Add Jermaine Cunningham to Curtis Martin, Danny Woodhead and Ty Law as players that have jumped from one side of the Patriots-Jets rivalry to the other.
The Jets announced Tuesday that they have signed Cunningham. The linebacker was a second-round pick of the Patriots in 2010 was waived/injured by the Pats this summer and then released from injured reserve in September. He spent most of October with the 49ers, but wasn’t active for any games.
Cunningham picked up 3.5 sacks during his three years with the Patriots, with 2.5 of them coming in 12 games of last season. Cunningham wasn’t able to play all 16 games because of a four-game suspension for violating the performance-enhancing drug policy and failed to crack the rotation of edge players that made the Patriots out of camp this summer.
The Jets were down a linebacker against the Bills last Sunday with Garrett McIntyre battling a knee injury. Cunningham will join McIntyre and Troy Davis as backup options behind Calvin Pace and Quinton Coples.
The Jets opened up a roster spot for Cunningham by placing tight end Konrad Reuland on injured reserve.