This is the time of the week when we hear several players described as game time decisions.
Jets cornerback Darrelle Revis won’t be one of them. Revis sat out practice again on Thursday while he waits for the medical go-ahead to resume full football activities after suffering a concussion against the Bills. Rex Ryan said that the team needs to know if he’s going to play before they leave for Pittsburgh on Saturday.
“Clearly, I think by Saturday, we better know something, if he’s going or not,” Ryan said, via J.P Pelzman of the Bergen Record. “If a guy had a concussion, I don’t think you’d put him on a plane to make the game time decision. I would think by Saturday that we’ll certainly have an answer.”
Ryan also said that he wouldn’t put a player on the field if there was a risk that he’d do further damage to himself by playing. The decision isn’t totally up to Ryan and the Jets, of course. If Revis isn’t cleared by an independent neurologist, he isn’t playing in the game regardless of what the Jets would or would not consider a sound course of action.
There was a lot of optimism about Revis playing earlier this week, but that has died down as his absence has lingered. If Revis is ruled out, you can expect the same to happen in terms of optimism about a Jets victory.