Eric Decker's first season in New York wasn't pretty, but that isn't stopping him from trying to improve things.
The Jets' wide receiver recently spent a few days in Arizona shooting a commercial for Courtyard by Marriott, and during the downtime between takes, gave his best sales pitch to former teammate Demaryius Thomas, an upcoming unrestricted free agent.
"I've been pushing for the entire year now," Decker said in a telephone interview with The New York Post. "It was just another opportunity to talk to him about it. It's going to be interesting to see what happens.
"I think it would be tough for Denver to let him go. So whether they franchise tag him here in the next month or give him a long-term deal, he's just one of those premier players in this league. If he happens to make it to free agency, I would love to sign him because playing alongside him for four years and especially the last two years made it a lot of fun and made it a lot easier. He's just one of the great players in this league."
When Decker says playing on the same field as Thomas made it a lot easier, he wasn't kidding. Decker had his best season as a pro when lining up with Thomas in 2013, hauling in 87 passes for 1,288 yards and 11 touchdowns as part of a record-setting Broncos offense. His output made him one of the hottest free agent targets, something the otherwise frivolous Jets took advantage of when they signed him to a five-year, $36.25 million deal in March.
Decker finished with 962 yards receiving and five touchdowns on 74 receptions, statistics all down from his last two seasons in Denver. While Thomas is likely to stay in the Mile-High City -- either via franchise tag or a new contract, as Decker said -- Gang Green's pass-catcher decided he'd at least make a pitch to bring a former comrade to the East Coast in hopes of reviving a New York offense that finished in the league's bottom third in total yards in 2014.
With new GM Mike Maccagnan promising to be "very active in free agency," it couldn't hurt to try.
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