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Now the Jets have a little bit of cap space to work with, we can turn some attention to free agency which starts on March 9th.
The Jets secondary was shredded last year and in the NFL in the 21st century, you can't have a pass defense that is beaten like a drum on a regular basis. So I think it's safe to say that we'll be seeing a lot of changes to this unit.
Revis is gone already, and how Gilchrist is still on the roster is a mystery. His place doesn't warrant his cap hit. With the Jets looking to go into reboot mode, it would make sense to cut ties with Gilchrist sooner rather than later. There have also been rumours that the Jets may look to trade Calvin Pryor, possibly during the draft.
The only way to improve the unit, is to ensure you're bringing in better players than you're letting go, and one of the players the Jets are going to seriously consider, is Arizona Cardinals safety Tony Jefferson, according to a source who spoke to Connor Hughes of NJ.com.
I don't think anyone would be disappointed if the Jets landed Jefferson. He's well known to Jets current head coach Todd Bowles, who coached him in Arizona in 2013 and 2014. PFF ranked Jefferson as the 5th best safety in the league in 2016, as the undrafted man out of Oklahoma established himself in both the run and pass game.
Jefferson is coming off a highly impressive season that saw him record 96 tackles with 13 tackles for a loss, 2 forced fumbles and 5 pass defenses. In his 4 year career he's racked up 225 tackles, 5 sacks, 11 passes defended, 2 interceptions and 6 forced fumbles.
Jefferson is the kind of player who can do a little bit of everything, but to get the best out of him, you need to use him in a similar system to Arizona's...it just so happens that the Jets know all about the Arizona system and I have no doubt that both Todd Bowles and Tony Jefferson would be interested in a reunion, and at only 25, Jefferson is the kind of player you can build around.
Teams are allowed to contact free agents as early as March 7th, and sign them when free agency officially opens on March 9th. If I were Mike Maccagnan, I'd have Jefferson's agent on speed dial and he'd be one of my first calls.