It seems the four-game suspension handed down by the NFL to New York Jets defensive lineman Sheldon Richardson may be beneficial not only to recent first-round pick Leonard Williams - the player likely to take over Richardson's spot in the starting rotation while the former is serving his suspension for violating the league's substance of abuse policy - but also for defensive linemate Muhammad Wilkerson, potentially in the form of that long-term contract extension Wilkerson's been, thus far unsuccessfully, seeking this offseason.
"Prior to the suspension that Richardson got for marijuana use, the Jets considered Richardson the better player between the two," Bleacher Report's Jason Cole said recently, of the Jets view of both Richardson and Wilkerson. "However, in this offseason, not only are they dealing with the suspension, but there is concern about Richardson's long-term contract demands and a belief that Richardson is going to do whatever it takes - including holding out - to get that long-term deal with the kind of money that say, Ndamukong Suh received."
Suh, of course, garnered the largest NFL contract ever handed to a defensive player in the history of the league this offseason - six-years, $114 million with almost $60 million guaranteed - so that's quite the lofty bar Richardson has set for himself, assuming Cole's report is accurate.
Richardson, 24, has appeared in all 32 regular season games since the Jets selected him in the first-round of the 2013 NFL Draft. In two short NFL seasons, he's amassed 144 tackles, 11.5 sacks, two forced fumbles and two passes defensed to boot. He won the Defensive Rookie of the Year award after taking the league and the unsuspecting Jets opposition by storm and reached his first Pro Bowl last year.
His view of himself may be particularly rosy, but it's not entirely unwarranted.
Wilkerson, only one year older, but with two extra years of NFL experience to his name, has also proven a talented, versatile, disruptive force during his career, grabbing 236 tackles, 24 sacks, seven forced fumbles, one interception and 14 passes defensed in four years of professional work.
In short, Wilkerson and Richardson both provide high-level impact for a Jets defense that has the chance to be truly special next season. Determining which player is more meaningful to the New York effort long-term is for new Jets GM Mike Maccagnan and head coach Todd Bowles to decide.
Then again, Richardson may have made their decision much easier with his choices this offseason - the suspension is bad, the valuation of himself as somewhere in the same vicinity of Suh, is worse.
It sounds like, per Cole, while Bowles and Maccagnan may have been leaning fairly heavily towards paying Richardson and eventually sending Wilkerson packing, these latest developments and the drafting of Williams in the first-round in late April may serve to make the decision an ultimately easy one and could result in a long-term deal for Wilkerson sooner, rather than later, and an eventual parting of ways with Richardson should Williams develop as hoped.
