11:55am: Great news for the Jets, who announced (via Twitter) that Cromartie’s MRI came back negative. He has a sprained knee and is week-to-week. He has not been ruled out for Monday night.
9:37am: It sounds like the Jets are fearing the worst when it comes to cornerback Antonio Cromartie‘s injury. The veteran will undergo an MRI today to determine the severity of his knee injury and a source tells Mike Florio of PFT that the team is bracing for a diagnosis involving an injury to the ACL and/or MCL.
The Jets brought Cromartie back to New York this offseason shortly after inking Darrelle Revis, reforming the secondary tandem that they had from 2010 through 2012. While Cromartie was not all that sharp towards the end of his Jets tenure, he was a pretty strong compliment to Revis while they played together and the Jets were hoping for a redux after Cromartie enjoyed a bounceback season with the Cardinals. Now, they are hoping that the 31-year-old is not done for the season after just one game.
Cromartie made no secret of the fact that he wanted to sign with the Jets this offseason. His Cardinals teammate Patrick Peterson even complained over the offseason that all Cromartie talked about was “freaking New York.” The Cards maintained interest all along in bringing Cromartie back to Arizona, and the Cowboys were also mentioned at one point as a possible destination, but the Jets ultimately won out.
Cromartie had a pretty atrocious year for the Jets in 2013, finishing with an overall grade of -11.4 (per Pro Football Focus, subscription required), placing him in the bottom ten of all qualified cornerbacks. However, he had something of a resurgence in Arizona, finishing with a much less harsh -0.2 overall grade, putting him 45th out of 108 cornerbacks. That uptick was largely credited to Todd Bowles and both men are clearly excited to continue that partnership in New York.