While most football card collectors will be watching the maturation of the New York Jets draft prodigies Mark Sanchez and Shonn Greene during the 2009 season, a few prospectors will be watching Jerricho Cotchery to see if he has completed his development into an elite player at the wide receiver position.

Many collectors were expecting the “break out” year from Cotchery during the 2008 season. With Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre leading the Jets passing attack, prospectors were expecting far more than the 858 yards and 5 touchdowns he registered last season. However that might have been wishful thinking on their parts, seeing that Cotchery became the third option behind No. 1 WR Laveraneus Coles and upstart rookie TE Dustin Keller.

The departure of Coles will make Cotchery the number one wide receiver in the offense installed by the Jets new head coach, Rex Ryan. Expect Ryan and offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer to use a relatively simple passing attack to help take pressure off of his inexperienced quarterbacks Kellen Clemens and Sanchez, who will compete for the starting QB spot with the departure of Brett Favre. Cotchery is a slashing wideout who creates space through quickness and agility and is a nice target in the short and intermediate passing game.

He is a worthy gamble for the collector looking for opportunity to make a quick profit if Rex Ryan can settle the quarterback competition early in camp and develop an offensive scheme that highlights the strengths of Cotchery’s game. I am not expecting Larry Fitzgerald numbers this season, but Jerricho can have a nice season as the Jets main target in the passing attack. If you are looking to add quality pieces to the collection, you can expect most eBay auctions for quality Cotchery pieces to finish well under $10 delivered. Prices could move higher on better pieces if he develops into a dependable target for either Clemens or Sanchez and produces the type of stats that get noticed by the more casual collector.