A REVIS RETURN MAY ACTUALLY MAKE SENSE
Pats logical partner in many ways
Darrelle Revis wants to play football for an NFL team in 2017. He wants to resurrect what’s left of his career, after turning into an old, overweight, receiver-friendly cornerback last season with the Jets.
Instead of avoiding Revis Island last season, opposing quarterbacks would often look in his direction to make plays. It was a far cry from the seven-time Pro Bowler who had made receivers invisible during his previous nine seasons in the league.
With the Patriots possibly needing another cornerback, the notion of Revis returning to Foxboro became a hot debate topic last week once criminal charges against him were dismissed Wednesday stemming from an altercation that occurred on a Pittsburgh street last month.
When it comes to a Revis encore with the Super Bowl champs, it’s really a two-sided issue. Would the veteran cornerback, who won a ring with the Patriots during the 2014 season, want to return, and work that hard again, knowing what’s expected in Foxboro? More importantly, would the Patriots even want him back, especially after watching that mammoth dropoff in performance last season?
Let’s take it from the Revis side first. After walking out of the courtroom Wednesday, Revis claimed he had lost 10 pounds, hired a new trainer, and was “excited” for the 2017 season after being dumped by the Jets, who basically decided that eating the remainder of his contract was better than keeping him in their secondary.
That’s left Revis a free agent, but not so free given the legal entanglement was finally cleared up. Revis might still face league sanctions, but the worst appears behind him.
Said Revis outside the courtroom: “I can really focus on what team I can fit with, the best system and team and coaches.”
Revis should know the best system, the best team, and the best coaches work in Foxboro. While the Pennsylvania native indicated he’d love to play with the Steelers, the former shutdown corner has to know the best chance to revive his career — and erase the images of getting torched by even secondrate receivers last season, — is in again hooking up with Bill Belichick and letting the Hoodie bring out whatever good football is left in him.
Knowing and doing, however, are two different things.
Now that Revis has a ring, is he willing to pay the price every day, not to mention, sign a minimum deal? The Jets are still paying him $6 million this season no matter what. If the Pats pay him peanuts to come aboard for a year, for instance, could he live with playing on the cheap?
Revis is usually all about the money, unless he’s setting up his next payday, which is how it was in 2014, when he joined the Patriots after being cut loose from Tampa Bay. He was coming off a down season following ACL surgery, not nearly as dominant as previous years. So he had a proveit year with the Patriots, even though the two-year deal was nothing to sneeze at — even if the huge cap hit built into the second year was never realistically going to be picked up.
Revis could return a second time at a cut rate, if he’s motivated, and Belichick believes he had something left.
If he truly wants to resurrect himself, if he wants to prove he has something left, and wants to cement his Hall of Fame credentials, Foxboro is the only place for him.
Think about it, does he really want the lasting image of his career to be as a big, fat Jet who couldn’t hack it, or play competitively?
Calls made Friday to his representative to weigh his interest in returning to the Patriots — or discern whether there had been any discussions with the Pats — weren’t returned.
That brings us to the Patriots’ side. Would they want him? If Belichick was convinced Revis could help, an attempt would likely be made if there was an opening at corner. Just as an aside, word has it, the idea of moving to safety came up the last time there was a negotiation between the two sides, and Belichick shot it down because he didn’t think Revis’ skills translated to the position.
Obviously, there are some issues to get past, ones that don’t include whether or not Revis can still play. In the two years since leaving Foxboro, Revis has taken a few shots at Tom Brady as well as Belichick and the organization, particularly during Deflategate.
“(The Patriots) have a history of doing stuff,” Revis told the Daily News in the summer of 2015. “You can’t hide that. . . . Tom was there when they did that stuff in the past. New England’s been doing stuff in the past and getting in trouble. When stuff repeatedly happens, then that’s it. I don’t know what else to tell you. Stuff repeatedly happened through the years. You got SpyGate, you got this and that and everything else. Obviously in those situations in the past, (the NFL) had the evidence. So, they did what they needed to do.”
There was also something Revis appeared to have posted on his Instagram account, claiming he did Belichick and Brady a favor by coming to Foxboro, and they wouldn’t have won another championship without him.
So there’s baggage. Personal baggage. Can the Patriots get past that? Maybe. It’s not as if he hadn’t said some negative things before he arrived in 2014, and he and Belichick cleared the air before that tour, so we’ll see.
Revis would take some of the pressure off Stephon Gilmore, should Malcolm Butler ultimately depart, which remains a big if at this point. He might also be a good mentor for Cyrus Jones. Without question, there are a lot of issues in play.
Bottom line, if Belichick is loading up for championship No. 6, which surely looks to be the case, and he thinks Revis can contribute, he’ll be in the conversation, especially if Butler departs. Can Belichick be completely comfortable with Gilmore and Eric Rowe as his top two corners, with Jones in the slot?
On the flip side, if the Hoodie thinks Revis is done, or won’t fully commit, no amount of pleading will change his mind about bringing him back. Fuhgeddaboudit. It’s a non-starter. End of discussion. Good mileage on retreads
As we head into the third week of free agency, who are Belichick’s best gets? Historically, it’s not necessarily the big name guys. It’s the players who maybe didn’t blossom or meet expectations with their previous employers. Belichick usually has a way of getting the best out of other team’s rejects, underachievers, or players who were simply miscast or misused. So former Colts tight end
Dwayne Allen, former Panthers defensive end Kony Ealy, and former Ravens defensive lineman
Lawrence Guy appear to be the best candidates to hit their stride with the Patriots.
“Bill just cherry picks off these guys, (saying), ‘Well, it didn’t work for you, but we believe it’s going to work for us,’ ” NFL Network analyst Solomon Wilcots told the Herald last week. “He’s done it with so many, whether it’s Mike
Vrabel, Alan Branch, or even Kyle Van Noy. Usually, they’re signed late in free agency, but he quickly identifies and understands who’s out there that people have devalued, and banks on improving his roster that way.”
The list just continues to grow. We’ll see who ultimately gets added to the pile with Rob Ninkovich, Akiem Hicks, Danny Woodhead, Chris Hogan and the rest. Decision began with ‘D’ New Orleans coach Sean Payton was on Mile High Sports radio in Denver on Thursday and said the Saints dealt Brandin
Cooks to the Patriots with hopes of improving their defense with the draft picks acquired.
“He was a player, when I talk about Brandin, that we weren’t actively shopping him. A handful of teams had called regarding possibly acquiring him,” the Times-Picayune later wrote, quoting Payton’s radio remarks. “He’s someone that, he’s a fantastic guy. Someone who worked really, really hard here. We knew coming out of college the makeup was fantastic. He came in and had, I think, a lot of success, and I think ultimately one of the challenges — sometimes especially here in this offense — is the ball gets spread around some. And yet you’re looking at a player that had over (1,100) yards receiving, and it really got down to an opportunity to help improve our team, possibly defensively. And we’ll be able to look at it three years down the road with what we’re able to do with the first-round pick (from the Pats) and then also the additional third-round pick.”