Edwards good catch for Jets? Depends which one shows up

FLORHAM PARK, N.J. -- Now that the New York Jets have Braylon Edwards, pulling off a trade that was in the works for months, here's the question: Which Braylon Edwards are they getting? Is it the All-World pass catcher who scored 16 times two years ago or the knucklehead who one year later couldn't catch a cab, leading the league in dropped passes?

If it's Braylon Edwards, circa 2007, they just punched their ticket to the playoffs. If it's the Edwards Scissorhands of 2008, a guy who seemed more interested in making it to Hollywood than the end zone, they may have themselves a problem that upsets team chemistry and detours them from playing deep into January.

GMs tell me what Browns fans already know. Edwards flashes brilliance but is too inconsistent. They question his toughness over the middle, they question his commitment to the game and they question his hands, his concentration and his attitude. But I want to hear from experts on the field, too, the people who know Edwards best, so I decided to consult them.

I'm talking about two of the league's elite defensive backs, Jets cornerback Darrelle Revis and safety Kerry Rhodes. They not only have experience playing Edwards; they know the guy off the football field, with each describing him as a "good friend." And the receiver they portray is far different from what the fumbling, stumbling pass catcher who annoyed Browns fans.

Revis and Rhodes don't question his character, they don't worry about his hands and they don't see a risk in taking him on. And good news, Jets fans: They see no reason Edwards can't do for them what he did for the Browns two years ago.

"This is a good pickup for us," Revis said. "Braylon is one of the best receivers in the league. My rookie year I went up against him, and he torched me. He killed me. He caught a touchdown pass on me, and we lost the game.

"He has good upside. He's 6-3, 6-4 ... a big-time threat ... and in the past teams have doubled him a lot because he's a deep threat and because of the things he has in his game. Having a big-threat receiver like that helps us and opens it up for other people, like Dustin [Keller], Leon [Washington] and J-Co [Jerricho Cotchery]. It's good for us to make this move."

It is if it's Good Braylon who shows up. The guy who hauled down a franchise-record 16 touchdown passes in 2007, second only to Randy Moss' league-record 23, was virtually unstoppable. He made the leaping catch. He made the spectacular catch. He turned the routine catch into a big gain. In short, he was everything he was supposed to be when the Browns made him the third pick of the 2005 draft.

But then Bad Braylon returned, and that, folks, is why he is in a Jets uniform today. Bad Braylon never left, dropping passes and making off-the-field headlines that have NFL security on the alert. With Edwards in the last year of a five-year deal, critics called for the Browns to get rid of him -- basically hinting at an addition-by-subtraction scenario -- and, for once, the team listened.

Now you have to wonder which Edwards the Jets just acquired.

He wasn't happy in Cleveland, and he wasn't happy with coach Eric Mangini. So maybe a new zip code means a new Braylon Edwards. But this is what concerns me: He had one marvelous season in Cleveland in 4½ years there. If you're looking for consistency, it's there in Edwards' down years. He has had 3½, with one breakout season.

But the Jets are counting on no-nonsense coach Rex Ryan to get the guy to conform, to get him to contribute and to get him back to where he once was. So they were willing to take the gamble, even if their players don't see it as one.

"[That] is definitely a misperception," Rhodes said of the risk factor. "With a lot of elite receivers, they get a rap of not being good chemistry guys. But those guys just want the ball. I don't know [what happened], as far as all those things that went down in Cleveland, but he's a guy who's going to fit in and going to make it work. Whenever you're a good player, you're going to try to fit in with the rest of the guys and let your impact speak for yourself on the field."

Let's face it, the Jets needed someone opposite Cotchery. Once it was Chansi Stuckey, and that didn't cut it. Keller is in the mix, too, but he's a wide receiver disguised as a tight end. The club desperately needed a deep threat to back off defenders, to make them respect the pass -- especially the deep pass -- and prevent them from stacking the box against running backs Thomas Jones and Washington. So they bring in Edwards and hope Good Braylon reappears.

Will Braylon Edwards make the catch when the Jets throw the ball his way? Only time will tell. (AP)

"In one-on-one coverage, he really can't be stopped," Rhodes said. "Even if there's good coverage he can go up and get the ball and make the spectacular play. You can't pass up a guy like that. He'll come in and fit in, and this will be a good place for him to stay.

"He's a great player. He can make the spectacular play. He can make the simple catch and go a long way. He's going to demand the double team if he's up to where he has been in the past. It's going to be a good thing for us."

Of course, that's what they said in Cleveland two years ago.

"I think his time there was over," said Rhodes, "and with the new guy [Mangini] coming in, it didn't make it any easier. So I think it's good for him to get away, and he's definitely a good guy for us to pick up. He'll get motivated [here]. It's a change of scenery for him, and I think it will do him some good."

If Edwards is to succeed with the Jets, it's up to people like Revis and Rhodes -- both of whom are grounded, know the New York terrain and stay out of trouble -- to keep his focus on football. There are people who believe Edwards was distracted in Cleveland; that his interest was more in hanging out with Hollywood celebrities than it was in catching passes for the Cleveland Browns. I don't know about that. What I do know is that now he can hang out with New York celebrities, which is precisely why Revis and Rhodes and whoever else wants to volunteer should get to Edwards now and stay on him.

"We're going to make sure Braylon is straight when he comes here," Revis promised. "We treat this locker room as a family, and we're going to make sure how things go here."

I like that.

"He's not a prima donna," said linebacker Bart Scott, who worked with Edwards at the Jerome Bettis Pro Football Camps. "He will come in here and block and play tough and do all the things we need him to do. I know him personally, so I'm not concerned with all that stuff. Perception isn't always reality."

I like that better.

"There has to be something going on there," Rhodes said of the risk factor, "but we don't know all the details to it, and I don't think we care that much. We know that, coming out [of the University of Michigan], he was a high character guy, and that with his best ball he's one of the best receivers in the game. If he comes here and is a resemblance of that he'll be fine.

"I got him. He's a good friend of mine. Me being here and knowing how it is ... I'm a guy who knows that side of it and know it can get icky. If you don't play well, people will refer to it and say it's a distraction. So I'll talk to him about it."

I think I like that best of all. Braylon Edwards can be an elite receiver. He was once. But that's the problem: He was once. The Jets are counting on a repeat performance, and if you believe Revis and Rhodes, they may have plugged their biggest hole.