the next highest rated player on their board among RBs or DEs.*
- With a second round pick, select a player at the position they didn’t in the first round at RB or DE.*

* If the Jets can’t get a cornerback through free agency then things change (I’m not expecting the Jets to trade for Antonio Cromartie [Oh how wrong I was] or Nnamdi Asomugha). The final three points of the scenario become:

- Sign a RB like Chester Taylor, Willie Parker or a different veteran. (They could do this in the first scenario too, which would mean they wouldn’t need to draft a RB in the 1st or 2nd round)
– With the 29th pick in the draft, select a CB like Myron Lewis (Vanderbilt), Donovan Warren (Michigan), Perrish Cox (Oklahoma State) or Kyle Wilson (Boise State). No need to use that 29th overall pick on a CB now with Cromartie coming. 
- With two second round picks, select a DE and a DT or S or add depth at OL.

What do you think the Jets should do this off-season?

Adam Schein of SNY reported on Loud Mouths Wednesday that the Arizona Cardinals are interested in trading for Jets safety Kerry Rhodes. Schein says the Cardinals would trade either receiver Anquan Boldin or a third-round draft pick to the Jets in exchange for Rhodes. 

For the Jets, this is a no-brainer. Rhodes was a cast-off in 2009 and was benched for a number of games. His replacement, Eric Smith, did a nice job as the starter. Acquiring Anquan Boldin for Rhodes would be a great trade for the Jets. Even receiving a third-round pick is good enough in exchange for Rhodes. 

With question marks in their backfield and what could be a diminishing running game, adding a veteran receiver like Boldin would be a huge help for the Jets offense. What the Jets lose in their running game due to the release of Thomas Jones, they would gain in the passing game due to the acquisition of Anquan Boldin. Even if Boldin isn’t the same player he was a few years ago, they are getting him for a guy that the Jets’ coaching staff wrote off for a period of games in 2009. 

If the Cardinals are truly interested in acquiring Rhodes and they are willing to part with Boldin, the Jets should immediately sign on to this deal.

On SNY’s show “Wheelhouse” Rhodes said, “There is going to be a little bit of talk between us in the next couple of weeks but I want to be here and the team wants me here.”

If that’s the case then the Jets have one less need they have to address this offseason. They already need to fill voids at the cornerback position. Having Rhodes be committed to the team could be good for both sides.

After Rhodes was benched during the middle of the season many people thought he would want to be traded this offseason. He ended that talk Wednesday.

“To be honest, I really do want to be here. This is where I want to be, this is New York,” Rhodes said. “This is the team that gave me my first shot. I mean, a fourth-rounder. A lot of people passed up on me coming out but they gave me the shot. They gave me the big contract here. So I want to be here and all the fans know I want to be here. I’m just letting the fans know I do want to be here. I want to end my career here, end my career as a Jet.”

What’s better to know is that the feelings are mutual. The Jets want Rhodes to stay too.

“He (Rex) wants me to be here and the organziation wants me to be here,” Rhodes said. “So it’s a little bit of me humbling myself and talking to Rex some more and seeing what happens from there.”

Rhodes is due a $2 million roster bonus in March.

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.