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This shouldn’t have come as a surprise . . .
There were all these reports leading you to believe that there was going to be a big market for Robby Anderson.
Honestly, that didn’t make a lot of sense.
There were reports he was going to get $14 million-a-year.
Are you kidding?
Good player, but $14 million-a-year? What’s up with that?
We got into this the other day in the story about how the market would likely come back to the Jets.
And it has, and that first article wasn’t rocket science, but common sense.
Like I said in the first article, we are talking about a player who had issues at Temple University and then two arrests while with the Jets. Anybody who doesn’t think Anderson’s mercurial past has impacted Anderson’s market, isn’t dealing with reality.
The people who cover NFL football like it’s Fantasy Football are doing their readers a disservice. There is so much more to free agency than just looking at stats.
I am not here to sit in judgement of Anderson. None of us are perfect.
But if you are going to make a major investment in somebody, their past matters.
When Anderson was arrested on nine charges in January of 2018 in Sunrise, FL, according to the police report, he said, “When he got out he was going to find (the officer’s) wife, [bleep] her and [bleep] in her eye.”
The arresting officer Jon Hennessy said in the report, “He continued [to] make other verbal threats towards my family. Based on his statements, it was clear that he intended to sexually assault my wife.”
Would every team looking for a receiver, give an individual, accused of this, big money, to catch passes for them?
No, some teams would stay away.
From what we heard, the Jets’ security chief worked hard to get some of the nine charges dropped, and was effective, including the charge of threatening sexual assault.
Honestly, I don’t think any of us thinks that Anderson was ever going to do that to the officer’s wife. While what he said was troubling, it was just somebody in a fit of rage saying something very stupid.
Headline – “Robby Anderson arrested for second time in less than a year.”
The other arrest was at a Miami music festival where he was accused of pushing a police officer after being asked to leave the concert. These charges were eventually dropped.
Two arrests, along with issues at Temple – teams are aware of this stuff. Remember, he left Temple for a while, went to Valencia College, and then went back to Temple. Anderson is now asking everyone to name his college as Valencia, not Temple.
Look, I don’t know all the details from his time at Temple, but he was bounced for a bit by Matt Rhule, and had to go to another college. You’ve seen Anderson play. He’s talented – he runs a 4.34 forty and can take a top of the defense – don’t you think he was worthy of being picked in the draft? He wasn’t. He went undrafted and the Jets signed him. So clearly some of the stuff that went on at Temple turned teams off.
So Anderson not being as hot in the free agent market as some had led you to believe, isn’t surprising.
Also, this is the best receiver draft in a long time, which is another reason free agent receivers, aside from Amari Cooper, are seeing a bear market.
So there is a good chance that the Jets can get back Anderson back at their price, not $14 million-a-year.
We will see what Adam Schefter announces.
March 19, 2020
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