NFL Breaking News: Edwards Traded to Jets, Crabtree Signs in San Fran

Early Wednesday morning generally isn’t the hottest time of the week for NFL news, but this one was an exception. Two big moves involving prized wide receivers – Braylon Edwards and Michael Crabtree – went down early this morning. Cleveland traded Edwards to the New York Jets in exchange for WR Chansi Stuckey, LB Jason Trusnik and undisclosed draft picks while Crabtree, the 10th overall selection at this year’s draft, finally ended his holdout by signing a six-year deal. Financial terms were not released.

Now, the big question is this – how will this affect NFL betting moving forward. We answer all the relevant queries here:

Edwards to Jets

The most obvious winner here is New York rookie QB Mark Sanchez. The one thing Sanchez lacked coming into this season was a true playmaker at wideout; Jerricho Cotchery is a great slot/possession receiver, but not a big-play threat. Edwards showed two years ago that he’s capable of being one of the NFL’s most dynamic WRs – he hauled in 80 catches for 1289 yards and 16 TDs. While his production slipped last year (and through four games this season), he’ll still young enough – only 26 years old – and athletically gifted to resuscitate his career in New York.

Betting-wise, it does a lot for the Jets. If the New Orleans game showed us anything, it’s that Sanchez will still be prone to the mistakes that plague all rookie QBs – holding onto the ball too long, indecisiveness with his reads and happy feet during the pass rush. Edwards should be a calming presence even if he’s not catching the ball – the fact that he’s out there means defenses will have to be aware of him and dedicate some of their energy (or defensive backs) to keeping him in check.

For the Browns, this was as much getting rid of a headache than anything else. While gifted, Edwards clearly didn’t want to be in Cleveland and his lack of production lately indicated that. Cleveland will still be terrible, although they might be a slightly more cohesive unit with Edwards gone.

Crabtree to 49ers

One of the ugliest rookie contract scenarios in league history finally played out on Wednesday as Michael Crabtree – the former Texas Tech standout receiver – signed with the San Francisco 49ers. To say that Crabtree will have any effect on the Niners this season is an ambitious claim; he hasn’t played competitive football in months and will need a massive crash course just to get up to speed with the playbook. Still, though, it’s the mental ramifications that should have Niners backers smiling. The Crabtree situation was the lone black mark on an otherwise fantastic start to the season for San Fran; the team is 3-1 (and within one Brett Favre miracle of being undefeated), looking like the club to beat in the NFC West and displaying defensive dominance that the franchise has never had before. Will putting this drama behind them make the Niners an ever more tantalizing proposition in the world of NFL football betting? Difficult to say, but know this – coach Mike Singletary is one of the best motivators in football. If anybody can use this to fire up the troops, it’s him.