2:00pm: The Jets have officially confirmed that they’ve signed Kerley to a four-year extension (Twitter link). Per Caplan (via Twitter), it’s worth $16MM, with $5.4MM in guaranteed money.
1:42pm: The future of Percy Harvin in New York beyond this season remains up in the air, but the Jets appear set to lock up another member of their receiving corps. According to Adam Caplan of ESPN.com (via Twitter), the team is expected to sign wideout Jeremy Kerley to a four-year contract extension sometime today.
Kerley, who turns 26 next month, has been a Jet since being selected in the fifth round of the 2011 draft. Since then, he has appeared in 49 games for the team, starting 20, and has hauled in 150 balls for 1,865 yards, and seven touchdowns. While the TCU product may see his role reduced somewhat with Harvin now in the mix, the Jets are apparently happy enough with Kerley’s play that they’re interested in keeping him under team control through 2018.
It’s hard to imagine a huge payday for Kerley, who has career highs of just 56 receptions, 827 yards, and three TDs. Still, considering the total value of his rookie contract was about $2.224MM for four years, he should be in line for a decent raise. A new deal for Kerley also gives the Jets some insurance at wide receiver if the Harvin experiment doesn’t work out — offseason signee Eric Decker is also under contract through the 2018 season, so he and Kerley likely aren’t going anywhere anytime soon.
Let me preface this by saying that the Jets have a ton of cap space to work with right now, but this just highlights the difference between the Pats and Jets. Pats sign Edelman to a 4 year $17MM deal coming off of a big year. Meanwhile the JEts sign Kerely for 4 years $15MM in the middle of a slump when his last (and only) good year was back in 2012