If Football Ever Comes Back, Randy Moss Could Be a Jet

Moss could be a Jets target once free agency begins

Remember football? 

It's the game played by men wearing suits of armor and big helmets that takes over our country every Sunday in the fall and early winter. You probably play in a league where you take virtual ownership over several of the players so that you can win money and/or bragging rights from your friends.

You're forgiven if the memory is a bit hazy. A spat about how to best divide the $9 billion in revenue the NFL takes in from saps like you every year has shut the league down during the point in the year when teams are usually signing free agents and making trades to firm up the roster for the next season.

It seems that if the league were going about its normal business, there'd be a pretty good chance that the Jets would be getting into bed with Randy Moss. Over the weekend, Rex Ryan told Greg Bedard of the Boston Globe that he was a big admirer of the former Vikings/Raiders/Patriots/Vikings/Titans wideout's ability to stretch the field.

That doesn't, in and of itself, qualify as having interest in a player. Ryan, despite his image as being the worst thing to happen to football since Joe Theisman in the announcer booth, very rarely has a negative thing to say about another player.

The ratcheting up from admiration to interest comes from a pair of national columnists -- Vic Carucci of NFL.com and Mike Freeman of CBSSports.com -- who report that the Jets are eager to get into the Moss business.

Why in the world would the Jets take a risk like this? We get that they aren't afraid to roll the dice on players with iffy character, but Braylon Edwards and Santonio Holmes can still play.

Last year Moss quit on two teams and barely even showed up to a third. He wasn't willing to go to battle with Tom Brady, so what would make the Jets think that he'd do it with Mark Sanchez?

Carucci has two thoughts. One is that free agency could rob the Jets of some combination of Edwards, Holmes and Brad Smith while it would also keep Moss from rejoining the Patriots.

The first is sensible, although there are so many variables in the NFL labor picture right now that it seems crazy to speculate about who is going to wind up where when and if the two sides come to an agreement. The second is ridiculous.

Moss didn't stop the Jets from handling the Pats in Week 2 and his absence didn't stop the Pats from waxing the Jets 48-3 later in the season. The Patriots definitely missed a deep threat in the playoff game, but Moss wasn't giving them that threat when he was still playing for New England.

Whoever signs Moss is going to be gambling that they can show up and get him to play hard 60 to 70 percent of the time. Ryan obviously believes he can do that and history has shown that he gets a lot out of his guys.

In the end, though, wouldn't you rather take the other side of that bet and let someone else worry about getting the best out of Moss?

Josh Alper is a writer living in New York City. You can follow him on Twitter and he is also a contributor to Pro Football Talk.

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