The Cincinnati Bengals elected not to franchise Bengals safety Reggie Nelson, instead placing the tag on place kicker Mike Nugent. Reports surfaced earlier this month that Nelson could easily command north of $5 million per season, based on the overall weak free agent class at safety, making it unlikely that the Bengals will splurge that much on a safety who was viewed with mediocrity until putting together a career-year in 2011. On the other hand the New York Jets have a need for safeties. See a pattern?

According to Jenny Vrentas with The Star-Ledger, the New York Jets are reportedly interested in free agent safety Reggie Nelson. Vrentas also points out that the Jets are showing interest in free agent safeties Brandon Meriweather and to some degree, LaRon Landry.

We should caution though that the interest appears informational and that no visit has been reportedly lined up by Nelson with any NFL teams as of this posting. We also suspect that Nelson and the Bengals remain in communication in some form, with the Bengals viewing the overall interest and where Nelson's value sits on the open market.