The One Big Move The New York Jets Might Still Make During The 2012 Off-Season
The New York Jets have signed veteran free agents, drafted players, and acquired undrafted rookie free agents. They haven’t addressed all their problems, but there might be one big move the Jets are hoping they can pull off: a trade for a star running back.
Right now there are two elite running backs, Matt Forte of the Chicago Bears and Ray Rice of the Baltimore Ravens, who are involved in prolonged holdout disputes with their respective teams. Mike Tannenbaum, the general manager of the Jets, has made trades for star offensive players in the past (i.e. Thomas Jones, Brett Favre, and Santonio Holmes) and the team still doesn’t have a true number one tailback.
New York has just under eight million dollars left in cap space, according to nyjetscap.com, and Tannenbaum is known for making creative deals that would benefit the team’s salary cap situation in the short term. The fact that there are two possible targets only raises the probability the Jets could acquire a star at the position.
If any fan thinks it’s inconceivable that either the Bears or Ravens would part with their running backs they should consider two key things. First one needs to know that Forte has been demanding a new deal since before the 2011 regular season, yet hasn’t received a legitimate one yet, so relations between him and the Bears might be damaged beyond repair, especially after they signed running back Michael Bush. In the case of the Ravens they had less than two million dollars in cap space left, according to Aaron Wilson of FOX Sports/Scout.com, not long before the draft.
Due to the Ravens cap situation their general manager, Ozzie Newsome, might not be able to make a good offer to Rice. Based on Tannenbaum’s past history of trading future draft picks and the current problems facing the two proposed trading partners, Jets fans might be seeing another star play-maker join their team before the start of the 2012 regular season.
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If Bears have to move him maybe Shonn Greene, Mike Devito and a 2013 2nd and 4th would be a reasonable deal. Thomas Jones came for only a swap of 2nds in 2007 draft. Rookie salary cap makes picks more valuable and Forte > Jones.
I’m not sure the Bears would want Greene or DeVito since they already have better players at both positions, RB and DT, on their roster. I could see Tannenbaum trading the team’s 2nd and 4th round picks in exchange for Forte though.