We’ve been advocating for a week or so the wisdom of accomplishing a trade that would send cornerback Darrelle Revis from the Jets to the Buccaneers when the Bucs are on the clock at No. 13.
There’s only one problem with that plan, as multiple league sources have pointed out (while kindly avoiding terms like “stupid” and “idiot” and “dummy” . . . at least to our faces). Revis would have to pass a physical before the trade can become official, and that would have to happen before the Jets pick a player that, if the deal doesn’t go through, would revert to the Bucs.
That’s why the trade would have to happen long enough before the draft to allow the physical to be passed before Thursday night, April 25.
There’s another potential approach that would require a leap of faith by both sides -- and reliable phone lines. The parameters could be negotiated and the physical could be taken and the trade could be kept under wraps until the Bucs are on the clock. This would ensure that the Jets would avoid being leapfrogged by a team sitting lower in round one that guesses right regarding the player the Jets plan to pick.
But the deal wouldn’t go down until the two teams call it in to the league office during Tampa’s 10-minute pick window. And it wouldn’t be binding on either team. Tampa could choose to use the pick if a player the Bucs covet slips past the first 12 picks, or the Jets could simply get cold feet.