FLORHAM PARK, N.J. — With an 11-word summation of the boldest move of his tenure as the Jets’ general manager, John Idzik fashioned himself as an oracle.
“I look at it as this could be a potential coup,” Idzik said.
And it could be, if Percy Harvin, acquired Friday from Seattle, diversifies the Jets’ offense, adding speed and versatility, while preserving what may be the most harmonious 1-6 locker room in league history. It could be as well, if Harvin justifies his reputation as a malcontent, forged by a series of incidents both recent and distant, and emerges as a disruptive force.
On Harvin’s first day around his new teammates, the Jets endeavored to reshape his image as diligently as they taught him the playbook.
Coach Rex Ryan talked about mistakes, how everybody makes them, how nobody is perfect. Idzik lauded the team’s culture. Offensive lineman Breno Giacomini, who played with Harvin in Seattle last season, vouched for him, calling portrayals of his troublemaking as overblown.
And besides.
“He catches the ball and he can run really fast,” Giacomini said. “So it’s pretty good.”
As if reading from cue cards, Harvin said six times that he was looking forward to making the most of this opportunity. That Harvin even has this opportunity — and that the Jets had the opportunity to acquire him — is staggering, given that he is 26 years old and ranks among the more dangerous offensive players in the N.F.L. Teams strive to keep those kinds of players, not get rid of them.
Not the Seahawks, though, whose general manager, John Schneider, said in a radio interview on 710 ESPN in Seattle on Sunday that “it wasn’t a good fit” and “it became apparent that things weren’t going to work out.”
It would seem that several factors led to Harvin’s departure, among them his combustible personality, his injury history (hip, ankle, migraine) and his nominal fit in the Seahawks’ scheme — both a source of Harvin’s frustration, as he acknowledged Monday, and his meager production (22 catches for 133 yards, 11 rushes for 92 yards and a touchdown).
Harvin said that he did not know why he was traded, dealt 19 months after the Seahawks sent Minnesota a package of draft picks for him, but that he was surprised. In that, he was not alone.
That a 1-6 team swooped in for Harvin seemingly reflected at once a desire to better evaluate quarterback Geno Smith over the final nine games and a tacit admission of an off-season miscalculation: that Idzik had not supplied Ryan, or Smith, with sufficient offensive talent.
“Pure and simple, this move is like any other move,” Idzik said. “It’s a move to improve the Jets.”
It is, at bottom, a low-risk proposition for the Jets, who owe Harvin $7.1 million this season but no guaranteed money through the end of his contract in 2018. If this experiment fails, or if Idzik opts not to incur Harvin’s $10.5 million salary next season, the Jets can cut him with no financial penalty.
Substantive talks developed last week, when Idzik started having what he called “very forthright” conversations with Schneider, his former boss in Seattle, and other members of the Seahawks’ staff.
It can be inferred, then, that they discussed the altercation Harvin admitted having with one teammate, Golden Tate, the night before the Super Bowl, and a scrap he had with another teammate, Doug Baldwin, during the preseason.
It can also be inferred that when Idzik stressed that the Jets had done their “due diligence,” they investigated Harvin’s disputes with coaches in Minnesota, where, after an argument, he once threw a weight at Coach Brad Childress, or his record at the University of Florida, where, The Sporting News reported, he threw his position coach to the ground by the neck.
“A player’s behavior on and off the field is always important to us,” said Idzik, who has added that at least four players — Mike Goodson, Quincy Enunwa, Dimitri Patterson and, now, Harvin — had character or legal issues that existed beforehand or surfaced after they joined the team. He added, “That said, you never know how a player is going to behave, react, respond until you put him in your environment.”
Asked if he worried about Harvin becoming a divisive presence, Idzik said, “Not right now, no.”
Harvin said he did not have anger-management issues. He said he did not pull himself out of Seattle’s Week 6 loss to Dallas, when he touched the ball for a total of minus-1 yard, nor, he added, had he ever done so. He said he never asked for a trade or expressed his unhappiness.
“I’m definitely not a perfect person,” Harvin said. “I have a lot of things that I wish I could have done a little differently. But I’m moving forward. I’m learning from those lessons.”
When Harvin tried explaining some of those things to Ryan, he was stopped.
“To me, things happen,” Ryan said, adding, “Obviously, we feel good about him being here, or he wouldn’t be here.”
And now that Harvin is here, the challenge is twofold: integrating him into the offense and accelerating his learning. Harvin, who will wear No. 16, will return kicks Sunday against Buffalo. Until he digests the playbook, his role could be limited.
“All I can say,” he said, “is just judge me off of what you see.”