THURSDAY, 10:26am: The Jets have officially signed Decker, the team announced today (Twitter link). Meanwhile, Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk has the financial details of the contract, which includes a $7.5MM signing bonus. Decker’s base salaries in 2014 and 2015 are guaranteed, so the deal essentially becomes pay-as-you-go beyond ’15.
WEDNESDAY, 10:44pm: It’s a five-year, $36.25MM deal including $15MM guaranteed, a source tells Adam Schefter of ESPN (on Twitter).
10:30pm: The Jets have agreed to a contract with free agent wide receiver Eric Decker, tweets Eric Allen of newyorkjets.com. The news was confirmed on the team’s Twitter account.
It was a relatively quiet start to the offseason for Gang Green, but they got in the game in a big way tonight. In Decker, the Jets have nabbed one of the very best wide receivers available on the open market this winter. The Jets and two other clubs reportedly had very serious interest in signing the former Broncos standout, but Decker wanted to give the Jets the first opportunity to sign him. After hosting Decker, Rex Ryan & Co. were quickly able to seal the deal.
Last season, in Peyton Manning‘s pass-happy Denver offense, Decker registered 87 catches for 1,288 yards (career high) and 11 touchdowns. At 6’3″, Decker can give the Jets another tall passing target capable of huge plays. It’s a void that needed to be filled after the Jets said goodbye to Santonio Holmes earlier this week. The Jets reportedly want to come away with two free agent wide receivers, so other targets such as Packers free agent James Jones are still in play.
Wow! Big move for them.
Needed to land a receiver of some sort so why not Decker? Big fan of this signing!
Not a horrible contract for the Jets. Still an overpay IMO, decker was mediocre before Peyton.