NEW YORK JETS DAILY CLIPS

March 12, 2015

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Table of Contents

ASSOCIATED PRESS ................................................................................................................................................ 2

Jets finalize deal to bring Darrelle Revis back 'home' (Dennis Waszak Jr.) ............................................................... 2

Jets acquire QB Ryan Fitzpatrick from Texans for draft pick (Dennis Waszak Jr.) ..................................................... 3

Jets sign former Seahawks guard James Carpenter (Dennis Waszak Jr.) .................................................................. 4

Jets' Hakim challenges Marshall to race for jersey number (Dennis Waszak Jr.) ...................................................... 4

THE RECORD .......................................................................................................................................................... 5

Jets officially sign Darrelle Revis (J.P. Pelzman) ......................................................................................................... 5

Jets nearing deal for Texans quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick (J.P. Pelzman) ................................................................ 6

NEWSDAY .............................................................................................................................................................. 6

Darrelle Revis on returning to Jets: 'This is where I wanted to be' (Kimberley Martin) ............................................ 6

Jets trade for Ryan Fitzpatrick (Kimberley Martin) ................................................................................................... 7

Jets are in a holding pattern at QB with Fitzpatrick deal (Bob Glauber) ................................................................... 8

ESPN NEW YORK .................................................................................................................................................... 9

Revis aims for Super Bowl with Jets (Rich Cimini) ..................................................................................................... 9

Jets acquire Ryan Fitzpatrick (Rich Cimini) .............................................................................................................. 10

Jets' next move should be Mariota (Ian O'Connor) ................................................................................................. 11

NJ.COM ................................................................................................................................................................ 13

Darrelle Revis says he left New England Patriots to help deliver a Super Bowl title to the Jets (Darryl Slater) ...... 13

Jets announce trade with Houston Texans for Ryan Fitzpatrick (Dom Cosentino) ................................................. 14

Jets receiver Saalim Hakim wants Brandon Marshall to race him for his jersey number (Darryl Slater) ................ 15

NEW YORK POST .................................................................................................................................................. 16

Revis: Money not the biggest reason why I returned to the Jets (Brian Costello) .................................................. 16

Jets trade for Ryan Fitzpatrick as veteran QB option (Brian Costello) .................................................................... 17

Darrelle Revis is ruthless, expensive and worth every penny (Brian Costello) ....................................................... 18

Woody Johnson’s redeeming quality showed up at perfect time (Steve Serby) .................................................... 19

Revis to Cromartie: How about a ‘Batman and Robin’ sequel? (Brian Costello) ..................................................... 21

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS ...................................................................................................................................... 22

Darrelle Revis says heart, not $70 million, led him back to Jets (Seth Walder) ...................................................... 22

Jets WR receiver issues footrace challenge to new teammate Brandon Marshall for jersey No. 15 (Seth Walder) ................................................................................................................................................................................. 23

Jets show smarts by trading for Harvard-educated QB Ryan Fitzpatrick (Seth Walder) ......................................... 23

NEW YORK TIMES ................................................................................................................................................ 24

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Jets Acquire Ryan Fitzpatrick; Darrelle Revis Says Return Is ‘Surreal’ (Tom Pedulla & Zach Schobrun) ................. 24

WALL STREET JOURNAL ....................................................................................................................................... 25

Jets Re-Introduce Darrelle Revis to New York (Stu Woo) ........................................................................................ 26

Flurry of Moves Shows That Jets Want to Win Now (Stu Woo) .............................................................................. 26

METRO NEW YORK .............................................................................................................................................. 28

Ryan Fitzpatrick lands with Jets (Kristian Dyer) ....................................................................................................... 28

Source: Ryan Fitzpatrick 'the favorite' to be Jets starting 2015 QB (Kristian Dyer) ................................................ 28

WEDNESDAY’S SPORTS TRANSACTIONS............................................................................................................... 29

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Jets finalize deal to bring Darrelle Revis back 'home' (Dennis Waszak Jr.) Associated Press March 12, 2015

http://www.pro32.ap.org/article/jets-finalize-deal-bring-darrelle-revis-back-home

NEW YORK (AP) — Darrelle Revis is back where he started, and he wants to make good on his vow.

That means trying to deliver a Super Bowl title to the New York Jets.

Revis signed a five-year contract worth $70 million, with $39 million fully guaranteed, on Wednesday night — about 24 hours after agreeing to the deal with the Jets.

"It was a no-brainer to come back here, because I know the organization," Revis said during a conference call. "I have a lot of history here. I've just got a lot of ties here. This is where my heart is."

Revis was New York's first-round draft pick in 2007 when then-general manager Mike Tannenbaum traded up to No. 14 to select the former University of Pittsburgh star. At that time, Revis told Tannenbaum he would do "everything in my power" to bring the championship-starved Jets a Lombardi Trophy.

"I still feel that way," Ravis said. "That was probably one of the big reasons to really come back home, because I still have that mindset."

At the very least, Revis now knows what it takes to win a title — something the Jets haven't done since Joe Namath made good on his guarantee in 1969. After six years with the Jets, including a 2012 season that was cut short by a serious knee injury, he was traded to Tampa Bay in 2013 to cap what had been a messy divorce filled with contract disputes. He was released by the Buccaneers after that season, and signed by rival New England — a scenario that sickened Jets fans.

Then, he helped the Patriots win the Super Bowl. Once a Jets fan favorite, he was now the enemy — with a championship ring.

"It's been a whirlwind," Revis said. "That's how things turned out."

The Patriots declined a $20 million option for 2015, making him a free agent. The cornerback would have counted $25 million against the Patriots' salary cap this year, and it was expected New England wouldn't pay that exorbitant amount.

New Jets general manager Mike Maccagnan and coach Todd Bowles were aggressive in bringing back one of the franchise's biggest stars in recent years. Revis had established a reputation on the field with the Jets as a shutdown cornerback, routinely holding wide receivers to quiet games — and earning the nickname "Revis Island."

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After not signing him last offseason, owner Woody Johnson and the Jets desperately wanted him back. And, they got him with an enormous deal.

The Jets fans who cheered him for six years and booed him the last two were back celebrating his return on social media and sports talk radio.

"I was on both sides of the fence with that experience," Revis said with a laugh. "I've been on both sides and now I'm back in the green and white. ... My experience on both sides of the fence, they've been awesome and they will continue to be awesome when I get to play against them twice a year again."

Revis will make $33 million in the first two years of the deal, and $48 million through the first three, making him one of the highest-paid players ever at his position. Arizona's Patrick Peterson also signed a five-year, $70 million contract extension last season in a deal that included $48 million guaranteed.

"It's been a crazy last two or three years," Revis said. "But at the same time, I grew a lot as a man and as a football player."

Revis joins former Cleveland cornerback Buster Skrine in the Jets' revamped secondary. New York officially announced earlier in the day that they had signed Skrine, who agreed on a four-year deal on Tuesday.

The Jets aren't done yet, either. They have been negotiating with Antonio Cromartie, trying to bring the Pro Bowl cornerback back after a season with the Arizona Cardinals. Revis and Cromartie played three seasons together with the Jets, making for a formidable tandem in then-coach Rex Ryan's defense.

"I'm going to get in contact with him very soon here," Revis said, "and try to convince him to hopefully come back and join our Batman-and-Robin tandem we had a couple of years ago."

Revis alone instantly upgrades the Jets' secondary, a glaring weak spot in Ryan's defense last season after then-GM John Idzik failed to sufficiently upgrade it through free agency, and young cornerbacks Dee Milliner and Dexter McDougle suffered season-ending injuries.

"I understand they struggled last year, but this is a new year," Revis said. "It's pretty surreal, but at the same time, it's exciting. All that I've went through, and the history that I have with this organization, it's just great. They accepted me back with open arms. We've been through a lot."

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Jets acquire QB Ryan Fitzpatrick from Texans for draft pick (Dennis Waszak Jr.) Associated Press March 11, 2015

http://www.pro32.ap.org/article/jets-acquire-qb-ryan-fitzpatrick-texans-draft-pick

NEW YORK (AP) — Ryan Fitzpatrick is reuniting with Chan Gailey and giving the New York Jets some competition for Geno Smith.

The Jets acquired the veteran quarterback from the Houston Texans on Wednesday for a conditional late-round draft pick.

Fitzpatrick is familiar with the offense run by Gailey, the Jets' new offensive coordinator, from their three seasons together with the Buffalo Bills. The 32-year-old quarterback is expected to compete with Smith, entering his third season, to be New York's starting quarterback.

Michael Vick was Smith's backup last year, but started just three games as the Jets tried to give the young quarterback every opportunity to improve. Vick is a free agent and is not expected back, so Gailey and new head coach Todd Bowles needed another quarterback with NFL experience. The Jets could also look

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at bringing in another quarterback — perhaps Florida State's Jameis Winston, Oregon's Marcus Mariota or UCLA's Brett Hundley, perhaps — in the NFL draft.

Fitzpatrick started 12 games last season for the Texans, throwing for 2,483 yards and 17 touchdowns along with eight interceptions. He became expendable when the Texans signed free agent Brian Hoyer and re-signed Ryan Mallett.

Fitzpatrick was a seventh-round draft pick by St. Louis out of Harvard in 2005. He has also spent time with Cincinnati and Tennessee, but his best seasons came when Gailey was coach of the Bills — throwing for at least 3,000 yards and 23 TDs in each of those three years.

A year after signing with Buffalo in 2009, Fitzpatrick took over for Trent Edwards as the Bills' starting quarterback in Week 3 of that season and threw for 23 touchdowns. He had a career-best 3,832 yards the following season, along with 24 TDs and 23 INTs. Fitzpatrick followed that up by throwing for 3,400 yards, 24 TDs and 16 INTs in 2012.

He signed with Tennessee as a free agent in 2013 and had 14 touchdown passes while starting 11 games in place of the injured Jake Locker.

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Jets sign former Seahawks guard James Carpenter (Dennis Waszak Jr.) Associated Press March 11, 2015

http://www.pro32.ap.org/article/jets-sign-former-seahawks-guard-james-carpenter

NEW YORK (AP) — The New York Jets have signed former Seattle Seahawks guard James Carpenter.

Carpenter was a first-round draft pick out of Alabama in 2011 by the Seahawks, and moved from right tackle to left guard in the NFL. He started 13 regular-season games last year, missed three games with an injured ankle, and returned for Seattle's playoff games.

The signing Wednesday gives the Jets depth on their offensive line, and the 26-year-old Carpenter is likely to move into the starting spot at left guard. Oday Aboushi and Brian Winters, who have started there the last two seasons, will be in the for the right guard spot. Willie Colon has been the Jets' right guard the past two seasons, but is a free agent and not expected to be re-signed.

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Jets' Hakim challenges Marshall to race for jersey number (Dennis Waszak Jr.) Associated Press March 11, 2015

http://www.pro32.ap.org/article/jets-hakim-challenges-marshall-race-jersey-number

NEW YORK (AP) — Brandon Marshall might be in for a race to get his familiar No. 15 jersey.

The Jets' newest wide receiver, whose trade from Chicago to New York became official Tuesday, has worn the same jersey number for most of his NFL career. But it currently belongs to backup receiver Saalim Hakim, who issued a challenge to Marshall in a video posted on his Instagram page Wednesday night.

In the post, which was apparently deleted about an hour after going up, the speedy Hakim declared that he wants to race Marshall in a 40-yard dash to earn the jersey number. Hakim says Marshall can have the number if he beats him. But, if Hakim wins, "he can give me $25,000 and he can have the number."

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Marshall wore No. 15 during his first four NFL seasons in Denver, then No. 19 in Miami for two seasons before going back to 15 in Chicago the last three years.

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THE RECORD

Jets officially sign Darrelle Revis (J.P. Pelzman) THE RECORD MARCH 11, 2015

http://www.northjersey.com/sports/jets-officially-sign-darrelle-revis-1.1286829

Darrelle Revis experienced a Super Bowl victory with New England last month.

Now his goal is to do the same thing with the team that originally drafted him.

Revis, who officially signed with the Jets on Wednesday, said on a conference call that he wants to bring a championship to the Jets.

“It’s pretty surreal,” Revis said of returning to the Jets, who selected hin in the first round in 2007. “But at the same time, it’s exciting. All that I’ve gone through, and the history that I have with this organization, it’s just great. They’ve accepted me back with open arms. We’ve been through a lot.

“It was a no-brainer to come here, because I know the organization,” Revis added. “I have a lot of history here. I love being around the people I met in the organization. I’ve just got a lot of ties here. This is where my heart is.”

He said he told then-general manager Mike Tannenbaum after he was drafted that “I would do everything in my power to try to bring a championship to this organization. I still feel that way. It’s something that I want to be a part of, and I want to bring to the organization. … That was probably one of the big reasons to come back home, because I still have that mind-set.”

The Jets improved their defense immensely by signing Revis and weakened defending Super Bowl champ New England’s in the process.

Revis, a six-time Pro Bowl selection, returned to his previous form last season with the Patriots, two years after a devastating knee injury that cut short his 2012 campaign, his final one in his first tour of duty as a Jet. His return to the Jets will be yet another fascinating chapter in the ongoing rivalry between the two AFC East franchises.

Plus, Revis’ uncanny ability to shut down the opposition’s top receiver will fit in well with the blitz-happy style of new coach Todd Bowles, who likes his defenses to blitz even more than Rex Ryan did.

Also Wednesday, the Jets acquired veteran quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick from Houston for a conditional 2016 draft pick.

Fitzpatrick, an 11th-year pro, has 123 touchdown passes and 101 interceptions in his NFL career, and likely will compete with incumbent Geno Smith for the starting job. The Jets also could draft a quarterback in the spring to make it a three-way competition.

The draft choice the Jets gave up for Fitzpatrick will be a seventh-rounder, although it could escalate to a sixth-round pick depending upon how much Fitzpatrick plays for the Jets in 2015.

Fitzpatrick became expendable when the Texans re-signed Ryan Mallett and agreed to terms on a deal with free-agent quarterback Brian Hoyer, formerly of Cleveland. Fitzpatrick had 17 touchdown passes and

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eight interceptions last season for Houston, and had six TD passes in a win over Tennessee on Nov. 30. His season ended when he suffered a fractured leg at Indianapolis on Dec. 14.

The 32-year-old signal caller has experience in new offensive coordinator Chan Gailey’s system. Fitzpatrick played for Buffalo from 2009-12, and Gailey was head coach of the Bills from 2010-12.

The Jets also signed Seattle guard James Carpenter, a free agent who is entering his fifth NFL season and likely will be a starter for the Jets in 2015. The contract is a four-year deal, according to a source.

The Jets also announced the signing of former Cleveland cornerback Buster Skrine, who agreed to a four-year deal Tuesday. It’s unclear whether he will be a starter or a slot corner.

And the Jets still were pursuing another one of their former corners, Antonio Cromartie, late Wednesday night.

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Jets nearing deal for Texans quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick (J.P. Pelzman) THE RECORD MARCH 11, 2015

http://www.northjersey.com/sports/jets-nearing-deal-for-texans-quarterback-ryan-fitzpatrick-1.1286604

The Jets have reached an agreement to acquire veteran quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick from the Houston Texans, according to multiple reports.

The Jets would owe Houston a conditional 2016 draft pick. It would be a seventh-round pick, but could become a sixth-rounder based on the amount of Fitzpatrick's playing time with the Jets in 2015.

Fitzpatrick, an 11th-year pro, has 123 touchdown passes and 101 interceptions in his NFL career and likely will compete with incumbent Geno Smith for the starting job. The Jets also could draft a quarterback next month to make it a three-way competition.

Fitzpatrick became expendable when the Texans re-signed quarterback Ryan Mallett and agreed to terms on a deal with free-agent quarterback Brian Hoyer, formerly of Cleveland.

Fitzpatrick had 17 touchdown passes and eight interceptions last season for Houston, and had six TD passes in a win over Tennessee on Nov. 30. His season ended when he suffered a fractured leg at Indianapolis on Dec. 14.

The 32-year-old signalcaller has experience in new Jets offensive coordinator Chan Gailey's system. Fitzpatrick played for Buffalo from 2009-12, and Gailey was head coach of the Bills from 2010-12.

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NEWSDAY

Darrelle Revis on returning to Jets: 'This is where I wanted to be' (Kimberley Martin) Newsday March 11, 2015

http://www.newsday.com/sports/football/jets/darrelle-revis-very-excited-to-be-back-with-jets-1.10048990

Darrelle Revis is where he always wanted to be.

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And shortly after he signed on the dotted line, he contemplated whether he could see himself retiring as a Jet.

"That would be awesome if that did happen," he said with a chuckle during a late-night conference call with reporters Wednesday night. "That would be pretty awesome, man."

Hours earlier, Revis and his cousin, Jimmy Moore, boarded a jet in Fort Lauderdale at 2:21 p.m. and touched down in Morristown, New Jersey, two hours, 18 minutes later. With his physical complete and with a five-year, $70-million contract of which $39 million is guaranteed, Revis officially became a Jet for the second time.

"It's pretty surreal. But at the same time, it's exciting," he said of rejoining the Jets. " . . . We've been through a lot."

He said "a number of teams called" but in the end, "it was a no-brainer to come here cause I know the organization."

The Jets moved up 11 spots to draft Revis with the 14th overall pick in 2007 and he spent six seasons with them before his career took a dramatic turn. After undergoing major knee surgery in 2012, he was traded to the Buccaneers by former Jets general manager John Idzik.

After an "unbelievable" Super Bowl win with the Patriots, Revis is looking forward to a new chapter with first-year GM Mike Maccagnan and coach Todd Bowles.

"The main thing I really wanted to focus on was doing the right thing -- coming home," said Revis, who became a free agent on Tuesday after the Patriots declined to pick up his $20-million option for the 2014 season. "This is where I wanted to be."

Revis conceded that "everyone has an opinion" on his ability to secure hefty contracts from various teams. But he said matter-of-factly: "Everybody's got to get paid based on how they perform on the field."

Revis wouldn't discuss financial offers or whether the Patriots came close to keeping him. Instead, he stressed the importance of "all the history I have with the New York Jets."

"I think the bigger decision for me was to just come back home," he said. "Come home . . . and make it a marriage."

The Jets also officially announced the signings of former Browns cornerback Buster Skrine and offensive lineman James Carpenter. Strong safety Marcus Gilchrist visited the Jets, but no deal has been announced. Cornerback Antonio Cromartie also wants to rejoin Revis and the Jets, but both sides have yet to agree on contract figures.

Revis said he plans to call Cromartie soon and "hopefully" persuade him to re-sign with the Jets so they can have their "Batman and Robin tandem" again.

Revis said he hasn't talked to Bowles about what his role will be this season, but he told the team's website that he's "real excited" to be a part of Bowles' defense.

Said Revis: "I think I can be a piece to the puzzle."

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Jets trade for Ryan Fitzpatrick (Kimberley Martin) Newsday March 11, 2015

http://www.newsday.com/sports/football/jets/jets-trade-for-ryan-fitzpatrick-1.10046295

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The Jets announced Wednesday that they had completed a trade with the Texans for Ryan Fitzpatrick. Although the team did not give the terms of the agreement, the Houston Chronicle reported the Texans will get a seventh-round pick that can become a sixth-rounder depending on Fitzpatrick's playing time.

Fitzpatrick, 32, has struggled at times in a 10-year career with the Rams, Bengals, Bills, Titans and Texans. But he's known for being a student of the game and has proved to be dependable.

Fitzpatrick played well under new Jets offensive coordinator Chan Gailey during their three seasons together in Buffalo (2010-12). He threw for 10,232 yards, completing 60 percent of his passes with 71 touchdowns and 54 interceptions for Gailey when he was coach of the Bills.

The Jets had expressed interest in Browns quarterback Brian Hoyer, but he agreed to a deal with Houston. The Texans also re-signed quarterback Ryan Mallett to a two-year deal this week. That helped pave the way for the Jets to bring Fitzpatrick -- and his trademark scruffy, red beard -- to the Big Apple.

Last season, he started 12 games for the Texans, throwing for 2,483 yards, 17 TDs and eight interceptions. The Harvard-educated native of Arizona was a seventh-round pick of the Rams in 2005.

Fitzpatrick can serve the Jets in several ways. Either he'll compete with Smith or a quarterback they may draft in April -- possibly Marcus Mariota or Brett Hundley -- or Fitzpatrick will serve as a bridge, starting for the time being while mentoring the young quarterback to take the reins later.

Last offseason, the Jets signed Michael Vick to "push'' Smith, former offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg said. But the anticipated open competition never materialized and Smith started. He was benched for Vick from Weeks 9 through 11, but the team went back to Smith.

Vick is an unrestricted free agent who won't return, and Smith is in Year 3, looking for another opportunity to prove he's much improved.

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Jets are in a holding pattern at QB with Fitzpatrick deal (Bob Glauber) Newsday March 11, 2015

http://www.newsday.com/sports/columnists/bob-glauber/jets-are-in-a-holding-pattern-at-qb-with-fitzpatrick-deal-1.10047680

We interrupt this feel-good moment for Jets fans with the news of their latest quarterback acquisition, a sobering reminder that all the dynamic moves of the past several days can't diminish the fact that their biggest problem on the roster won't be solved any time soon.

For all the goodwill created by the reacquisition of Darrelle Revis, the trade for Brandon Marshall, the signing of Buster Skrine, and the re-signings of David Harris and Bilal Powell, the Jets still don't have a trustworthy alternative at quarterback. And the trade for Ryan Fitzpatrick of the Texans doesn't change that equation.

With Fitzpatrick now set to challenge incumbent Geno Smith for the starting job, the Jets continue to operate without a franchise-caliber quarterback. And unless they get lucky on draft day by somehow selecting Oregon's Marcus Mariota (assuming Tampa Bay does the expected and takes Jameis Winston first overall), the Jets' situation won't change as a result of the Fitzpatrick trade.

Fitzpatrick has made the most of his limited talent, getting plenty of opportunities in a league where there simply aren't enough good quarterbacks to go around. A former Ivy League star at Harvard, Fitzpatrick has played for the Rams, Bengals, Bills, Titans and Texans, and the Jets will make it half a dozen stops for the 32-year-old.

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He's better suited as a backup, but in the quarterback-starved NFL, he has had more than his share of opportunities with 89 starts, a 33-55-1 record, 123 touchdown passes and 101 interceptions. The numbers scream mediocrity, and there shouldn't be an expectation of anything other than that if he wins what is expected to be a quarterback competition with Smith.

Fitzpatrick is the kind of quarterback Bill Parcells refers to as a "hold-the-fort guy," a player who is just good enough to play in this league but is basically holding things together as best he can until a more suitable alternative can be found.

It's the role Doug Pederson played for the Eagles in 1999 until Donovan McNabb was ready to become the starter. Don Majkowski was the Packers' hold-the-fort guy until he got hurt and Brett Favre began his Hall of Fame-caliber career in 1992.The Jets ought to hope that Smith beats out Fitzpatrick over the summer, because if Smith can't play any better than his journeyman teammate, then it means he has no future with the team. What Smith needs to do is play more like he did against the Patriots and Dolphins on the road last season, when he nearly beat Tom Brady in Foxborough and pitched a perfect game (158.3 rating) against the Dolphins in the regular-season finale.

If he can get to that level on a more consistent basis -- and if you do it more than once, you should be able to do it more and more as you gain experience -- then Smith has a chance to be a functional quarterback who can succeed with good players around him. But if it's going to be more bad Geno, like his awful game against the Bills, when he produced a 0.0 rating with three picks, then he's not going to last much longer with the Jets.

Fitzpatrick was the odd man out in Houston, where the Texans re-signed Ryan Mallett and brought in free agent Bryan Hoyer from the Browns. And he does make some sense with the Jets because of his familiarity with GM Mike Maccagnan, who came here from Houston, and offensive coordinator Chan Gailey, who coached Fitzpatrick for three seasons in Buffalo.

In fact, Fitzpatrick enjoyed his best years in the NFL while playing for Gailey from 2010-12. He played so well early in the 2011 season that the Bills rewarded him with a six-year, $59-million contract that included a $10-million signing bonus. But his play deteriorated soon thereafter, and by the end of the 2012 season, he and Gailey were out in Buffalo.

Signed as a backup in Tennessee the following year, he started nine games in place of the injury-plagued Jake Locker and went 3-6. And last year, he earned the starting job under first-year coach Bill O'Brien, but was replaced by Mallett in early November. Fitzpatrick started again after Mallett was injured, but it was clear that O'Brien wanted to upgrade his quarterback situation by keeping Mallett and signing Hoyer.

It's on to the Jets for Fitzpatrick, where he'll either be the starter for Todd Bowles or serve as Smith's backup. So unless Smith has a breakout year or the Jets can somehow luck into Mariota next month, then all the money they've invested in their latest acquisitions will only be worth what the quarterback position can deliver.

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ESPN NEW YORK

Revis aims for Super Bowl with Jets (Rich Cimini) ESPN.com March 11, 2015

http://espn.go.com/new-york/nfl/story/_/id/12465712/darrelle-revis-says-followed-heart-not-money-choosing-return-new-york-jets?ex_cid=espnapi_public

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Star cornerback Darrelle Revis said he followed his heart, not the money, when choosing the New York Jets over the New England Patriots.

Revis, who signed his five-year, $70 million contract Wednesday night, said it wasn't a hard decision to leave the Super Bowl champions. He declined to say if the Patriots made a competitive offer.

"I'm not going to speak on the numbers," he said on a late-night conference call with reporters. "I think the biggest decision for me was to just come back home. I have a lot of history with the Jets' organization and I just felt like it was, you know, a no-brainer to come home, be back home and make a marriage."

Revis, who played with the Jets from 2007 to 2012, stunned the NFL late Tuesday when he left the Patriots only five weeks after hoisting the Lombardi Trophy.

He was lured back to his original team with a blockbuster contract that includes a fully guaranteed $39 million. The Patriots reportedly dropped out when they heard his demands.

Revis hinted the Patriots missed their chance by declining to exercise the option year in his contract, saying, "You put it in the team's hands if they want to take on the option or not."

The Patriots had until Monday to pick up the option, but it never was a serious considering because of the amount -- a cap-busting $20 million, the second year of the two-year, $32 million contract he signed last March. They maintained exclusive negotiating rights until 4 p.m. Tuesday, but the two sides never got close to a deal.

Revis spoke positively of his one year in New England, saying it was "really awesome" to learn from "a Hall-of-Fame coach," Bill Belichick.

"There's no better way to go out than winning a championship," he said.

Only two years ago, Revis was traded by the Jets because of a bitter stalemate in contract negotiations. On Wednesday night, he sounded like he was reuniting with an old flame, claiming "there's a lot of love here."

"They drafted me and I have a lot of history here," said Revis, whose time in New York was tainted by two contract holdouts. "I love being around the people I met in the organization. I just have a lot of ties here. This is where my heart is."

Revis, who lives in South Florida, flew via private jet to New Jersey, landing at 4:40 p.m. in Morristown, a short drive from the Jets' facility. He passed his physical and, after a delay as the two sides pored over language in the contact, he officially became a member of the Jets.

Again.

Now, he said, he wants to bring a Super Bowl to the Jets, recalling a vow he made to former general manager Mike Tannenbaum on the day he was drafted in 2007. That won't be easy. The Jets, coming off a 4-12 season, are starting over with a new coaching staff.

"I told (Tannenbaum) I'd do everything in my power to try to bring a championship to this organization, and I still feel that way," he said. "That's something I want to be part of. The thing I want to bring to the organization is winning. That was one of the big reasons to come back home. I still have that mindset."

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Jets acquire Ryan Fitzpatrick (Rich Cimini) ESPN.com March 11, 2015

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http://espn.go.com/new-york/nfl/story/_/id/12460762/houston-texans-trade-qb-ryan-fitzpatrick-new-york-jets?ex_cid=espnapi_public

The offensively challenged New York Jets made their second trade in less than a week, acquiring well-traveled quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick on Wednesday from the Houston Texans, the Jets confirmed.

The Texans will get a conditional seventh-round pick that can become a sixth based on how much playing time Fitzpatrick gets with the Jets, a league source told ESPN NFL Insider Adam Schefter.

It sets up another quarterback competition for the Jets, who went into free agency looking for a veteran to challenge the turnover-prone Geno Smith.

Publicly, the Jets' new regime hasn't named Smith the starter, although "we're kind of committed to trying to make him a success," general manager Mike Maccagnan said recently.

They upgraded the passing attack by trading for wide receiver Brandon Marshall to replace Percy Harvin, who subsequently was released. But quarterback remains a major question for the Jets, who ranked 31st in Total QBR over the last two seasons.

Fitzpatrick became expendable amid the Texans' recent flurry of quarterback activity. They re-signed Ryan Mallett and finalized a free-agent contract with Bryan Hoyer. Both quarterbacks began their careers with the New England Patriots, spending time under Texans coach Bill O'Brien.

Hoyer signed a two-year deal worth $10.5 million, including $4.75 million guaranteed, a source told ESPN's Adam Caplan. The Jets showed considerable interest in Hoyer.

The Texans signed Fitzpatrick to a two-year deal worth $7.25 million on March 21, 2014, the same day they traded quarterback Matt Schaub to the Oakland Raiders. The Jets will take on Fitzpatrick's base salary of $3.25 million for the 2015 season.

The Jets see it was a bargain price for an experienced quarterback, the reason they decided to make the trade instead of waiting until he got released.

Fitzpatrick, 32, will reunite with Jets offensive coordinator Chan Gailey, his coach for three seasons with the Buffalo Bills (2010-2012). Fitzpatrick enjoyed his three most prolific years in Gailey's spread attack, and the Jets like the idea of having an experienced quarterback well-versed in the system.

They had been targeting him since January. Maccagnan, too, is familiar with Fitzpatrick, as he worked in the Texans' scouting department until January.

The addition of Fitzpatrick won't preclude the Jets from drafting Marcus Mariota, if he slips to the sixth pick, but they don't appear to be leaning in that direction.

Fitzpatrick started 12 games for the Texans last season. After the first nine, during which he went 4-5, O'Brien benched him in favor of Mallett, who started two games, playing the second with a torn pectoral muscle. He needed surgery to repair the injury and was placed on injured reserve after that second game.

Fitzpatrick returned for three starts, setting a franchise record with six touchdown passes against the Tennessee Titans in his first of those three. In the third, he suffered a cleanly broken leg and could not finish the season.

Overall, Fitzpatrick threw for 2,483 yards while completing 63.1 percent of his passes with 17 touchdowns and eight interceptions.

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Jets' next move should be Mariota (Ian O'Connor)

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ESPN.com March 11, 2015

http://espn.go.com/new-york/nfl/story/_/id/12463331/new-york-jets-draft-marcus-mariota?ex_cid=espnapi_public

In his original life as a New York Jet, while preparing to make his first of two runs to the AFC Championship Game, Darrelle Revis stopped in a hallway outside his locker room to consider his long-term goals. Well, at least his long-term goals that didn't involve an all-out blitz on Woody Johnson's checkbook.

"I'd love to win a bunch of championships," Revis said that early January day in 2010, before losing himself in a pregnant pause. "But you know what," he finally continued, "that starts with Mark Sanchez."

As much as he has always chased after quarterback money, Revis understands that the quarterback, not the cornerback, determines whether a team is good enough to win the Super Bowl. Sanchez wasn't up to the challenge. Tom Brady? Hey, that's a different story.

Revis won his championship ring with Brady in New England, returned to the Jets on a full Woody Johnson scholarship and now runs straight into that same quarterback-or-bust reality he'd confronted five years back. Only this proposition is more forbidding than that one. Sanchez beat Brady and Peyton Manning on the road in the playoffs and has four postseason victories to his name, or four more than have been claimed by the Jets' current quarterbacks, Geno Smith and Ryan Fitzpatrick, who was just acquired from the Houston Texans for a few tackling dummies and two rows of drill cones.

Fitzpatrick and Smith have a combined record of 44-73-1 with 148 touchdown passes, 135 interceptions and no playoff appearances. Fitzpatrick has made 89 NFL starts and has yet to manage a winning record in any season. You could point out that Jets offensive coordinator Chan Gailey had him in Buffalo, and Jets general manager Mike Maccagnan had him in Houston, and that both must have liked at least a little bit of what they saw. But you would also need to point out that Fitzpatrick lost his job in Houston to Brian Hoyer and Ryan Mallett, not exactly the Ruth and Gehrig of their craft.

Mediocre and injured quarterbacks are the ones available this time of year for a sound reason: If you have a good and healthy quarterback, you keep him and you pay him. In other words, the only way the Jets will find their first franchise player since Joe Namath capable of winning it all is to draft and develop him.

So that brings us to the sixth pick in the draft, the pick the Jets won't be trading to Philadelphia so Chip Kelly can land his former star at Oregon, Marcus Mariota. That's if Kelly was telling the truth Wednesday when he called all the noise about him trading up for Mariota "crazy" and added the following:

"I think Marcus is the best quarterback in the draft. We will never mortgage our future to go all the way up to get somebody like that, because we have too many other holes we have to take care of. We're not mortgaging our future for any particular player."

Of course, it's in Kelly's interest to convince the rest of the league he would rather bleed every second off the play clock between snaps than make a dramatic jump up the draft board to grab the quarterback of his spread offense dreams. Why would he telegraph his true desires when that would only drive up the price to pay in a trade?

But assuming Kelly wouldn't surrender the necessary assets to move from No. 20 to No. 6, and assuming that Jameis Winston goes to Tampa Bay at No. 1 and that Mariota makes it past Tennessee (at No. 2) and Washington (at No. 5), the Jets would be foolish to take a prospect other than Mariota, the Heisman winner who outplayed Winston in the College Football Playoff semifinals. At 6-foot-4, Mariota has the required pocket-passer size and arm strength to go along with wide-receiver athleticism and speed. He

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was good for 57 touchdowns last season at Oregon (42 passing), and he threw for 4,454 yards while giving up a mere four interceptions.

Mariota has no Winston-like issues to answer for on the character front, and Kelly and his other college coaches go on and on about his NFL readiness. You might think they're just campaigning for their guy, but Jets fans should remember something about the last quarterback their team drafted early in the first round, Sanchez. His college coach, Pete Carroll, didn't think he was ready for the pros and wasn't afraid to say so.

Yes, Mariota could put on a few pounds and, yes, he has no experience running a huddle or taking snaps under center. He was exclusively a shotgun quarterback at Oregon who was asked to fire away faster than Paul Westhead's famous run-and-gun basketball teams at Loyola Marymount back in the day.

But in Gailey the Jets have a coordinator with experience running the spread, and in Mariota they have a potential 10- to 15-year starter who appears to have the physical skill, competitive desire, intelligence and accuracy to succeed in whatever system his NFL employer throws at him.

Let's face it: These quarterback prospects are always something of a gamble, unless the prospects are named Peyton Manning or Andrew Luck. Sometimes the combine results and scouting reports and psychological evaluations mean nothing at all. If you dropped every player in NFL history into one draft tomorrow night, Tom Brady might be the first overall pick. The same Tom Brady who went 199th in 2000.

So it's possible Mariota will turn out to be an average NFL starter. The greater possibility is that he'll end up as a top-10 player at his position, which is precisely what the Jets need. Some doubters wonder if Mariota is too nice of a guy to command a team and succeed in a market in which Leo Durocher once said nice guys wouldn't finish first.

Truth is, a lot of pleasant athletes have made it big in the big city. Bernie Williams, once the genteel center fielder of the Yankees, used to say people shouldn't confuse his kindness for weakness. Williams had a personality that seemed similar to Mariota's, and things worked out just fine for him.

In the end, maybe Tennessee or Washington will make this moot by selecting Mariota at No. 2 or No. 5. But if the Jets get their shot at the Heisman winner at No. 6, or even if they find a way to trade up to get him, they should act as decisively as they did in acquiring Brandon Marshall and Revis.

In a best-case scenario, Marcus Mariota will develop into a Super Bowl MVP. In a worst-case scenario, Marcus Mariota will be a better quarterback than Ryan Fitzpatrick and Geno Smith.

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NJ.COM

Darrelle Revis says he left New England Patriots to help deliver a Super Bowl title to the Jets (Darryl Slater) NJ Advance Media March 12, 2015

http://www.nj.com/jets/index.ssf/2015/03/darrelle_revis_jets_patriots_free_agency_secondary.html

Cornerback Darrelle Revis is officially back with the Jets, having signed his contract Wednesday night. A short time later, he told reporters on a conference call that he now wants to win a Super Bowl ring with the Jets -- something he did last year with the Patriots.

"I understand they struggled last year, but this is a new year," Revis said of the Jets' secondary. "It's pretty surreal [to be back with the Jets]. But at the same time, it's exciting. All that I've went through, and the

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history that I have with this organization, it's just great. They've accepted me back with open arms. We've been through a lot."

Though Revis acknowledged that the Jets, coming off a 4-12 season, "definitely have got a lot of work to do," he made it clear what his No. 1 goal is.

"It was a no brainer to come here, because I know the organization," he said. "I have a lot of history here. I love being around the people I met in the organization. I've just got a lot of ties here. This is where my heart is. When I got drafted in 2007 [by the Jets], I told [then-general manager Mike Tannenbaum] I would do everything in my power to try to bring a championship to this organization. I still feel that way. It's something that I want to be a part of, and I want to bring to the organization, is winning. That was probably one of the big reasons to really come back home, because I still have that mindset."

Revis on Wednesday night was speaking with reporters for the first time since he re-signed with the Jets on Tuesday night. The Jets gave him a monster contract, with $39 million fully guaranteed.

Revis, perhaps the best corner in football, played his first six NFL seasons for the Jets (2007-12), before they traded him to Tampa Bay in 2013, following multiple, drawn-out contract disputes. He spent last season with the Jets' biggest rival, the Patriots.

Since Revis left the Jets, their pass defense has been mostly a mess. In 2013, the Jets allowed 26 touchdown passes and made 13 interceptions. In 2014, the Jets surrendered 31 touchdown passes (third-most in the league) and made six picks (tied for fewest in the league). That 57-to-19 ratio is something Revis will try to rectify in the coming years.

In 2010 and 2011, Revis's last healthy years with the Jets (a knee injury sidelined him for all but two games in 2012), the Jets' touchdowns allowed-to-picks made ratios were 24-to-12 in 2010 and an impressive 15-to-19 in 2011.

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Jets announce trade with Houston Texans for Ryan Fitzpatrick (Dom Cosentino) NJ Advance Media March 11, 2015

http://www.nj.com/jets/index.ssf/2015/03/jets_set_to_trade_with_houston_texans_for_ryan_fit.html

The ever-busy Jets are still at it.

One day after bringing back cornerback Darrelle Revis, and with talks ongoing to bring back cornerback Antonio Cromartie, the Jets are set to deal again. It's been widely reported that Texans quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick would be in the Jets' sights as soon as a deal was done to bring the Browns' Brian Hoyer to Houston. And now that that's happened, NFL Media's Albert Breer said a trade that would bring Fitzpatrick to Florham Park was pretty much official.

(UPDATE: The trade is now official, as the Jets announced it.)

ESPN's Adam Schefter and the Houston Chronicle's John McClain have the details on the compensation the Jets are sending to the Texans, which involves a 2016 draft pick:

Texans are trading QB Ryan Fitzpatrick to the New York Jets for a late-round conditional draft pick, per a league source.

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) March 11, 2015

Texans get conditional 7 that can become 6th with playtime for Fitzpatrick.

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— John McClain (@McClain_on_NFL) March 11, 2015

Fitzpatrick has some obvious connections to the Jets. New general manager Mike Maccagnan had been the Texans' director of college scouting. And new offensive coordinator Chan Gailey was the head coach of the Bills from 2010-12, with Fitzpatrick as his starting quarterback. Fitzpatrick throw 71 touchdowns and 53 interceptions in those three seasons.

This year's free agent crop isn't all that appetizing, but the Jets would like to add a veteran quarterback to compete with (as in, really compete, as opposed to last year's phony competition with Michael Vick, who is now an unrestricted free agent) Geno Smith for the starting job. Fitzpatrick started 12 games for the Texans last year and completed 63.1 percent of his passes. His Total QBR of 55.3 ranked 18th in the league among qualified quarterbacks. But Fitzpatrick had broken his leg in December.

Per overthecap.com, Fitzpatrick is is due to earn a $3.25 million base salary this season, a relative bargain in the quarterback market. His cap hit if he were to be traded would be the same, since a $625,000 pro-rated portion of his signing bonus would remain on the Texans' books. The Texans would clear $3.25 million in cap space with the deal, minus the cash equivalent of the draft compensation.

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Jets receiver Saalim Hakim wants Brandon Marshall to race him for his jersey number (Darryl Slater) NJ Advance Media March 12, 2015

http://www.nj.com/jets/index.ssf/2015/03/jets_saalim_hakim_wants_brandon_marshall_to_race_h.html

This is just fantastic.

Here we have Saalim Hakim, a low-profile (but incredibly fast) Jets wide receiver and return man, delivering an Instragram video message to the team's newest receiver, Brandon Marshall, who came over in a trade from the Bears.

(UPDATE: Hakim has since deleted the video message, but you can read what he said down below in this post.)

See, Hakim currently wears No. 15, and that was Marshall's jersey number in Denver and Chicago. He wore No. 19 for two years in Miami, in between those stints.

Players -- especially high-profile guys -- often pay new teammates to give up their numbers. That's not unusual at all.

Last offseason, new Jets receiver Eric Decker reportedly gave tight end Jeff Cumberland $25,000 for No. 87.

But Hakim isn't going to make it that easy for Marshall. Hakim wants something more than just money for No. 15, because, as he wrote on Instagram, "I worked hard for this number!!"

Here's what Hakim says in his video message: "So Brandon Marshall is trying to get my number. I told him: If he beats me in the 40-yard dash, he can get the number. But if I beat him, he's got to give me $25,000 -- and he can have the number."

There is zero way Marshall would win that race.

Hopefully, Hakim posts the video again, because he delivered his message in a brilliant, dramatic tone. We'll toss the video in here if it reappears.

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NEW YORK POST

Revis: Money not the biggest reason why I returned to the Jets (Brian Costello) New York Post March 12, 2015

http://nypost.com/2015/03/12/darrelle-revis-no-brainer-to-come-home/

Darrelle Revis wants everyone to know his decision to sign with the Jets was about coming home, not going to the bank.

That may be tough to believe after he received a whopping $70 million deal from Gang Green, but that’s Revis’ story and he’s sticking to it.

Revis decided to come back to the Jets on Tuesday night after the Patriots failed to re-sign him. He said several teams called, but would not say whether New England ever got close to matching the Jets’ offer, which included $39 million in guaranteed money.

“I’m not going to really speak on the numbers,” Revis said on a conference call with reporters late Wednesday night. “The bigger decision for me was to just come back home. I have a lot of history with the Jets organization. I felt it was a no-brainer to come home and make it a marriage.”

The 29-year-old superstar cornerback arrived in New Jersey at 4:39 p.m. Wednesday, just over 24 hours since the Patriots let him become a free agent. He landed in a private jet at Morristown Municipal Airport and made the short trip to the Jets’ Florham Park headquarters. He underwent a physical, then the team and Revis finalized the five-year contract.

“It was a no-brainer to come here because I know the organization,” Revis said. “They drafted me in ’07 and I’ve got a lot of history here. … This is where my heart is.”

That might be tough to swallow for Patriots fans, who saw Revis sign with their team last year as a free agent and help the Pats to a Super Bowl. Revis had nothing but positive things to say about his time with the Patriots.

“We had an unbelievable year when I was in New England,” he said. “There is no better way to go out than winning a championship.”

But the Patriots declined to pick up his 2015 option that called for him to get paid $20 million and carry a $25 million salary-cap charge. Instead, the Patriots allowed to hit the market and the Jets, led by owner Woody Johnson, pounced.

The Jets bring back the 2007 first-round pick that became a star in New York. Revis said after he was drafted he told former general manager Mike Tannenbaum he would do everything he could to bring a Super Bowl title to the Jets.

“I still feel that way,” Revis said. “That’s something I want to be a part of.”

Revis will be 34 when this contract expires. Does he believe he will retire as a Jet?

“That would be awesome if that did happen,” he said.

Revis admitted the last three years of his career have been strange, from his season-ending knee injury in 2012 to the trade from the Jets to the Buccaneers in 2013 to last year’s run with the Patriots.

“It’s been a whirlwind,” he said. “It’s been a crazy two to three years in my career.”

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Now, he’s back with the Jets, where it all started. Revis became “Revis Island” with the Jets, but his six years here also are remembered for contract disputes. He said this decision was not all about the money.

“We all understand you need a contract to play. That’s how I look at it,” he said.

“Everybody has their own opinion about the subject. This is my fifth contract. It’s a contract. It really doesn’t matter the money or what the situation is. … Everybody has to get paid according to how they perform on the field.”

Revis said he now will begin recruiting Antonio Cromartie to return. Cromartie, a free agent, is negotiating with the Jets. Revis played alongside Cromartie from 2010-12 with the Jets. Revis said it’s time to get “Batman and Robin” back together.

Revis said the Jets have a lot of work to do after a 4-12 season in 2014, but he is ready to go.

“It’s pretty surreal, but at the same time it’s exciting,” he said. “All that I’ve went through and the history I have with this organization. It’s just great, man. They accepted me back with open arms. We’ve been through a lot.”

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Jets trade for Ryan Fitzpatrick as veteran QB option (Brian Costello) New York Post March 11, 2015

http://nypost.com/2015/03/11/jets-moving-closer-to-trade-for-ryan-fitzpatrick/

Ryan Fitzpatrick, come on down. You’re the next contestant in the Jets’ four-decade search for an answer at quarterback.

The Jets completed a trade with the Texans on Wednesday to add the 32-year-old Fitzpatrick, sending a conditional draft pick to Houston. The pick is a seventh-rounder in 2016 that can become a sixth-rounder based on Fitzpatrick’s playing time.

Fitzpatrick is not coming to the Jets as a long-term solution, but gives them a cheap (one year left on his contract for $3.25 million) veteran to compete with Geno Smith for the starting job and mentor him along the way. If the Jets draft Oregon’s Marcus Mariota next month, Fitzpatrick would be an ideal teacher for him.

For the Jets, this was a case of finding the best option available in a thin quarterback market. They talked to free agent Brian Hoyer, who chose to sign with the Texans instead. It was Hoyer’s arrival in Houston that made Fitzpatrick available.

Familiarity helped the deal along. New Jets general manager Mike Maccagnan came from the Texans, so he watched Fitzpatrick last season when he started 12 games for Houston.

Jets offensive coordinator Chan Gailey worked with Fitzpatrick when he was the head coach of the Bills from 2010-12. Fitzpatrick had his greatest success under Gailey in 2011.

The Jets will be Fitzpatrick’s sixth team in his 10-year career. The Harvard graduate spent one season with the Texans. The Texans went 4-5 in his first nine games before he was benched in favor of Ryan Mallett, who was injured in his second start. Fitzpatrick returned for three starts, throwing for six touchdowns in one of those games against the Titans. Fitzpatrick’s season ended when he broke his leg in December. He threw for 2,483 yards with 17 touchdowns and eight interceptions last year, completing 63.1 percent of his passes.

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“Smart, cerebral, with a quick release,” one league executive said when asked for a scouting report. “He is experienced. Average size. Above average arm. Not a great deep baller. He is good in the quick pass game, has underrated movement. There are flashes of inconsistent location and accuracy. Things can come in spurts. He’ll be turnover-free one game and the next he’ll have a fumble and two interceptions.”

The new regime of Maccagnan and coach Todd Bowles is trying to figure out the Jets’ quarterback position like most of their predecessors. They plan on giving Smith a chance to win the job, believing they can get more out of Smith and make the second-round pick the Jets used on him in 2013 worth it.

But Smith will not be handed the starter’s role like he was last year, when the Jets signed Michael Vick but never allowed him to compete for the job. This will be a real competition and it will be interesting to see how Smith responds.

Smith is 11-18 as a starter, getting benched for a three-game stretch last season in favor of Vick. Smith regained the starting job in December and played better down the stretch. He played his best game against the Dolphins in the final game of the year, posting a perfect passer rating.

Fitzpatrick’s biggest issue is the same as Smith — turnovers. He has 101 interceptions in his career and 53 fumbles. The Bills thought he was their long-term answer, signing him to a $59 million contract extension in 2011, but his play declined and they cut him after the 2012 season. He spent 2013 with the Titans.

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Darrelle Revis is ruthless, expensive and worth every penny (Brian Costello) New York Post March 11, 2015

http://nypost.com/2015/03/11/darrelle-revis-is-ruthless-expensive-and-worth-every-penny/

1. The Jets had to make this move. It makes too much sense on so many levels. First and foremost, their football team is a lot better Wednesday morning than it was Tuesday morning. Revis remains an elite player at his position and gives new coach Todd Bowles a vital piece in his defense. The Jets defense finished sixth in the NFL last year with bad cornerbacks. What can it do with Revis?

Next, the Jets weakened their chief rival. The Patriots have dominated the AFC East for the past 14 years and have showed no signs of slowing. Tom Brady is going nowhere, so the Patriots are still the best team in the division by a pretty wide margin, but Bill Belichick now has to replace a major piece of his defense.

The final reason is off-the-field. The Jets were spiraling toward irrelevance and their fans were disenchanted after last season’s 4-12 finish. This move energizes them. Jets owner Woody Johnson brought back the player he shipped away two years ago, showing he is willing to spend, and gave his marketing people a face of the franchise. This is not as important as the football reasons to make this move, but should not be overlooked. One question I repeatedly asked people inside the organization this offseason was: Who is going to be on the cover of the program Week 1? This team had no truly marketable players. Muhammad Wilkerson and Sheldon Richardson are very good players, but they are not guys you put on the billboard. Fans are excited about Bowles, but he is not a coach like Rex Ryan who exudes charisma and is therefore marketable.

The Jets have a face this morning … and it’s a familiar one.

2. Some people are hung up on the money, but this is a good deal for both sides. If you missed it: five years, $70 million, $39 million guaranteed. The salary cap has grown by $20 million in the last two years. Naturally, salaries should rise with it. I’d rather see players benefit from the money flowing into the league right now than the owners.

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The Jets had to spend big this offseason to meet the salary cap minimum set forth in the collective bargaining agreement. Basically, teams have to use 89 percent of their salary cap space between 2013 and 2016. The Jets were at 81 percent after the frugal John Idzik era. The Jets moved a lot closer to 89 percent with this deal, and they spent it on a proven player. Free agency is tricky. Players are free agents for a reason — usually because they are not great players. Instead of overpaying Byron Maxwell, who needs to prove he is worth $10 million a year, they signed a guy who has proven he’s one of the top cornerbacks in the league year after year.

Revis will earn $16 million a year for the first three years of the deal, and that’s the important part. I see people bemoaning the fact Revis got this type of money. I don’t get why people bemoan athletes’ salaries, but not those for other jobs in our society. Matt Lauer makes a reported $20 million a year. Is Lauer good at his job? No doubt, but I’m going to wager more people can do what Lauer does than what Revis does. There are maybe four or five guys on the planet who play cornerback like Revis. That is going to lead to a major payday.

My final point on the money: The Jets can afford to do this and not have it hurt them in the long run because (a) the guaranteed money is all in the first three years, and (b) they have no quarterback to pay. The only benefit of not having a franchise quarterback is not having to pay one and being able to spread the money around. If the Jets draft a quarterback, he would not receive big money for at least three years, probably four.

3. The effect Revis can have on the Jets’ younger players, particularly the defensive backs, cannot be overstated. Revis is an incredibly hard worker. He is the best practice player I have ever seen. If you dropped in from Mars and watched a practice he was in, you would know he was the best player on the field. He also studies film religiously. This will help Dee Milliner, Dexter McDougle and Calvin Pryor learn what it means to be a pro.

4. I find it hysterical that Jets fans who ripped Revis’ greed during his holdouts are now celebrating the Jets getting him basically because they were willing to give him the most money. Revis and his agents are ruthless and know how to maximize his value. They should not be criticized for that. So many players are cast aside by NFL teams making value decisions. Revis operates like a franchise. He knows how to maximize his value. More players should pay attention to how he does it. He could make $154 million in his career if he plays out this contract. That’s amazing.

5. I think Jets fans may build a statue of GM Mike Maccagnan before a game is played. Maccagnan has made some bold moves, signing Revis and trading for Brandon Marshall, but his work is not done. This team is better than it was a week ago, but it still has some big holes. He needs to sign a safety (Marcus Gilchrist visits Wednesday), find a veteran QB to push Geno Smith and he may not be done at cornerback. The Jets were negotiating with Antonio Cromartie late Tuesday. If they sign Cromartie, they would have Revis and Cromartie on the outside and Buster Skrine in the slot. That would be a strong secondary for Todd Bowles.

After that, Maccagnan still needs to extend Muhammad Wilkerson and fill out the roster with some depth.

He’s off to a strong start, but we won’t know how good the whole picture looks until May at the earliest. Don’t call the sculptors just yet.

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Woody Johnson’s redeeming quality showed up at perfect time (Steve Serby) New York Post March 11, 2015

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http://nypost.com/2015/03/11/why-woody-johnsons-plan-to-win-back-jets-fans-is-working/

Darrelle Revis brings a Super Bowl ring from New England back to New York, and he still has unfinished business, and would love nothing better than to bring a championship to the Jets, eight years after he was drafted, 47 years after the franchise won its only championship.

“This is where my heart is. … When I got drafted in 2007, the GM then was Mike Tannenbaum, and I told him I would do everything in my power to try to bring a championship to this organization,” Revis said Wednesday night, “and I still feel that way. That was probably one of the big reasons to really come back home, ’cause I still have that mindset.”

Never mind that there were 39 million guaranteed reasons as well, but be that as it may, he plans on convincing old sidekick Antonio Cromartie to join him in his quest to hoist the Lombardi Trophy in the best place to hoist it.

“And join our Batman and Robin tandem that we had a couple of years ago,” Revis said.

It is Woody Johnson who should take a bow for the renewed buzz around the Jets.

The Jets owner easily could have kept his back turned forever on Darrelle Revis, could have let personal feelings about the difficult past negotiations get in the way of the best interests of his franchise.

He did not.

“Woody stepped up,” is what you kept hearing Tuesday night and Wednesday from Jets fans blown away by the $39 million he guaranteed Revis to bring him back to the place he never wanted to leave.

Woody wants his long-suffering fan base back.

Woody is sick and tired of being sick and tired of losing, of being irrelevant, of being a tabloid punch line.

He wears the look of an owner who wants to win as desperately as Robert Kraft wants to win. As desperately as John Mara and Steve Tisch want to win.

He put his money where his tampering tightrope mouth was when he welcomed Revis back. And was interested Wednesday in an Antonio Cromartie reunion. Johnson obviously still is learning 15 years into the job. But at least he is showing us he is learning.

He always has been committed, he always has provided the resources for his football team to succeed, no one can dispute that. But the Tim Tebow publicity stunt and the spectacle that followed the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Rex Circus left the stench of elephant manure in the years that followed Ryan’s magical mystery tour to back-to-back AFC Championship games in 2009 and 2010.

The dysfunction that ensued when Woody fired general manager Mike Tannenbaum and teamed a coach who became Ryan Lite with John Idzik ended unceremoniously with planes flying “Fire John Idzik” banners over the Atlantic Health Jets Training Center at the end of a fourth straight season out of the playoffs.

Woody didn’t need to walk through the parking lots at MetLife Stadium to hear the outrage and sense the disenchantment and disgust, especially at these prices. It isn’t always the sensible way to run a team, to let your inmates run the asylum, but Idzik’s draft and fiscal irresponsibility forced the owner’s hand.

But this time, he didn’t bother asking a consulting service to find him a general manager.

He asked Ron Wolf and Charley Casserly to find him one.

He asked football men to help find him a football man.

And from the looks of things so far, they found him the right man.

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Maccagnan — riding shotgun in Woody’s green-and-white Brinks truck — has swiftly lifted the franchise into a new Jet Age, where winning now isn’t everything, it’s the only thing. Maccagnan — with Woody’s ATM at his beck and call — has dramatically strengthened the Jets and deflated the Patriots with Namathian boldness.

Maccagnan and rookie coach Todd Bowles are joined at the hip, a dynamic duo working as partners in crime the way GMs and head coaches — think Jerry Reese and Tom Coughlin — are designed to work.

“It seems to be a clear plan of what they wanted to do — here’s Todd Bowles’ vision of what he needs on this football team, ‘Let’s go get it done,’ ” Casserly told The Post. “I see the communication with the head coach and the general manager. I see a clear plan of what they want to do, and an aggressive movement to go get it done. Obviously these two guys are working together real well.”

Casserly has known Maccagnan, once an intern with the Redskins, for 25 years.

“What I saw in Mike was a guy that had a big-picture vision … had that all throughout his career,” Casserly said. “A very good evaluator … highly organized … thorough. And he’s a very smart guy, too.”

Revis by himself does not make the Jets a Super Bowl contender. Cromartie riding back on his white horse to reunite with Revis does not make the Jets a Super Bowl contender.

Brandon Marshall joining Eric Decker does not make the Jets a Super Bowl contender.

Revis needs a franchise quarterback to contend for a championship every bit as much as Carmelo Anthony needs his Scottie Pippen or Dwyane Wade — at the least — to contend for an NBA championship. Geno Smith — Idzik’s quarterback — doesn’t scare anyone. Neither will new Jet Ryan Fitzpatrick. But at least there is optimism Maccagnan will be able to find one. My vote: Marcus Mariota.

“It’s basically judgment. … I’ve been at it 15 years, hopefully I make better decisions … or good decisions,” Woody said the day he introduced Maccagnan and Bowles. “We’ve got a great building here. But we always talk about it’s really not the building — it’s the people in the building.”

It starts at the top.

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Revis to Cromartie: How about a ‘Batman and Robin’ sequel? (Brian Costello) New York Post March 12, 2015

http://nypost.com/2015/03/12/revis-to-cromartie-how-about-a-batman-and-robin-sequel/

Darrelle Revis is not the only former Jets cornerback the team wants to bring back.

The Jets were pushing to bring back Revis’ old running mate Antonio Cromartie, too. The team and Cromartie’s agent negotiated deep into Tuesday night and again Wednesday morning, but did not reach a deal. The two sides spoke again Wednesday, but nothing had come out of it as of Wednesday evening.

According to a source, Cromartie is choosing between the Jets and the Cardinals, where he played in 2014. He favors the Jets because he likes Jets coach Todd Bowles, who was his defensive coordinator in Arizona. Also, he still has a house in New Jersey from his time with the Jets from 2010-13.

Revis said he would reach out to Cromartie, urging him to “join our Batman and Robin tandem we had a couple years ago.”

The Jets signed cornerback Buster Skrine also this week. If Cromartie signs, the expectation would be Revis and Cromartie would play on the outside and Skrine would be in the slot.

Daily Clips Cont.

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Chargers free agent safety Marcus Gilchrist visited the Jets on Wednesday. The Jets would like to add him and Cromartie to revamp their secondary. He went out to dinner with Skrine, who was recruiting him, and some of the Jets coaching staff.

GM Mike Maccagnan was busy with free agency on Wednesday, but he will turn his attention to the NFL draft on Thursday. He is scheduled to attend Oregon’s pro day, according to the NFL Network. The main attraction, of course, is quarterback Marcus Mariota, who could be on the board when the Jets are on the clock with the No. 6 pick next month.

WR Saalim Hakim, who wore No. 15 last season, challenged new wide receiver Brandon Marshall to a race for the number that Marshall wore in Chicago. Hakim is probably the fastest player on the Jets.

Hakim made the challenge in a video posted on his Instagram account, though it was quickly deleted. In the video, Hakim says if he wins, Marshall “can give me $25,000 and he can have the number.”

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NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Darrelle Revis says heart, not $70 million, led him back to Jets (Seth Walder) NEW YORK DAILY NEWS March 12, 2015

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/football/jets/darrelle-revis-heart-not-70m-led-back-jets-article-1.2146515

Mere minutes after signing a contract that guaranteed him $39 million, new (and old) Jets cornerback Darrelle Revis claimed the No. 1 reason he returned to New York was not money, but because he simply wanted to come home. That, and some unfinished business.

“This is where my heart is,” Revis said Wednesday on a conference call. “When I got drafted in 2007, the GM then was Mike Tannenbaum and I told him I would do everything in my power to try to bring a championship to this organization. And I still feel that way.”

Revis’ decision to return to the Jets is just the latest plot twist in the dramatic tale of the cornerback and the team that drafted (and traded and re-signed) him.

“It’s pretty surreal,” he said.

Just a day earlier, the shutdown cornerback had been part of Gang Green’s biggest rival, the New England Patriots. They had declined a $20 million option and didn’t re-sign Revis in time to prevent him from being a free agent. Revis called Bill Belichick a “Hall of Fame coach” but wouldn’t say how close the Patriots were to meeting his financial demands, and instead chose to focus on his return to the Jets, whom he spoke about like an old flame he had just reunited with.

“I just felt like it was a no-brainer to come home,” he said. “And be back home. And make it a marriage.”

Revis, signed a five-year, $70 million deal that guarantees him $33 million in his first two seasons and $39 million total. The team made his annual average $14,024,212 − ending with his jersey number and the New York City area code. And of course the money mattered to Revis, who has always sought to maximize his wealth (he even included a product placement in his contract signing photo).

“Every player in this league has to get paid and they’ve got to sign a contract,” Revis said. “Whatever the numbers be on the contract, on the document, that’s what it is. Everybody has to get paid, according to how they perform on the field.”

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Revis is still performing at close to his peak, but he will be 30 before next season starts. So after he signed a five-year deal, the question was naturally asked: does Revis think he’ll retire a Jet?

“That would be awesome if that did happen,” he said.

Since the Jets traded Revis before the 2013 season, they have struggled to defend the pass. They were left without any proven cornerbacks on their roster until GM Mike Maccagnan netted them two new ones, Revis and Buster Skrine, on Tuesday. That, and Maccagnan’s other aggressive moves, have everyone wondering how good the Jets will be with their revamped squad.

“Yeah, we can make a lot of noise the next couple of years,” Revis told the team website.

And the Jets may not be done picking up cornerbacks either. The team has been negotiating with Revis’ old counterpart, Antonio Cromartie, and Revis said he would hop on the phone and do some recruiting.

“I am going to get in contact with him hopefully very soon here and try to convince him to hopefully come back and join our Batman and Robin tandem that we had a couple years ago,” Revis said.

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Jets WR receiver issues footrace challenge to new teammate Brandon Marshall for jersey No. 15 (Seth Walder) NEW YORK DAILY NEWS March 12, 2015

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/football/jets/jets-wr-challenges-new-teammate-marshall-no-15-jersey-article-1.2146478

A wide receiver way down the Jets depth chart may give Gang Green’s new star WR Brandon Marshall a run for his number.

Marshall, who the Jets recently acquired from the Chicago Bears in a trade, wears No. 15. That number currently belongs to wideout Saalim Hakim, who posted a video on Instagram saying Marshall would have to either beat him a 40-yard dash or pay him $25,000 for the number.

Marshall may not know Hakim, who has zero receptions and just two rushing attempts for -3 yards in his career, but he’s wouldn’t likely beat him in a race. Hakim is easily one of the fastest - if not the fastest - player the Jets have.

Perhaps thinking twice about challenging his new teammate, Hakim deleted the video.

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Jets show smarts by trading for Harvard-educated QB Ryan Fitzpatrick (Seth Walder) NEW YORK DAILY NEWS March 12, 2015

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/football/jets/jets-show-smarts-harvard-educated-qb-fitzpatrick-article-1.2146502

It wasn't quite as exciting as bringing back Darrelle Revis (what is?), but a day after bringing back one of the best Jets of all time to their defense, GM Mike Maccagnan made a move to improve the other side of the ball. In his second trade as Jets GM, Maccagnan brought in former Texans quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick on Wednesday.

All Maccagnan had to give up was a conditional 2016 seventh-round pick, according to a source. That pick can become a sixth-rounder based on Fitzpatrick’s snaps.

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Fitzpatrick became available because the Texans re-signed Ryan Mallett and are on the verge of signing former Cleveland Brown Brian Hoyer. The veteran QB has one year left on a contract that pays him a relatively affordable $3.25 million in base salary.

The News reported on Monday that the Jets would pursue Fitzpatrick once he became available, which was expected due to Houston’s interest in Hoyer and the re-signing of Mallett.

What Fitzpatrick provides the Jets is a veteran alternative to Geno Smith. Presumably he’ll compete with the third-year QB who has provided little assurance that he is capable of being a good NFL quarterback. The Jets had Michael Vick fill a similar role a year ago, although it turned out that he only was part of a faux-training camp competition. It remains to be seen how a competition between Smith and Fitzpatrick would be handled by the new regime.

And, of course, there could be a wrinkle if the team drafts Marcus Mariota or another rookie quarterback. But for now, the Jets have the relatively bland combination of Fitzpatrick and Smith. It’s only March, but, as usual, the Jets defense looks miles ahead of the offense.

Maccagnan is familiar with the Harvard-educated quarterback from his time with the Texans. Fitzpatrick, 32, started 12 games and completed 63.1% of his passes along with 17 touchdowns and eight interceptions en route to a 6-6 record last season in Houston.

Originally selected in the seventh round of the 2005 draft, the journeyman QB has bounced around from the Rams to the Bengals to the Bills to the Titans to the Texans. He is most known for his four-year run with the Bills when he started 53 games. He played under current Jets offensive coordinator Chan Gailey from 2010-2012, when Gailey was the Bills’ head coach.

CORNER MARKET

Though the Jets have added Revis and Buster Skrine so far in free agency, the team may not done working on its secondary. The Jets have been in negotiations with another ex-Jet, Antonio Cromartie, and also hosted former Chargers safety Marcus Gilchrist on a visit Tuesday and Wednesday. If Maccagnan signed both of those players, it would represent a nearly complete overhaul of the defensive backs, leaving Calvin Pryor as the only starter remaining from the John Idzik era.

. . . Running back Bilal Powell’s one-year deal with the Jets is for $2 million, according to a source. With Manish Mehta

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NEW YORK TIMES

Jets Acquire Ryan Fitzpatrick; Darrelle Revis Says Return Is ‘Surreal’ (Tom Pedulla & Zach Schobrun) New York Times MARCH 11, 2015

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/12/sports/football/jets-said-to-acquire-ryan-fitzpatrick.html?ref=football&_r=0

One day after the Jets brought home Darrelle Revis and officially acquired the big-play wide receiver Brandon Marshall, they addressed their need at the ever-troublesome quarterback position.

They obtained the journeyman Ryan Fitzpatrick from the Houston Texans in exchange for a conditional late-round draft choice that can go no higher than a sixth-round choice, based on playing time.

Fitzpatrick, 32, will be reunited with Chan Gailey, the Jets’ new offensive coordinator. Fitzpatrick was at his best when he played for the Buffalo Bills from 2009-12, when Gailey was their head coach. He

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completed 60.3 percent of his passes for 10,232 yards, with 71 touchdowns and 54 interceptions in that span.

Another reunion is Revis and the Jets. Revis officially signed his contract late Wednesday, and in a teleconference, Revis said that returning to New York after a two-year hiatus was “surreal.”

“The history I have with this organization — it’s just great,” Revis said. “They have welcomed me back with open arms. We’ve been through a lot. They drafted me and gave me the chance to fulfill my dreams. There’s a lot of love here. I’m excited to be back being a part of it.”

Revis said his year with the Patriots, winning the Super Bowl, helped him grow as a player. He spoke glowingly of Coach Bill Belichick, saying he tried to soak up as much as he could.

“Just to be able to sit in the room and see how he operates and the way his coaching style is, I learned a lot from it,” Revis said.

But the opportunity to return to the Jets — with a lucrative contract and $39 million in guaranteed money — was too enticing to pass up again.

“It was just basically a no-brainer,” Revis said. “This is where my heart is.”

Fitzpatrick will be a helpful mentor to Geno Smith. Smith’s body of work has largely been poor in his first two seasons. He was plagued by turnovers — as was his predecessor, Mark Sanchez — and he struggled without a strong supporting cast. Neither he, nor Sanchez, ever had a receiver as imposing as Marshall, who has game-changing ability.

Smith made some progress in his second season after throwing 12 touchdowns with 21 interceptions as a rookie. He fired 13 touchdowns and was picked off 13 times last year. His passer rating rose from to 77.5 from 66.5, and he closed the season achieving a perfect passer rating of 158.3 in a 37-24 road win at the Miami Dolphins in the regular-season finale.

The Jets will be Fitzpatrick’s sixth team since he broke into the league after majoring in economics at Harvard. He hoped to secure the position at Houston, but failed to do so last season as the team briefly turned to Ryan Mallett. Fitzpatrick returned as the starter after Mallett was injured. Fitzpatrick hit 63 percent of his passes last season, with 17 touchdowns and 8 interceptions. Houston had an excess of quarterbacks after it signed Brian Hoyer as a free agent to join Mallett.

Fitzpatrick’s acquisition could ease pressure on Mike Maccagnan, the team’s newly hired and aggressive general manager, to invest the sixth draft selection over all in a quarterback — particularly if the team’s evaluation of Marcus Mariota, the Heisman Trophy winner, does not deem him worthy of such a high pick. Many mock drafts projected that Mariota would go to the Jets.

By securing Fitzpatrick, Maccagnan may have the option of trading down in exchange for multiple draft picks to help stock a 4-12 team that still has many needs as it looks to its first season under the new coach, Todd Bowles.

Fitzpatrick’s acquisition also makes good sense financially because he is owed only $3.25 million in base salary for this season.

The Jets are under pressure to save room under the salary cap wherever possible after lavishing a front-loaded, five-year contract worth $70 million on Revis, with approximately $39 million guaranteed.

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WALL STREET JOURNAL

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Jets Re-Introduce Darrelle Revis to New York (Stu Woo) Wall Street Journal March 11, 2015

http://www.wsj.com/articles/jets-re-introduce-darrelle-revis-to-new-york-1426129875?tesla=y

Darrelle Revis officially returned to the New York Jets on Wednesday, signing a five-year, $70-million contract with a fully guaranteed $39 million.

The Jets in 2007 used their first-round draft pick on Revis, who led the team to back-to-back AFC championship games in the 2009 and 2010 seasons. The Jets traded him to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2013, and a year later he signed a free-agent contract with the rival New England Patriots and helped them win the Super Bowl.

Now the four-time All-Pro cornerback is back with the Jets, this time with a shiny championship ring and even more money. Late Wednesday night, the 29-year-old Revis spoke on a conference call about why he came back to New York.

On why he chose the Jets:

“Once I got released and became a free agent from the Pats, a number of teams called…“It was a no brainer to come here because I know the organization. They drafted me in ‘07. I’ve got a lot of history here. I love being around the people I’ve met in the organization. I’ve just got a lot of cogs here. It’s just where my heart is. When I got drafted in 2007, the (general manager) then, Mike Tannenbaum, I said (to him), ‘I’ll do everything in my power to bring a championship to this organization.’ I still feel that.…That’s one of the big reasons to come back home. I still have that mind-set.”

On how the money offered affected his decision to return to the Jets:

“It’s a contract. It really doesn’t matter, the money or what the situation is. Any player in this league has to get paid and they’ve got to the sign contract.”

On leaving Patriots for the division rival Jets:

“You know you mark those dates playing against the team you used to play for. There might be some jitters and nervousness, playing against people that you know. At that point, it is what it is. My career has been, I want to say, a little crazy....“It’s been a year by year thing. Picking New England was the best situation for me at that time. I felt across the board that they had really good team.”

On how quickly he expects the Jets pass defense, which ranked 14th in the league in yards surrendered a game last year, to improve:

“We have a lot of work to do. We’ve got a new coaching staff. We’ve got a lot of new faces and new pieces. We’re very excited to get to work. …

“I understand they struggled last year, but this is a new year, and that’s all we’re focused on, trying to make our pass defense better in 2015.”

On whether he expects to retire as a Jet:

“That would be awesome if that did happen. It would be.”

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Flurry of Moves Shows That Jets Want to Win Now (Stu Woo) Wall Street Journal March 11, 2015

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http://www.wsj.com/articles/flurry-of-moves-shows-that-jets-want-to-win-now-1426120950

By Wednesday morning, it was impossible to misconstrue Mike Maccagnan’s strategy.

The Jets’ general manager, who took the job just two months ago in the wake of a dismal 2014 season and subsequent front-office purge, isn’t focused on building a successful team over the next three or four years. He wants to win in 2015.

Consider the past week. First, Maccagnan re-signed veteran inside linebacker David Harris to a contract with $15 million fully guaranteed over three years—a deal that allows the Jets to cut Harris in 2017 with no salary-cap consequences. Then he traded a late-round draft pick for Chicago’s Brandon Marshall, the athletically gifted but volatile receiver who’s been known to misbehave when he doesn’t see the ball. On Tuesday, in a blockbuster free-agent signing, Maccagnan lured all-world cornerback Darrelle Revis away from the rival New England Patriots and back to the Jets with a whopping five-year, $70 million deal.

A mere day later, Maccagnan made his latest big play, dealing another late-round draft pick to the Houston Texans in exchange for journeyman quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick, who won’t win any athleticism awards but won’t win any athleticism awards but can competently pilot an NFL offense.

Besides being proven veterans, Harris, Marshall, Revis and Fitzpatrick will all be in their 30s when the 2015 season begins.

Over the past two seasons, the Jets have been a relatively young team in the NFL. Their 22 primary starters last year, counting an offense that features three receivers and no fullback, had an average age of 26.5 as of Sept. 1. Projecting the average age of the 2015 team is trickier. If current vacancies at the second cornerback position, safety and both guard positions are excluded, and assuming that second-year tight end Jace Amaro becomes the starter and that Fitzpatrick beats out Geno Smith for the quarterback job—which is no given, considering Fitzpatrick’s pedestrian 79.5 career quarterback rating—then the Jets’ starting lineup would have an average age of 27.9 as of Sept. 1.

Marshall and Revis are nearing the ends of their athletic primes, if they haven’t reached them already, so Maccagnan clearly wants immediate results. That’s also apparent in the fact that his three major acquisitions—Marshall, Fitzpatrick and Revis—already all have ties to the Jets or their new coaching staff. Head coach Todd Bowles was Marshall’s interim head coach with the Miami Dolphins. Fitzpatrick played for Jets offensive coordinator Chan Gailey in Buffalo when Gailey was the Bills’ head coach, and Maccagnan worked for Houston, where Fitzpatrick played last season, until January. Revis, of course, spent the first six years of his decorated career with the Jets.

Maccagnan did sacrifice some long-term potential by trading away draft picks for Marshall and Fitzpatrick, but the risks are minimal because those were future selections in the crapshoot of the late rounds.

So the question becomes: Can the Jets win in the next year or two? Getting back to .500 after going 4-12 last season seems like an attainable goal, especially with the revamped secondary and one of the best defensive lines in the league.

But the challenges will be formidable. The Jets’ defense needs to learn Bowles’s scheme, and the offense needs to figure out Gailey’s. The team also must find two decent offensive linemen and a safety, and should consider upgrading its undistinguished undistinguished group of linebackers. Meanwhile, the Jets’ AFC East rivals are improving: Buffalo boasted the NFL’s fourth-ranked defense last season and recently nabbed Pro-Bowl running back LeSean McCoy (not to mention ex-Jets coach Rex Ryan); Miami signed feared defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh; and the Patriots, well, they’re already pretty good, even without Revis.

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The Jets may be able to meet all those needs with their plentiful remaining salary-cap space and their picks in the coming NFL draft. If their dismal performance in 2014 was good for anything, it was netting them the No. 6 overall pick in the draft, which could conceivably be converted into Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Marcus Mariota. Surely the Jets wouldn’t mind if Fitzpatrick, like Michael Vick before him, suddenly became the NFL’s most coveted backup.

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METRO NEW YORK

Ryan Fitzpatrick lands with Jets (Kristian Dyer) Metro New York March 11, 2015

The New York Jets completed a trade on Tuesday that sent a high level draft pick to the Houston Texans for quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick, arguably the smartest player in the NFL. In 2005 at the NFL Combine, Fitzpatrick scored a 48 on the Wonderlic exam, tied for the highest in league history alongside former Jets Greg McElroy.

Now it is up to the Harvard man to see if he has the brains to turn around a Jets offense that was failing last year.

The Jets passing offense was last in the league a season ago behind the platoon quarterback duo of Geno Smith and Michael Vick. Last month, Metro reported that the Jets had moved on from Vick and now a quarterback competition has emerged between the incumbent Smith and the newly acquired Fitzpatrick. While he isn't an elite quarterback, Fitzpatrick can manage a game and has plenty of NFL experience.

For his career, Fitzpatrick has 19,273 passing yards, 123 touchdowns and 101 interceptions. He has a career completion percentage of 60.1 percent and a 79.5 QBR.

He comes into a situation where he has talent at the skill positions. A trade last week netted the Jets a perennial 1,000 yard receiver in Brandon Marshall to go alongside Eric Decker, the team's leading receiver a year ago and Jeremy Kerley. This along with a new look offensive line and the return of running backs Chris Ivory and Bilal Powell could make the Jets a very balanced team. Plus there is emerging talent at tight end in Jace Amaro, a second round pick last year.

While he is new to the Jets, Fitzpatrick isn't new to members of the organization. General manager Mike Maccagnan, the Texans director of college scouting last year, knows Fitzpatrick well as does offensive coordinator Chan Gailey, who was his head coach during a previous stop with the Buffalo Bills.

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Source: Ryan Fitzpatrick 'the favorite' to be Jets starting 2015 QB (Kristian Dyer) Metro New York March 11, 2015

http://www.metro.us/sports/source-ryan-fitzpatrick-the-favorite-to-be-jets-starting-2015-qb/zsJock---EMOPEYVRBLZY/

Geno Smith won't have to worry about carrying the New York Jets into the playoffs anymore. Instead, he will only have to worry about carrying a clipboard, as a source told Metro New York that recently acquired quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick is viewed by the team as a starting quarterback.

The Jets obtained Fitzpatrick on Wednesday morning in a trade with the Houston Texans, shipping a late round draft pick for a quarterback who has played in 96 NFL games since being drafted in 2005. While

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Fitzpatrick is far from a top-tier quarterback, he should be good enough to beat out Smith, who has struggled in his two seasons since being a second round pick in the 2013 NFL Draft.

Fitzpatrick won't be promised the starting job by Jets management, as one league source tells Metro that “the move was done with the idea that Ryan is the starter come Week 1.”

“He's much more a sure thing," the source said. "He limits mistakes, he makes smart throws. Will he have to win the job? Yes. It isn't his de facto. Do the Jets expect him to? Yes. This isn't a situation like last year.”

That situation, of course, was the Jets signing veteran quarterback Michael Vick and ignoring his obvious talents through training camp, gifting Smith the undeserved role as starter. It was a trump quarterback competition last year but this year will be far more open, the source said.

But make no mistakes about it: Fitzpatrick is the favorite to win.

“He's head and shoulders the best quarterback on this roster and he wasn't brought in to be the backup or be a mentor,” the source said. “He was brought in to compete and earn that starting job and he's expected to do that.”

In each of the last three seasons, Fitzpatrick's completion percentage has climbed. His QBR of 95.3 in 2014 was the highest of his NFL career.

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WEDNESDAY’S SPORTS TRANSACTIONS

BASEBALL

COMMISSIONER’S OFFICE — Suspended N.Y. Yankees RHP Brayan Alcantara 72 games for a violation of the Minor League Drug Prevention and Treatment Program. Suspended Cincinnati minor league 3B Tanner Rahier, without pay, after being arrested on assault charges.

American League

BALTIMORE ORIOLES — Optioned RHP Eddie Gamboa to Norfolk (IL).

CLEVELAND INDIANS — Agreed to terms with RHP Corey Kluber on a one-year contract.

TEXAS RANGERS — Selected the contract of OF Antoan Richardson from Round Rock (PCL). Placed LHP Martin Perez on the 60-day DL.

National League

ATLANTA BRAVES — Agreed to terms with RHP Peter Moylan on a minor league contract.

MILWAUKEE BREWERS — Optioned RHP Johnny Hellweg to Colorado Springs (PCL).

American Association

AMARILLO THUNDERHEADS — Signed RHP Kyle Bellows. Sent LHP Ryan DeJesus to Gateway (Frontier) to complete an earlier trade.

FARGO-MOORHEAD REDHAWKS — Released RHP Coty Woods.

WINNIPEG GOLDEYES — Signed RHP Jailen Peguero.

Can-Am League

NEW JERSEY JACKALS — Signed RHP Brady Adamek.

OTTAWA CHAMPIONS — Signed C Corey Caswell and RHP Nick Purdy.

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Frontier League

FRONTIER GREYS — Signed RHP Nick Anderson and SS Francisco Rosario.

ROCKFORD AVIATORS — Signed RHP Dae Kim.

WINDY CITY THUNDERBOLTS — Signed RHPs Joel Lima and Andrew Wellwerts.

FOOTBALL

National Football League

NFL — CB Cortland Finnegan announced his retirement.

ARIZONA CARDINALS — Re-signed LS Mike Leach to a one-year contract. Agreed to terms with G Mike Iupati on a five-year contract, DT Corey Peters on a three-year contract and LB Sean Weatherspoon on a one-year contract.

ATLANTA FALCONS — Signed WR Leonard Hankerson.

BALTIMORE RAVENS — Traded DT Haloti Ngata and a 2015 seventh-round draft pick to Detroit for 2015 fourth- and fifth-round draft picks.

BUFFALO BILLS — Signed FB Jerome Felton. Released TE Scott Chandler.

CHICAGO BEARS — Agreed to terms with LB Pernell McPhee on a five-year contract. Signed S Antrel Rolle and WR Eddie Royal to three-year contracts.

CINCINNATI BENGALS — Re-signed G Clint Boling, OT Eric Winston and CB Chris Lewis-Harris.

CLEVELAND BROWNS — Re-signed WR Marlon Moore.

GREEN BAY PACKERS — Re-signed OT Bryan Bulaga.

HOUSTON TEXANS — Traded QB Case Keenum to St. Louis for a 2016 seventh-round draft pick. Traded QB Ryan Fitzpatrick to the N.Y. Jets for a conditional late-round draft pick. Signed QB Brian Hoyer. Re-signed CB Kareem Jackson and OT Derek Newton.

INDIANAPOLIS COLTS — Signed WR Andre Johnson.

JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS — Signed TE Julius Thomas to a five-year contract and OT Jermey Parnell, CB Davon House, LB Dan Skuta and S Sergio Brown.

KANSAS CITY CHIEFS — Signed WR Jeremy Maclin.

MIAMI DOLPHINS — Signed DT Ndamukong Suh. Released DT Randy Starks.

MINNESOTA VIKINGS — Signed DT Tom Johnson and QB Shaun Hill. Agreed to terms with OL Joe Berger and LS Cullen Loeffler.

NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS — Re-signed WR Brian Tyms. Signed WRs Kevin Dorsey and Brandon Gibson.

NEW YORK GIANTS — Extended the contract of coach Tom Coughlin through the 2016. Signed LB Mark Herzlich and FB Henry Hynoski to two-year contracts. Signed RB Shane Vereen, LBs Jonathan Casillas and J.T. Thomas, OT Marshall Newhouse and WR Dwayne Harris. Re-signed RB Chris Ogbonnaya. Waived T Rogers Gaines and CB Travis Howard.

NEW YORK JETS — Signed G James Carpenter.

OAKLAND RAIDERS — Agreed to terms with LB Curtis Lofton. Signed DT Dan Williams, C Rodney Hudson and TE Lee Smith.

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PHILADELPHIA EAGLES — Agreed to terms with CB Walter Thurmond III on a one-year contract. Re-signed QB Mark Sanchez to a two-year contract.

PITTSBURGH STEELERS — Announced the retirement of LB Jason Worilds.

ST. LOUIS RAMS — Agreed to terms with TE Lance Kendricks. Terminated the contracts of C Scott Wells and OT Jake Long.

SAN FRANCISCO 49ERS — Signed WR Torrey Smith to a five-year contract.

TAMPA BAY BUCCANEERS — Signed LB Bruce Carter. Released DE Michael Johnson.

TENNESSEE TITANS — Agreed to terms with WR Harry Douglas. Signed S Da’Norris Searcy.

WASHINGTON REDSKINS — Signed DL Stephen Paea.

HOCKEY

National Hockey League

NEW YORK ISLANDERS — Assigned D Loic Leduc from Bridgeport (AHL) to Colorado (ECHL).

WASHINGTON CAPITALS — Recalled D Cameron Schilling from Hershey (AHL).

American Hockey League

CHARLOTTE CHECKERS — Returned F Gabriel Desjardins to Florida (ECHL).

CHICAGO WOLVES — Recalled D Colten Hayes from Alaska (ECHL).

IOWA WILD — Returned D Nicholas Rioux to Quad City (ECHL).

NORFOLK ADMIRALS — Recalled D Kevin Lind from Utah (ECHL).

PROVIDENCE BRUINS — Recalled D Frankie Simonelli from South Carolina (ECHL).

SPRINGFIELD FALCONS — Reassigned D Mike DiPaolo from Ontario (ECHL) to Allen (ECHL).

WILKES-BARRE/SCRANTON PENGUINS — Recalled D Alex Boak from Wheeling (ECHL).

ECHL

COLORADO EAGLES — Added G Drew O’Connell as emergency backup.

FORT WAYNE KOMETS — Released D Dylan Quaile.

GWINNETT GLADIATORS — Traded F Garry Nunn to Ontario for F Robert Czarnik. Traded F Anthony Luciani to Greenville for F Scott Arnold.

IDAHO STEELHEADS — Signed D Jake Rutt.

KALAMAZOO WINGS — Traded F Ray Kaunistto to Evansville for the rights to F Patrick Kennedy.

MISSOURI MAVERICKS — Traded F Josh Brittain to Ontario for D Chris Owens.

QUAD CITY MALLARDS — Signed F Mason Baptista to an amateur tryout agreement. Added G Jake Reed as emergency backup.

STOCKTON THUNDER — Signed D Mike Busillo.

WICHITA THUNDER — Signed D Darren Bestland to an amateur tryout agreement.

MOTORSPORTS

Daily Clips Cont.

32 | P a g e

NASCAR — Reinstated Sprint Car driver Kurt Busch.

SOCCER

Major League Soccer

D.C. UNITED — Agreed to terms with general manager Dave Kasper, who will also assume the duties of vice president of soccer operations, on a multiyear contract extension.

FC DALLAS — Re-signed D/M Je-Vaughn Watson.

SEATTLE SOUNDERS — Signed F Andy Craven.

COLLEGE

NEVADA — Fired David Carter men’s basketball coach.

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