It took roughly 35 days for Darrelle Revis to settle his contract dispute with the Jets.
Thirty-five long days.
The details have been announced and the terms of the deal are that Revis will receive a four-year contract worth $46 million and he’ll also get $32 million guaranteed.
Here’s why it works for all parties:
Revis: He’s not going to make as much as Nnamdi Asomugha on a per-year basis, nor will he be able to call himself the highest paid cornerback in the NFL (two things that were apparently important to him when the process started). However, he’s going to walk away from this deal with $36 million in guaranteed money, so at the end of the day who gives a flying Rex Ryan about being the top paid corner? Thirty-six million guaranteed is $36 million guaranteed. Plus, he skipped all of training camp (which is the time of year players absolutely hate) and shows up just in time to play in the Jets’ opener next Monday night.
Jets: They were never going to pay Revis what he was asking for, but considering they were able to hang onto their best defender and sign him to a deal that allows them to sign other players is what the Jets wanted for themselves all along. Obviously if he continued to hold out then they wouldn’t be out anything financially, but it would have come at the price of losing their top defensive player. The Jets believe that they’re a Super Bowl contender and if they are going to accomplish their goals, then they need Revis locking down one side of the field.
Rex Ryan: Had Revis held out for even a fraction of a year, it would have compromised what Ryan has already started to build in New York. He led this team to the AFC title game last year and while I applaud him and the Jets for saying that they could have gotten by without Revis, the fact of the matter is that he’s their most vital piece defensively. Without him, it stands to reason that the Jets could have gotten by with rookie Kyle Wilson. But with him, they should return to the top of the league in all defensive categories and now Ryan can continue to work on what he started last year with the Jets. With him, they’re contenders (playoffs or otherwise) again.
Mike Tannenbaum: The dude can finally go back to sleeping at night.
Revis didn’t get what he ultimately wanted in the end, but nobody should be insinuatating that he “lost” this battle. He just skipped all of training camp, will play a full 16-week season and now has $36 million in his back pocket.
He didn’t lose anything.
