Cotchery Wanted Out, Jets Wanted Him To Stay

Yesterday was a little bid of a circus concerning the news about Jerricho Cotchery.  It appeared at first that the Jets were the cold business type that was just cutting a fan favorite.  As the day went on, there seemed to be holes in the story and it finally surfaced that Cotchery wanted OUT of the Jets.  He requested a trade or to be released:

The Daily News has learned that Cotchery asked for a trade in February before the NFL Scouting Combine,  hoping to land on a team that would A) allow him to start and B) extend his contract.

A lot of people thought, including myself, that bringing in Derrick Mason was the reason the Jets were cutting #89.

A source said that Rex Ryan attempted to convince Cotchery to stay with the team on several occasions.

“I probably saw it coming for a little while,” Ryan said. “But I guess I never wanted to admit it.”

As recently as this week, Ryan said that he tried to convince Cotchery to reconsider, but it didn’t work. (On Thursday, Cotchery’s failed physical was turned into the league by the team).

“He didn’t want to be here any more,” another source told the News. “He felt disrespected and underappreciated.”

Mason’s visit “was not the reason” that Cotchery was gone, according to Ryan.

 

Receiver Jerricho Cotchery is focused on practice today before being released by the Jets. - Credit: Ed Murray/The Star-Ledger

Let’s be clear here, and put the emotions aside.  The Jets are NOT the bad guy here.  I wouldn’t call Jerricho the bad guy either.  He’s a quiet guy and didn’t spat off that he was unhappy, that’s why this story was such a shock when we learned the Jets were going to cut him.  We as fans assumed that the Big Bad Jets were so cold to cut a fan favorite and that Mike Tannenbaum is a tyrant.

Make sure you check out my Podcast where I talk about Cotchery and the occurrence last night.