Jets Reportedly Have Interest In Donte Whitner, Maurice Jones-Drew & Chris Clemons

March 9, 2014

Manish Mehta of the New York Daily News reports that the Jets have 49ers’ S Donte Whitner and Jaguars’ RB Maurice Jones-Drew on their “persons of interest list.”

Mehta adds that the Jets also have interest in Dolphins’ free agent S Chris Clemens as well.

Whitner seems like an interesting option for the Jets would could some help at safety. He fit right in with the Jets’ physical defense while giving them some experience in the secondary.

Whitner, 28, totaled 73 tackles, two interceptions, two forced fumbles and a recovery last year. Pro Football Focus rated him as the No. 6 safety in the league.

The running back market is reportedly slow moving as of now, which shouldn’t come as much of a surprise based on the fact that running backs have had a hard time securing reasonable contracts in free agency for a few years now.

Jones-Drew, 28, is coming off of a disappointing season for the Jaguars in which he totaled 803 yards (3.4 YPC) and five touchdowns. In 2013, he surpassed 100 yards in a game just once, but it is worth mentioning that the Jaguars offense has a whole was pretty bad, and a combination of Blaine Gabbert and Chad Henne at quarterback wasn’t exactly doing him any favors by keeping defenders out of the box.

Pro Football Focus actually had him rated as an above average running back last season, but his rating was propped up by his blocking ability.

Clemons, 28, signed a one-year contract worth $2.75 million with the Dolphins last season, so I’m sure he’ll be looking for a lot more security in his next contract. In 2013, Clemens totaled 92 tackles, one interception and eight passes defensed over the course of 16 games.

Pro Football Focus has Clemens rated as the No. 19 safety in league last season while holding up well in coverage. We have him listed as the No. 51 player in our Top 100 Free Agents list.

We have all three players featured in our Top 100 Free Agents list.