Revis
Buster Skrine
Carpenter
Fitzpatrick Trade
New York Jets: A
Darrelle Revis' move back to New York represents the highest-graded signing so far as the Jets' drastic positional need matched up perfectly with PFF's top overall free agent. New York not only secured the far and away best free-agent cornerback, but it also pried away the division-rival Patriots' premier defensive player from a year ago.
The Jets' corner position has been a revolving door since Revis fled to Tampa Bay after the 2012 season, and with the stroke of a pen he turned it back into a position of strength.
Revis' decline after a 2012 ACL injury was vastly overblown. He still graded out as our top corner (plus-18.6) in 2013 even though he played almost exclusively right cornerback in a zone scheme that didn't play to his strengths. After moving back to a man-heavy scheme last year with the Patriots, his significance was obvious once again. In a more difficult role, following receivers at times and lining up all over the field (295 snaps in slot, 868 snaps out wide), he was PFF's fourth-highest graded corner (plus-17.7) and allowed a total of just 25 yards on three catches in the Patriots' three playoff games.
The only reason for pause is Revis' age. At 29 years old the corner will be out of his prime by the end of the five-year deal. However, his level of play is so high that a slight downturn in performance still puts him in the upper echelon at the position.
Buster Skrine
New York Jets: D
If you're not going to be the best corner on the team, you need to be able to at least hold up under the weight of targets you're going to receive as the second corner, and Skrine couldn't manage that in Cleveland this past season. With Joe Haden tracking receivers, Skrine was forced to move around to accommodate him and was thrown at a massive 123 times over the year, the second most for all corners behind only Jason McCourty.
Skrine surrendered 70 catches for 864 yards and eight touchdowns, the third most of any corner in the league.
At his best, Skrine is a marginal corner who could do a job as a sub-package guy, but looked overmatched as a starter. If the Jets don't land Darrelle Revis, then Skrine will be in line to start for the Jets, and he would be the second-best corner in that stable behind a returning Dee Milliner.
The glimmer of hope is that Skrine did have several positive games during the season and did show the ability to get his hands on some passes, notching eight passes defensed and intercepting four passes.
Carpenter
New York Jets: C-plus
The weak point for the Seahawks these past few years has been the offensive line, and Carpenter didn't help their case. He started his career at right tackle before finding a home at left guard. As his career has progressed, he has improved his pass protection, as his lone sack allowed during last season came in the Super Bowl. He had a pass-blocking efficiency number of 96.9, which was 19th best of 59 qualifying guards.
The problem for Carpenter has been his run blocking, where he has graded out below-average all four years of his career, including a minus-6.3 mark in 2014. Unlike his pass protection, he has yet to show much improvement there during his career.
On the bright side for the Jets, he will be a slight upgrade over Willie Colon. While Colon has had a great career at guard, he had a down year in 2014. He had a minus-16.3 run-blocking grade, which was among the bottom five of the league, and he also led all guards in penalties at 14. With the top few guards already off the market, Carpenter was one of the best remaining options to replace Colon despite an uneven career to this point, so this signing is understandable -- but don't expect Carpenter to have a significant impact on the Jets' offense, particularly not in the running game.
Fitzpatrick Trade
New York Jets: A-minus
Such is the state of quarterback play in the NFL that the market for proven inadequate passers is booming. Sub-standard backups are cashing significant guaranteed money in their deals, and now the Jets have traded for Fitzpatrick , who will be joining his sixth NFL team.
To be fair to Fitzpatrick, he actually played quite well in Houston in 2014 before injury derailed his season, and again once he returned later in the season. He ended the year with a plus-8.8 PFF grade, good enough to rank 12th league wide. That might seem high, but his passer rating was 95.3 for the season and he threw 17 touchdowns to just 8 interceptions, completing 63.1 percent of his passes at 8.0 yards per attempt. Those are all very good numbers that back up the notion that whatever we think of his career to date, he played pretty good football last season.
The Jets can't have any confidence in Geno Smith after his first two seasons, and Fitzpatrick represents a veteran presence who can be relied upon to start games and succeed if he is surrounded with enough help.
Houston Texans: C
This side of the trade is far less interesting. The Texans were clearly going to get rid of Fitzpatrick, with head coach Bill O'Brien preferring to stockpile former Patriots backups with whom he is familiar.
Brian Hoyer's signing made Fitzpatrick a guy they were going to cut loose, and getting anything back for him, even a conditional late-round pick, is better than nothing.
