Bent , theJetsBlog.com

Very interesting – as reported by Rich Cimini – and now confirmed as a done deal by Manish Mehta:

Filed to ESPN: #Jets close to finalizing deal for Rams RT Jason Smith, league sources. RT Wayne Hunter part of deal. Smith, No. 2 pick ’09.

Smith has really been struggling in St. Louis although he was once considered an elite prospect. He just lost a battle for the Rams’ right tackle job to Barry Richardson who arguably had a worse season than Hunter did last year, so I would hesitate to say he is an immediate upgrade over Hunter or current starter Austin Howard. Obviously this gets the Jets off the hook for Hunter’s $2.45m guaranteed salary, but Smith apparently has a salary of $4m. This is likely to be non-guaranteed though and if that’s the case they could release him with no cap implications, or convince him to take a paycut if he wants a job. EDIT: According to Brian McIntyre, this $4m is FULLY guaranteed, so the Jets will be on the hook for all of it. Smith has a roster bonus of $11.25m due next year and $1m in potential incentives this year.

Hunter reunites with former offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer and teammates Rob Turner and Matt Mulligan in St. Louis.

We await confirmation of whether any other pieces were included in the deal and will obviously provide more analysis in due course.