SI's Peter King thinks Nnamdi Asomugha wants to be a Jet. In between writing about driving through Europe and ranking baseball stadiums in, King found the time to squeeze some football talk into his MMQB column with the following.
I think if Asomugha had his way, he'd sign with the Jets. The coach, the team, the city, the causes ... it all appeals to him. There's just this little matter of the Jets being $1.3-million over the cap before they start whittling away at it to get in line with the league's $120.4-million, fairly hard cap. (You can go over the cap in one year by $3 million for one player.)
As Rich Cimini astutely pointed out the other day on his Jets blog, they could restructure Mark Sanchez and Darrelle Revis (due to count a total of $27.8 million against the cap this year), and they could take linebacker David Harris' franchise number of $10.4 million this year and lower it by converting it into the first year of a long-term contract. Remember, Santonio Holmes is a priority to sign, so assume that would take about $7 million this year. The Jets would probably have to cut two or three vets and not re-sign Antonio Cromartie to have any chance of getting into Asomugha's financial league -- even if it means Asomugha would take significantly less to go to New Jersey than, say, to Dallas or Houston.
If you put it that way, it doesn't sound totally crazy. Losing Cromartie would be a complete non issue if the Jets somehow landed Asomugha. Nnamdi is a much, much better corner.
The issue to me is very real skepticism about Revis' willingness to restructure and the front office's willingness to deal with his agents. Revis held out the entire preseason last year to get that deal, and his agents constantly gave the front office headaches. I find it kind of tough to believe the Revis people are going to play ball with the Jets and restructure the deal in a way that would be palatable to the front office. The way that group works, there could easier be demands of more guaratneed money than the Jets are willing to give.
In any event, Asomugha would be tempting. If it came down to maybe cutting Bryan Thomas and LaDainian Tomlinson to create cap room, it would be worth thinking about, but I still can't help but feel that the team would be better off bargain hunting for pass rushers to put less pressure on the cornerbacks. With Revis around, you can give the number two guy help consistently. Focus the money on resigning the two receivers because Mark Sanchez and the offense need the help.