Idzik Could Use A Little Help From His Friends
With the news of Jets safety turned cornerback Antonio Allen suffering a concussion in last night’s “snoopy bowl” against the Giants, it’s time for John Idzik to finally make another move at the CB position. Idzik’s off-season approach to the position has been debated extensively by fans and media alike. He chose to take a gamble on oft-injured Dolphins free agent Dimitri Patterson and to use two of his twelve draft picks to address the position. Thus far, Patterson hasn’t been healthy enough to see game action since the pre-season opener and of his two draft picks, Dexter McDougle is on Injured Reserve with a torn ACL, and Brandon Dixon isn’t expected to be ready this early.
Making a trade for a quality CB at this point in the pre-season won’t be an easy chore. Teams are rarely willing to part with a player who isn’t at the bottom of their depth chart with the start of the season just around the corner. If Idzik is going to find a team willing to deal a CB who can be counted on to contribute, it’s going to have to come from a team with plenty of depth at the position. Despite losing one of their starters (Brandon Browner) in the off-season, it just so happens that one team with quality depth at the CB position is none other than Idzik’s former employers, the Seattle Seahawks. Being familiar with the personnel on the field and in the front-office combined with the Jets desperate situation, a phone call from Idzik to the Seahawks should be a foregone conclusion.
Seattle boasts one of the top cover corners in the NFL in Richard Sherman with 6th round pick Byron Maxwell slated to start on the opposite side. If Idzik were to approach Seattle about a deal, one would expect him to target their third or fourth CB’s, Tharold Simon or Jeremy Lane. Both Simon and Lane are late round picks, having been taken in the 5th and 6th rounds respectively, but the Seahawks have shown the propensity for finding late round starters at the CB position as evidenced by Sherman being selected in the fifth round and the sixth-rounder, Maxwell.
As of this moment, the Jets CB Depth chart is filled with players with little to no experience at the pro-level. Those who have played extensively haven’t played well enough to prevent the Jets from trying to supplant them with Antonio Allen who isn’t only the Jets current safety, but a safety converted from college linebacker. That alone tells you just how much confidence they have in the likes of Kyle Wilson, Ellis Lankster, and Darrin Walls the recently signed LeQuan Lewis.
While it’s entirely possible that Idzik plans to save his draft picks and sign a camp casualty in the coming days and weeks as players shake loose from other teams’ rosters, Jets fans will rest much easier if he were to make a move to acquire a player who is considered worth of an NFL roster spot. What better way to do that than to get a player from the defending champs. John Idzik should know the Seahawks as well as any executive not employed by the organization, so it’s time for Idzik seek out a little help from his friends.
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