Rex Ryan and John Idzik Talk About the Percy Harvin Trade

JJul 28, 2013; Cortland, NY, USA; New York Jets head coach Rex Ryan (left) and general manager John Idzik talk following training camp at SUNY Cortland. Mandatory Credit: Rich Barnes-USA TODAY Sports

In the wake of the Percy Harvin trade, Rex Ryan and John Idzik met with the media to discuss the move. First we hear from Rex Ryan. He was asked if bringing in Harvin will help evaluate Geno Smith:

As you can tell, I haven’t thought about that. I think it’ll be interesting to put Percy in with the weapons, the other players that we already have. I think it’s going to be exciting. When you have (Jeremy) Kerley, when you have (Eric) Decker, our tight ends and our running backs, I think it brings an explosive talent to our team. It should be fun to watch. We’ll see how quickly Percy can pick up our offense and all that. How much he gets involved with it probably remains to be seen for this week, but we’ll see.

Has Rex Ryan ever dealt with a hot-headed, but talented player like Percy Harvin:

Look, we had some. I mean when Braylon (Edwards) came, there were some things about Braylon I guess. Braylon did just fine here. Santonio Holmes, I know it’s reported, I thought Holmes did fine. Is it perfect? Nobody is perfect. That’s one thing I know for a fact that Percy has in common with every single person in this building, including everybody in here. Nobody is perfect. I think you just, you see how it works with your group of people, and he has new teammates here and coaches, and everything else. We will see, we feel good about the team that we have, the chemistry that we have, and we are excited to add Percy to it.

How quickly does Rex think that Harvin can be incorporated into the offense?

See that’s the thing, that remains to be seen. Obviously, you don’t have the benefit of having a training camp or a whole lot of time together, but we will see. Certainly we plan on using him. How much he plays this first week, again we will see. I think it’s safe to say he is going to return kicks, and then we will see what else he can do. And he is going to play, it’s just how much I guess still remains to be seen.

Sep 7, 2014; East Rutherford, NJ, USA; New York Jets general manager John Idzik on the sidelines during a game against the Oakland Raiders at MetLife Stadium. The Jets defeated the Raiders 19-14. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports

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General manager John Idzik was asked about the level of concern regarding Percy Harvin’s past behavior:

A player’s behavior on and off the field is always important to us. As we have said before, it’s about the player, it’s about the person. So that is always going to be important to us and that’s why we do our due diligence. That said, you never know how a player is going to behave, react, respond, until you put him in your environment. Every environment is different. In Percy’s case, the University of Florida, Minnesota, Seattle, they are all different environments than here in New York. We feel like we have a very healthy environment for players. That’s a tribute to the character that we have in our locker room currently. I think Percy will be the benefactor of that. So, I think we have got to let that play out, and let’s see how he responds. But, we have a very healthy environment for Percy Harvin.

Does Idzik think that Harvin can behave like a Jet, considering his history?

You do your due diligence. You understand that I have a little bit of added knowledge in Seattle, knowing everyone that was involved from players to coaches to management to medical staff, I know them very well. You understand the circumstances to the best of your ability. But really it is about how Percy is going to play and act here as a Jet. Given all of that information, we are in a people business, you don’t know for sure until you get them on your campus, on your team and in your locker room to see how they are going to respond. All of the talks that I had, the research that we did, lead us to believe that we are confident in Percy being a real contributor to the Jets, not only as a player, but in the locker room as well.

There is no reason for the Jets not to be confident in Harvin’s ability. He has proven himself to be an explosive football player. The fact is that Harvin has had some behavioral concerns. All we can do is hope that the new scenery will do the trick for Percy Harvin.