The New England Patriots could have interest in adding established cornerback depth. Darrelle Revis should not be seen as a legitimate option.
Just a few days ago, the Boston Globe’s Ben Volin warned fans not to “discount” the chances of the New England Patriots reuniting with Darrelle Revis, who was recently released in a cost-cutting measure. Revis previously spent one season with the Patriots, helping them achieve Super Bowl glory in 2014-15 as one of the key pieces in a dominant secondary.
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A league executive told Volin that the Patriots are the only team that could be a sensible landing spot for Revis, who likely wants more money than he’s worth. Revis is coming off of the the worst season of his career, and he’s already hit a huge wall at the age of 31. Players like Terence Newman have proven that cornerbacks can actually succeed in old age. But with the way the likes of Marquise Goodwin and Terrelle Pryor carved him up last year, Revis doesn’t look like an exception to the rule.
There have been a few cornerbacks who have found success at the safety position in their older years, and Revis has shown interest in this, per the NFL Network’s Aditi Kinkhabwala. Revis has dropped weight in an effort to support his desire to switch positions in an effort to prolong his career, and he could conceivably be a legitimate starting safety. He was an asset against the run in New England at corner, and he’s such a smart player that he probably won’t have a hard time learning a new position.
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It seems like Revis has resigned himself to the fact that he is no longer a capable cornerback, following an embarrassing 2016 campaign. The problem is that even if he is a good safety, the Patriots don’t need another safety on the team.
This offseason, New England re-signed Duron Harmon, who has been a fixture in the Patriots secondary over the last three seasons. Alongside Harmon is Devin McCourty, who has been one of the NFL’s elite safeties ever since moving to the position in the middle of his 2012 campaign. The Patriots also have Patrick Chung, though he and Revis have no overlaps in their skill-sets.
Tom Brady has never seemed like the type of person to hold grudges, especially not at the expense of helping the team, but I doubt the Patriots are pleased with some of the comments Revis made after he left Foxboro. Revis failed to defend the quarterback in the aftermath of DeflateGate, and he also told the New York Daily News’s Manish Mehta that “New England’s been doing stuff in the past and getting in trouble.”
Perhaps the only thing that would work in favor of Revis joining the Patriots is his price tag. That seems unbelievable at first, but I’ll let Volin explain this one.
well yes, but Revis will make $6 million this year, and the Patriots can pay him as little as $1m and have the Jets pick up the rest
— Ben Volin (@BenVolin) March 15, 2017
Essentially, if nobody hands Revis a contract worth more than $6 million a year, he would just sign a minimum-type contract (per Ian Rapaport) with a new team. The New York Jets will have to pay the rest of the $6 million tab that Revis is owed. An alternate hypothesis is that Revis will simply sit out the year and collect $6 million, as he’d receive the money no matter what and wouldn’t have to risk injury (assuming nobody pays him more than $6 million a year).
It’s hard to envision Revis bringing much to the table for the Patriots, because they don’t need a safety and Revis no longer looks like an effective cornerback. I’m not sure they want to have him back in the locker room, and even if he does play safety for them, I’m not sure he’d be much better than someone they can pick up from the draft.
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Signing Revis doesn’t make sense for the Patriots on any level, and the fact that the two parties have been linked by a few writers and people within the league is puzzling. He could help a few teams out as a safety, but even though he would come cheap if he is willing to play in 2017, the Patriots aren’t one of those teams.