Per ESPN:
Linebacker Jason Taylor is leaving the Miami Dolphins to play for the New York Jets, his agent, Gary Wichard, told multiple media outlets in South Florida.
League sources told ESPN NFL Insider Adam Schefter that Taylor — the NFL’s active sacks leader with 127½ — agreed to a two-year deal that could be worth as much as $3.75 million in the first year.
The 35-year-old Taylor is tentatively scheduled to travel to the New York area on Wednesday to sign the contract, Wichard said.
Because of the Final Eight rules that restrict the Jets from signing Taylor for more in the first year than what kicker Jay Feely received from leaving the Jets to join the Cardinals, Taylor will be on the Jets’ books for $1.75 million in 2010, but he could earn another $1.25 million to $2 million depending upon his performance.
There is a second year to the contract that has a $750,000 guarantee, a source told ESPN.com’s John Clayton. The first year of the contract is guaranteed, so Taylor receives a $2.5 million guarantee in his deal. Taylor’s two-year deal could be worth a total of $13 million if he meets all the incentives in the contract.
Taylor had expressed a desire to remain with the Dolphins, where he has spent 12 of his 13 NFL seasons. However, Miami general manager Jeff Ireland said last week the team would wait until after the draft before deciding whether to make an offer.
“[The Dolphins] made no commitment to him,” Wichard told a Miami radio station. “And he made a total committment to [the Dolphins]. If there was an offer, I promise you he would have signed it last week…. His heart is down in South Florida. But at the end of the day, he wanted to play football.”
Taylor, the 2006 NFL Defensive Player of the Year, has had a contentious relationship with Jets fans during his 13-year career, calling them ignorant and classless.
“I think our fans would embrace him,” defensive end Shaun Ellis said last week when Taylor was visiting with the Jets. “They know the type of player he is. There may be some fans who wouldn’t at first, but after a few weeks and he was on our team, I think they’d be really excited just to add another part like that to our defense.”
Taylor played with the Dolphins from 1997 to 2007 before playing one season in Washington. He returned to Miami last season with a one-year contract and said he wanted to keep playing, preferably with the Dolphins, rather than retire.
“I know I can play,” Taylor said at an event for his foundation in January. “It’s just a matter of being in the right situation. It’s a business, and we’ll see what direction it takes us.”
Taylor is just the latest big-name player to be added by the Jets in a busy offseason. The team also signed running back LaDainian Tomlinson and traded for cornerback Antonio Cromartie and Santonio Holmes, who won a Super Bowl MVP award with the Steelers.
Holmes will be suspended for the first four games of the 2010 season due to a violation of the NFL’s substance-abuse policy.
Several Jets players met Taylor during his visit to the team’s facility in Florham Park, N.J., on April 8 and said they’d welcome him if he signed. The Jets showed him around the facility and took him on a helicopter tour of Manhattan and the new Meadowlands Stadium. Even Tomlinson was part of the recruiting process.
“I pitched my part in trying to get him here,” Tomlinson said two weeks ago. “Hopefully, things get done because we can definitely use him.”
