The Jets' new general manager, Mike Maccagnan, pulled off his first big move Friday.
He executed a trade with the Bears and acquired wide receiver Brandon Marshall, pending a physical. The news was first reported by ESPN's Adam Schefter.
The Bears were looking to get rid of Marshall, either by trading or releasing him, according to the Chicago Tribune.
The Jets apparently didn't want to wait and see if the Bears released Marshall. It is unclear what the Bears will receive in the trade. According to the Tribune, the Bears wanted a mid-round draft pick for Marshall, perhaps even a pick as low as a fifth-rounder. And according to NFL Media's Ian Rapoport, the Jets are sending a fifth-rounder to Chicago.
The Marshall trade almost certainly means the Jets will move on from receiver Percy Harvin, who is due to receive $10.5 million in non-guaranteed salary next season.
Releasing Harvin, which the Jets probably will do any day now, will free up $10.5 million more in salary cap space for 2015, though the Jets are about to dedicate $7.7 million of that to Marshall, presuming they pick up his current contract.
That works out to $2.8 million more in 2015 salary cap space for the Jets, who already had about $50 million of room.
If Harvin is on the Jets' roster March 19, Seattle will receive a fourth-round draft pick from the Jets. If Harvin is not on the roster, Seattle will get a Jets sixth-rounder. That's part of the trade between the Jets and Seattle last year, which sent Harvin to the Jets.
So the Jets will essentially give up a fifth-rounder and a sixth-rounder for an eight-game tryout with Harvin last year and at least one season with Marshall, in 2015. Maccagnan will need to now count on Marshall being an upgrade over Harvin.
In this spring's draft, the Jets are now also unlikely to select a receiver (like Alabama's Amari Cooper or West Virginia's Kevin White) with the No. 6 pick.
The Jets' new head coach, Todd Bowles, was the secondary coach in Miami when Marshall played for the Dolphins from 2010-11. Bowles's wide receivers coach, Karl Dorrell, was an assistant in Miami for those two seasons -- as the receivers coach for 2010 and the quarterbacks coach for 2011.
The Jets' new senior director of college scouting, Rex Hogan, came to the Jets from the Bears. So he also is familiar with Marshall. Hogan was a national scout for the Bears.
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Marshall turns 31 later this month. He is a five-time Pro Bowler -- including from 2011-13, plus 2008-09 -- but his numbers were down last year: 61 catches for 721 yards and eight touchdowns. Though Marshall played in just 13 games last season, those were his lowest catch and yardage figures since his rookie year, 2006, with Denver.
From 2007-13, while playing for Denver, Miami and Chicago, Marshall averaged 99 catches, 1,249 yards and eight touchdowns per season.
How much does Marshall have left at this stage of his career? How well will he complement receiver Eric Decker with the Jets, as another outside receiver and deep threat? At 6-4 and 230 pounds, Marshall is a potential red-zone asset for a Jets offense that finished last in the NFL last year in red-zone percentage (36.17 -- more than 4 percent worse than the next-closest team.)
Marshall has three years left on his contract. But he has no guaranteed money on his contract past 2015, so the Jets can cut him after this season with no future cap implications. Because the Bears will absorb Marshall's prorated signing bonus as salary cap hits, Marshall is due to count $7.7 million against the Jets' cap in 2015, $8.1 million in 2016 and $8.5 million in 2017. This presumes the Jets keep his current contract intact.
But Marshall's contract would not carry any dead money figures for 2016 and 2017 if the Jets cut him after 2015. In short, the Jets aren't committing anything -- neither money nor salary cap implications -- to Marshall beyond this coming season.
Like Harvin last year, Marshall will come to the Jets with a checkered past, though Harvin's issues involved spats with teammates and Marshall's have involved brushes with the law. Marshall has acknowledged that he suffers from borderline personality disorder.
While playing for the Broncos in 2008, he was suspended three games by the NFL, after a DUI arrest, plus a domestic violence incident. The suspension was reduced to one game upon appeal. He pleaded guilty a reduced charge in the DUI incident and was found not guilty of misdemeanor battery in the other incident.
In 2009, he was arrested for disorderly conduct after an alleged fight with his fiancee, Michi Nogami-Campbell. The charges were dropped. In 2011, she allegedly stabbed him near his stomach, acting in self defense. He went to the hospital, but fully recovered, and later insisted his wife did not stab or assault him, in what he described as a heated marital dispute.
In 2012, Marshall was accused of hitting another woman in the face at a New York club. An investigation determined there was not enough evidence to charge Marshall.
The Broncos in 2009 suspended Marshall for two preseason games, for "detrimental" conduct, after he slacked off and behaved bizarrely at practice. Marshall had previously demanded a trade and asked for a new contract. The 2009 season would be his last in Denver, just as the 2011 season, following the alleged stabbing incident, would be his last in Miami.
According to the NFL, Marshall is just the fourth player since 1995 to be traded three or more times, joining another talented, but sometimes troubled receiver, Randy Moss.
Darryl Slater may be reached at dslater@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @DarrylSlater. Find NJ.com Jets on Facebook.