The housecleaning in Florham Park rages on.
Hours after New York released veteran linebacker David Harris, Jets general manager Mike Maccagnan told reporters Tuesday the Jets will release wide receiver Eric Decker if they can't trade him.
ESPN's Adam Schefter first reported the team's latest roster-gutting maneuver.
While chopping Harris saves $6.5 million against the salary cap, dumping Decker creates another $5.75 million in space.
Decker's 2016 season was a wash, with the 30-year-old pass-catcher landing on injured reserve in October with a torn rotator cuff. He underwent hip surgery and an operation on his shoulder and was still in a red non-contact jersey during Monday's organized team activities -- his last in New York.
Decker needs to get healthy, making a trade extremely difficult. Once he's set free, though, someone is bound to come calling for one of the league's better scoring threats. His wife, Jessie James Decker, certainly hasn't lost faith:
Make no mistake about it: The Jets have given up on next season, choosing to gut a bottom-barrel roster that has already dumped Pro Bowlers Nick Mangold, D'Brickashaw Ferguson, Darrelle Revis and Antonio Cromartie over the past 18 months.
While young defenders Sheldon Richardson, Muhammad Wilkerson and Leonard Williams all remain, the Jets are years away, on paper, from sporting a competitive roster. From another angle, though, New York has been without a franchise quarterback for seemingly eons. Landing the first pick in the draft -- if that's the goal -- would potentially solve that problem for years to come.
Either way, the road ahead is deeply ominous for long-suffering fans of this struggling franchise.
