The Jets need cornerback help, and 2016 first-round pick Vernon Hargreaves could be the answer.
With the Jets woefully thin at cornerback, New York should take a look at the recently-released Vernon Hargreaves III to fill a position riddled by injury and poor play.
Hargreaves could be a low-risk, high-reward move by the Jets considering his youth and potential. The former 11th overall pick in the 2016 draft only recently turned 24 and was one of the top prospects coming out of Florida just three years ago. He opened his career with a stellar rookie season with the Buccaneers (76 tackles, nine passes defended and one interception), but injuries plagued Hargreaves the past two seasons and he was ultimately cut after a brutal beginning to 2019.
Bruce Arians and the Buccaneers were dismayed by Hargreaves’ lack of enthusiasm and effort this season, culminating in Arians benching Hargreaves after he didn’t hustle on a 55-yard pass play against the Arizona Cardinals in Week 10.
“He didn’t look like he was hustling to go in for a tackle,” Arians said of the play. “He was chasing somebody across the field, and he wasn’t running fast enough.”
Hargreaves, to his credit, didn’t back down from the criticism. He took full responsibility after the game for any perceived concerns about his effort.
“If that’s what coach saw that’s what he saw,” he said. “There’s no arguing with that – I need to hustle. Point blank. End of discussion.”
Hargreaves’ production has dropped off considerably since his rookie season and he has major injury issues – he missed all but one game in 2018 with a shoulder injury and seven games in 2017 with a hamstring injury. His 2019 hasn’t been much better, as he’s allowed a 111.9 passer rating when targeted (51st among cornerbacks), 12.3 yards per reception (37th), 5.7 receptions per game (77th), a catch rate of 63.8 percent (49th) and burned on 3.8 percent of his targets (71st), per PlayerProfiler.com.
Those numbers are all terrible. Sadly, they’re also better than every other Jets cornerback other than Brian Poole, who plays 61 percent of his snaps in the slot.
The Jets need a player like Hargreaves to play on the outside, especially if Darryl Roberts can’t play. With Roberts hobbled by a calf injury and Trumaine Johnson on injured reserve, the only healthy cornerbacks the Jets have on the roster are Poole, Nate Hairston (who was benched in the second quarter of Sunday’s game), sixth-round rookie Bless Austin, and undrafted rookies Arthur Maulet and Kyron Brown. Austin played well for the Jets in his first game of the year, but he can’t be expected to fix a Jets secondary that’s been leaky all season.
Hargreaves won’t be a game-changer for the Jets, but he’ll be an infusion of young talent in a depleted secondary. He’ll also be looking to prove himself in search of another contract. The Buccaneers picked up Hargreaves’ $9.954 million fifth-year option this offseason, but it’s only guaranteed for injury. If the Jets claim him, they could easily try him out for a few games and see how he fares in the offseason before committing to that price tag for the 2020 season.
Hargreaves also has a few former teammates on the Jets – Poole and safety Marcus Maye both played with Hargreaves in Gainesville in 2015.
The Jets are grasping at straws in the secondary right now. Hargreaves isn’t the player many expected him to be after his rookie season, but he’s young and experienced and could be a short-term solution for the Jets defense heading into the back-half of its schedule.
