What Are the Jets' Options with Percy Harvin?

The New York Jets saw the electricity in wide receiver Percy Harvin and hoped to plug him into their offense to provide a spark. Just three months later, it looks like the Jets could be getting ready to pull the plug on the experiment. 

Unless the Jets take action, Harvin will count $10.5 million against the salary cap, according to Spotrac, the eighth-highest cap hit for a wide receiver in 2015. Harvin caught 51 passes for 483 yards and one touchdown in 2014, with 29 of those catches, 350 of those yards and the lone touchdown coming as a member of the Jets organization. He only caught more than five passes in four games this year, and only two of those games were with the Jets.

Indeed, while the explosive playmaking potential has been there for Harvin in the past, it looks like the Harvin trade pretty much exploded in the Jets' faces. Not only did they lose a draft pick, but they gained practically nothing out of the trade.

And now, the Jets are left with a $10.5 million mess on their hands that they have to clean up. Here's a look at some of the ways they can take care of business. 

Keep Harvin at His Salary

It's not out of the question for the Jets to take no action and simply keep Harvin at the $10.5 million cap number. The Jets are not in dire need of cap room, with roughly $45 million to work with this offseason.

Player	Team	Cap hit
Larry Fitzgerald	Cardinals	$23,600,000
Calvin Johnson	Lions	$20,558,000
Andre Johnson	Texans	$16,144,583
Dwayne Bowe	Chiefs	$14,000,000
Vincent Jackson	Buccaneers	$12,209,777
Mike Wallace	Dolphins	$12,100,000
Greg Jennings	Vikings	$11,000,000
Percy Harvin	Jets	$10,500,000
Julio Jones	Falcons	$10,176,000
A.J. Green	Bengals	$10,176,000

What the Jets are in dire need of, however, is skill position talent. Sure, they will have wide receivers Eric Decker and Jeremy Kerley on the roster regardless of what happens with Harvin. Other than those two, however, everyone else is either an unproven commodity or has as much playmaking potential in their entire body as Harvin has in his little finger.

Harvin's cap hit would be double that of Decker's and more than five times that of Kerley's, even though his contributions to the offense may be inversely proportionate to his contract size. There's no reason the Jets should have to pay that much just because the Seahawks gave Harvin an overpriced contract.

Restructure

This is the option the old regime would have taken—the old, old regime, as in the one when Mike Tannenbaum was the general manager.

The Jets restructured more contracts than one can remember from 2010-2012 as they tried (in vain) to load up for a Super Bowl run. Players like Antonio Cromartie, Calvin Pace, Bart Scott, Mark Sanchez and others were restructured as the Jets continually gave veterans more guaranteed money to help clear up cap space.

Year	2012	2013	2014	Average/season
Games	9	1	13	6
Targets	85	1	78	41
Receptions	62	1	51	28
Yards	677	17	483	294
Yards/catch	10.9	17	9.5	10.3
TD	3	0	1	1.3
Rush att.	22	0	33	14
Yds	96	0	202	74
Yards/carry	4.4	0	6.1	5.4
TD	1	0	1	0.6

The problem is, when those players do not live up to the price tag, there's no way to get rid of them without incurring a lot of dead money on the salary cap. That would be a big risk with Harvin, who not only has a long history of injuries, but also has not been a highly productive player over the past three seasons.

With $45 million in cap space this offseason, the Jets have the flexibility to make the move and give him more guaranteed money this year without it hurting them too much. But why do that when they can get all that money back?

Cut

This seems like the most likely option.

Harvin probably won't be salivating at the thought of taking a pay cut to play for the Jets, whose quarterback situation is about as stable as a bridge made of toothpicks. Likewise, while Harvin flashed playmaking potential with the Jets, he's hardly worth sinking $10.5 million into. 

There are better wide receivers the Jets could pursue with that money. It's possible that Demaryius Thomas (Denver Broncos), Jeremy Maclin (Philadelphia Eagles) and Dez Bryant (Dallas Cowboys) could all be free agents this offseason. Any one of those three would probably cost twice as much, but would also be more productive than Harvin.

Unless otherwise noted, all salary cap and contract information provided by Spotrac.