Buzz: Jets reached out to Steve Smith

From NFL.com comes the curious rumor that the Jets contacted legendary wide receiver Steve Smith to see if he was interested in coming out of retirement to play in the 2017 season.

The timing of this is delicious for a media looking for every excuse to bash the Jets' apparent lack of an organizational plan. Cutting Eric Decker to save money, free up reps for young players and (possibly) to ensure a high draft pick next year only to then spend money on a 38-year old makes no sense whatsoever.

And that's why it's probably not accurate.

Missing from this rumor is any detail from Smith about not only when the Jets contacted him, but also who did that.

If this was something that they looked into at the time when they were trying to sign Dont'a Hightower and perhaps needed a hedge against Decker not being healthy next year, then kicking the tires on an alternative option at least makes some sense. Once that fell through and the focus shifted away from short-term competitiveness - and all the way to yesterday's moves - this would no longer make sense.

Alternatively, if Maccagnan himself had contacted Smith directly, then that would hold a lot more weight than a member of the personnel department gathering intel on a free agent's intentions. That information would merely be taken to Maccagnan who would confirm that the organization was moving in another direction and wouldn't pursue this option any further.

Manish Mehta from the Daily News confirmed via twitter this morning that this would just have been routine due diligence and that there was never any serious interest.

This regime is making some questionable moves, but they aren't that clueless.

Are they?