Well, that didn’t take long, while we were waiting on the ink to dry on our blog post about probabilities, Manish Mehta announced that the Jets came through and pulled the trigger on the release of four Jets players to clear cap space for 2011.

All told, the releases free up more than million in “cap space” in 2011 for the Jets, and they cleared the millstone that was Vernon Gholston’s contract from around their neck.  Beyond the .5 million bonus they just dodged from VG, see just how the Jets put this plan on Gholston into action last offseason when they restructured his contract last year, via Jason’s excellent article on the subject.

While Taylor, Jenkins, and Woody were as politic as they could have been about the situation in recent weeks, the handwriting was on the wall.  While it isn’t easy to see guys like Woody and Jenkins go, the Jets are in dire need of re-signing some of their younger free agents, so those tempting cap numbers caused the team to make the moves they did.  No surprise there.  Still … maybe there’s hope to a return?

Obviously, that’s a nice sentiment, but this is a two-way street.  All of these players were in danger of losing playing time in 2011 anyway, so it will come down to the players and their desire to be Jets.  If they can’t get more elsewhere, or if they really believe that this team is the best chance at a Super Bowl run in 2011, then maybe they’ll stay on at a minimum level deal.  Jason Taylor was the one player I thought the team might cut later rather than sooner, since the team might be concerned from a depth perspective … clearly that’s just not the case.  Maybe one or two of these guys would come back, but I think they’ll get better deals and/or more playing time elsewhere.

From thejetsblog.com. Please read the complete article and let us know what you think below.