Jets Offseason Moves: The Difficulty in Trading Muhammad Wilkerson

Dom Cosentino had an article yesterday where he pointed to an interesting tweet by Charley Casserly. Casserly is a former NFL executive who was Mike Maccagnan's boss in Washington and Houston. He also helped lead the search that led to the Jets hiring Maccagnan.

Hard for #Jets to trade Wilkerson/Due to # of gd DL in Draft & contract along with draft picks makes it doubtful trade happens @nflnetwork

— Charley Casserly (@CharleyCasserly) March 1, 2016

One of the points I keep seeing people make that I disagree with is that the Jets can easily get back a first round pick for Wilkerson in a trade. The rationale for the Jets making such a move is that they can get more value out of spending the money that would be earmarked for Wilkerson elsewhere. And then the first round pick would add additional value.

The problem is the other team might have the same perspective. Bringing in Wilkerson means giving out a premium contract. That contract will prevent the team from signing other players. Now on top of that, the team has to give up a chance to draft a premium cheap young player? At what point does the price become too high? Would the other team perhaps be better served signing a less talented free agent for less money and keeping its pick? Free agents only cost money.

I get the impression the Jets want to keep Wilkerson anyway, but a trade is not going to be easy to pull off anyway. This is why I view it as an unlikely scenario.