Now that the dust has settled a little on the Kerry Rhodes trade, I wanted to do a deep dive on my thoughts about the trade that send the five year safety to the Arizona Cardinals for a 4th in ‘10 and a 7th in ‘11 yesterday.
My Take on the Trade
I am not shocked by this trade, just a little disappointed. I was really hoping that Kerry was going to remain a Jet in the long term. Whenever new management, coaches and teammates are introduced into the existing system, the remaining verterans have to buy into the new system. If they don’t, their days are numbered and this is exactly what happened to Kerry Rhodes. Kerry tweeted a couple of days ago that he had a “productive meeting” with Pettine, but we know that wasn’t true now!
Most differences are kept within the confines behind closed doors, but Kerry’s story was public, criticized constantly, and eventually was an ugly public divorce.
I believe the writing was on the wall as soon as Kerry was benched. It was the beginning of the end. Any comment from the Jets brass saying that they wanted Kerry was to buy time, but deep down, they didn’t want the back. According to many sources, Kerry was not Rex’s “Guy”. Once the new system came into New York, Kerry no longer the guy people looked at as the leader. Deep down, I know that didn’t sit well with Kerry. His ego was bruised and in little dribs and drabs he made it known, especially on Twitter. He also didn’t really convince me all was good with him and the Jets when he was on “The WheelHouse” on SNY after the season ended.
I think a 4th and 7th round pick was of little value, but that just confirms that the Jets just wanted the DB out of New York. The Cardinals knew this going in and held us for ransom and got a steal from us. Kerry was a “Cardinal” in college and he is one again in the Pros.
The Speed of the Internet
I am amazed of the role the internet plays in my information gathering now that most NFL sources use tools like twitter to break news. I checked my email and my feeds for Jets news, walked upstairs to give my kids their baths and fifteen minutes later came down and my iPhone received 45 text updates from Twitter friends, Facebook friends, and text messages directly.
I tweeted my first reaction of the trade and most people made it clear to me that I was late to the game. They were saying things like: ”Um that was so 15 minutes ago, where were you etc etc.”. I felt like I missed the biggest news of the year, but then sat back and laughed that I was out of the loop by 15 minutes.
Do you remember the days when you got all your news from local television or the next days paper. If this same story occurred ten years ago, I would be reading it RIGHT NOW in the Sunday Paper at 9:00am. I also would not have gotten any feedback from other fans. The medium obviously is one way and tools like Twitter, Blogs, and chat rooms allows fans to interact immediately. I also get to see in real time the fans messages to Kerry Rhodes. That was fascinating to me as I saw the term “Kerry Rhodes” Trend on Twitter and Kerry must have had to shut off his phone as he probably received thousands of replies in the first hour alone.
This Trade Changes the Draft Strategy
Now that we have a gaping hole in the secondary, I am convinced that the Jets will draft a Safety in the 2010 draft this year. The Jets have loaded up on picks this year and I believe that we now have the option to package a couple of them up to move up to select a player we find of value.
Taylor Mays is the first name that pops into my head and will most likely be available at #29. Prior to the Rhodes trade, I was convinced that the Jets were going to use the pick to select a DE or WR. Odrick from Penn State and Golden Tate from Notre Dame were some of the top players I was keeping an eye on at that position. If the Jets don’t go Safety at #29, I still believe they will select one possibly in the 4th round.
A Locker Room Torn
Rumor has it that Rhodes and Revis only Spoke on the Field.
One interesting conversation that was happening on Twitter once the Trade news broke was that Kerry was not a popular guy in the locker room. Please keep in mind, I CANNOT CONFIRM THAT THESE EVENTS HAPPENED PERSONALLY, but was told that the person telling me some of these stories have great sources, so take the next part with a grain of salt. I am not in the game of making stuff up so consider this rumored until I can truly confirm:
- Just before the playoffs, Kerry and Thomas Jones got into a scuffle where both threw punches. I was told that TJ won the fight but both players had to be pulled off each other.
emesola: The coaches also had to pull Rhodes and Jones apart. The brawl happened right before the playoffs. Rhodes’ last straw.
- Another rumor is that Kerry was disliked very much by Darrelle Revis. The only time the two spoke was on the field. (If you look at both Twitter interactions throughout the year, they never talked with each other). All the other players did interact with each other, but not these two, again, take it with a grain of salt.
- Kerry didn’t like the attention others were getting and created a wedge between him and his other teammates.
- A lot of the players started to refer to Rhodes as “Carrie”.
- Seemed like the only player that got along with Rhodes was Braylon Edwards.
The person that broke the aforementioned bullets is @emesola on Twitter. I have known her for a long time on Twitter and from my experience, she has been very accurate when she had broken news on the Jets.
Here are some of her conversations with fans questioning her:
Kerry Rhodes and Twitter
Jets Twit, I, enjoyed all my interactions with Kerry. He was interesting to talk to on Twitter about almost every kind of topic. Looking back on the history of Jets Twit, we had written a TON of stories on Rhodes. Let’s face it, controversy and issues “Sells” stories, or in this case “Hits” to the blog.
Rhodes was the Most Active Jet on Twitter
I found it fascinating to get the inside scoop and see what a players thoughts were as the season was unfolding. Never before in the history of the NFL did a fan have this kind of access to players. Kerry Rhodes was my first athlete I got to have this interaction with so his trade is a little weird for me. One of my favorite interactions was when I tweeted him about Larry Grantham’s super bowl ring, and when I met him on the field and he signed my helmet.
I feel like a friend is moving away. I hope to stay in touch with him and still have conversation, but it won’t be as frequent and I won’t be writing the same stories on Jets Twit.
Call it a little self promoting or selfish, but Jets Twit blog was successful because of how Kerry was on Twitter. Jets Nation added two new players to cover, Mike DeVito and Antonio Cramarite, but it won’t be the same. Mike tweets about dates and food while Antonio quotes passages from the bible and has been kind of quiet. Not criticizing their tweets, but Kerry had been very great with his supporters.
Kerry did have issues with dealing with his haters, but who am I to criticize Kerry on how he handled them online. He is a celebrity with fans watching his every move and there were some fans that were baiting him to get him to slip up. I personally don’t operate that way, I feel that “if you don’t have something nice to say, don’t say it at all”. I’m not calling myself a saint, but there is no reason for fans to get malicious and hateful. There were some “Ugly” tweets send to Kerry throughout the season.
Love him or hate him, Kerry Rhodes was successful as a New York Jet. It is unfortunate that he had to leave the team in this fashion. You have to ponder what may have been with Revis, Cromartie and Rhodes all in that backfield.
Again, we wish Kerry Rhodes success in the Cardinals Organization!
