When the Chiefs chose to complain about the failure of agent Steve Weinberg to follow through on a verbal deal for receiver Emmanuel Sanders, several league insiders -- both from the team side and the agent side -- pointed out that NFL teams routinely engage in shady business dealings, too.
The Jets apparently could be on that list, in one specific way.
Manish Mehta of the New York Daily News reports that the Jets have apologized to at least one agent after the team misled the agent regarding the team’s interest in a player during the three-day exclusive negotiating window.
Multiple agents told Mehta the Jets engaged in “questionable practices” by leading them to believe the team’s interest was at a level that the eventual offers apparently didn’t match.
That specific accusation comes in an article that focuses primarily on the frustrations arising within the organization regarding the slow pace of G.M. John Idzik in free-agency negotiations. An unnamed member of the organization said that Idzik “operates on his own time and schedule,” and that the situation is “unbelievable.”
As to the latest player the Jets failed to sign, Mehta reports that the Jets made a “desperate 11th-hour offer” for cornerback Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, but that it was too late to keep him away from the Giants.
That said, the Jets closed the deal with receiver Eric Decker during his first and only free-agency visit. So Idzik hasn’t been slow on every possible candidate.
Looking at the situation more broadly, the leaks suggest a level of dysfunction that either didn’t previously exist or that had been successfully concealed under Idzik’s leadership. That could make for another mess of a season, if the Jets get off to a slow start in 2014.