One of the N.F.L.’s most exciting players was dealt in a stunning trade Friday between a Super Bowl contender and a team that has lost its last six games. The flailing Jets acquired receiver Percy Harvin from the Seattle Seahawks in a move that upgrades and diversifies the Jets’ offense.
The Jets have not announced the trade, but a person in football with knowledge of the deal said an agreement was in place. In return, Seattle will receive a conditional draft pick, according to FoxSports, which first reported the swap.
The deal makes sense for the Jets. They have a salary-cap surplus of over $20 million to absorb Harvin’s contract and a need for his speed and playmaking. Adding Harvin allows the Jets to better evaluate quarterback Geno Smith as they attempt to determine his long-term viability.
It could also be perceived as a desperate act by General Manager John Idzik, whose team is 1-6 in no small part because of the struggles of Smith, whom Idzik drafted, and a secondary Idzik failed to sufficiently address.
Idzik has been on the job for 21 months — he worked in Seattle and has a strong relationship with Seahawks General Manager John Schneider — and few, if any, of the personnel decisions he has made suggested that he would try such a bold move, taking on a player with off-the-field concerns and a huge salary.
Harvin has four full seasons, and the rest of this one, remaining on a six-year, $67 million contract he signed with the Seahawks after they acquired him from Minnesota for a bounty of draft picks in March 2013.
Because Harvin, 26, is not owed any guaranteed money after this season, the Jets’ final nine games amount to an audition, an opportunity to prove his worth on the field and dispel speculation that he is a locker-room problem.
When healthy, Harvin is one of the league’s dynamic talents, as electrifying a receiver as he is a returner. His value is in his versatility. He can line up at running back and receiver, take handoffs on jet sweeps and catch passes in the slot, downfield or behind the line of scrimmage.
But he has been hampered in the past by hip problems and chronic migraines, and this season he has struggled to make an impact in Seattle. He has caught 22 passes for 133 yards (he also had three touchdowns nullified by penalties in a Week 5 victory at Washington), and in last week’s loss to Dallas he touched the ball six times — three catches, three rushes — for a total of minus-1 yard.
The Seahawks’ decision to unload Harvin, eight months after he returned the second-half kickoff 87 yards for a touchdown in Seattle’s Super Bowl win over the Denver Broncos, indicates that Harvin was not fitting into the Seahawks’ plans. The task of putting him to effective use now falls to the Jets’ offensive coordinator, Marty Mornhinweg, who will have an established vertical threat to keep defenses from stacking the box against the run.
It is the second time in four and a half years that the Jets have made a daring trade with the defending Super Bowl champion for a gifted receiver with questions about his character.
The first deal netted Santonio Holmes from Pittsburgh. The Jets can only hope that Harvin pans out better for them.