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The New York Jets entered the NFL’s 2019 free agency among the teams with the most salary cap space available: the club had $101.5 million to work with and to work it went quickly as soon as the legal tampering period began on Monday. Since then, the Jets signed wide receivers Jamison Crowder and Josh Bellamy, re-signed Darryl Roberts and Jaonotthan Harrison, and traded for Oakland Raiders guard Kelechi Osemele.
The team’s biggest moves, however, involved adding two linebackers: while C.J. Mosley was signed to a massive 5-year, $85 million contract, Anthony Barr received a deal paying him around $14-15 million annually. With free agency not starting until Wednesday and players and clubs only agreeing on contracts in principle, however, Barr still had chance to overthink his decision to join the Jets. Apparently, he did just that.
According to NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo, the 26-year old had a change of heart and decided against coming to New York — a situation reminiscent of the one happening with New England Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels last year: like Barr, he agreed in principle to join the Indianapolis Colts as their new head coach only to pull out at the last possible second. Like McDaniels, it seems that Barr will return to his former team.