NY Jets: Team should trade or cut Sheldon Richardson

It’s time for the NY Jets to cut bait with defensive tackle Sheldon Richardson this offseason.  Immediately after his four-game suspension this summer, he was clocked at 134 MPH while fleeing the police.

Despite what Bill Kostroun of the NY Post wrote that he said, “I apologize to my teammates and the organization.  I told them you don’t have to worry about my name being in the news again,” he clearly doesn’t understand the ramifications of his actions.  Richardson said this while knowing there was a police incident from the summer that hadn’t been made public.

The situation was compounded by not only having two other adults in the car, and he also had a 12-year-old in the car with him.  After an off-season where the NFL suspended Adrian Peterson for domestic violence, the Jets need to take a stand for someone putting people’s lives in danger, especially that of a child.

The defensive line is talented and deep enough to let him go, whether it’s trade or cut as there’s no need to keep Richardson around.  We have reached the point where his negative actions far outweigh his superior talent on the field.

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Based on what ESPN’s Rick Cimini wrote, and what general manager Mike Maccagnan said, he’d rather have more daft picks. As he said in the following quote:

“Philosophically, I’m not opposed to moving up in the draft to get a player if you feel it’s a player that’s going to be an extremely good player, but I would, personally, like to get more picks.”  Richardson is in the final year of his rookie contract.  This makes him a likely trade candidate.

The market may be thin for him though, considering he will most likely be suspended for more than the four games he got this season. With that said, the website Over the Cap has the Jets saving the same amount of money regardless of whether they trade him or cut Richardson.

The Jets are in dire need to decrease that salary cap number. Over the Cap has the cap number at $143.5M, and according to ESPN’s Rob Demovsky, the projected cap number could be as high as $153.4M. In my opinon, the Jets will need to get between $20M and $30M under that number to have a truly successful off-season.

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Cutting him may the Jets only option.  I’d hate for them to have to do this, because he’s a first-round draft pick with a lot of talent, but the unfortunate part is that Richardson has put the Jets in a situation where there may be no other option.  However, they could get a conditional draft pick for him.

When you take everything into account, it’s not even worth the $1.776M to keep him around.  There’s just too much negative baggage to hold onto. Normally, I’m in for giving second chances, but he clearly hasn’t learned from his first mistake. Cutting him may be the lesson he needs.