New York Jets News: Sheldon Richardson is in trouble

New York Jets News: More trouble for defensive lineman

Sheldon Richardson is already about to serve a 4 game suspension. Now, there are reports from Fox 2 of Richardson being arrested on July 14th for a number of charges including Resisting Arrest and Street Racing. There are so many things that are troubling about this both for the New York Jets and Richardson.

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First, Richardson was suspended from the NFL about 2 weeks before. ONLY 2 WEEKS. You just got busted for weed and are suspended from the NFL so why would you think it would be a good idea to put yourself in this situation? This is not a good look for Richardson. He could potentially be suspended again by the NFL, this time for an entire season. Richardson is no doubt one of the best defensive linemen in the league and expected to be paid like one, but with these two strikes against him can the New York Jets take that risk? While, this will no doubt help in negotiating with Richardson and potentially getting him on a cheaper deal, this will be felt elsewhere.

This brings us to our next problem. The Muhammad Wilkerson contract situation. Wilkerson, who is a top 5 D-lineman himself, doesn’t have this baggage that seems to be plaguing Richardson. This 100% shifts the power to Wilkerson’s camp. Wilkerson does have one thing working against him and that is the franchise tag. The Jets still technically have another year to negotiate a new deal with Wilkerson and that may be the reason this has been slow played by the Jets. However, they would be wise to speed up the process considering Richardson’s situation.

Before when you had an argueably better D-lineman in Richardson and a freshly drafted rookie getting rave reviews, the Jets had a ton of leverage. However, now with Richardson showing signs of trouble, it would be best for the Jets not to anger Wilkerson. It was a risk they could have taken if Richardson did not get into this mess, but now the Jets can’t afford to have a risk like Richardson and anger Wilkerson to the point that he won’t sign with the team after his Tag year.

This puts the Jets in a tough position. It will be incredibly interesting how Wilkerson, Richardson, and even Todd Bowles handle this situation. I would not want to be Richardson, who is already practicing with the second-team because of his suspension, tomorrow. You would have to hope that the team already knew about this, because if they didn’t, it could get messy.

Never a dull moment with the NYJ.

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