In 2008, the Vikings justified sending a first-round and third-round pick to Kansas City for defensive end Jared Allen by looking at Allen as the first-round pick, and the third-round pick as insurance against the first-round pick being a bust.
That same reasoning could be driving the Buccaneers’ interest in cornerback Darrelle Revis. Regardless of the extra pick(s) needed to get the deal done with the Jets, Revis essentially would become Tampa’s first-round pick, and the additional picks would be the insurance against Revis being a bust.
A couple of different dynamics apply in this case. Revis has some bust potential, via his surgically-repaired ACL. And with the implementation of a rookie wage scale that greatly reduces the money paid to rookies, the money it will take to make Revis happy becomes glaring (especially with the veteran market tanking recently, too).
But it still makes sense, given the team’s failed efforts in recent years to find cornerbacks in the draft. As Stephen F. Holder of the Tampa Bay Times points out, 2008 first-rounder Aqib Talib and 2010 third-rounder Myron Lewis would have been the starting cornerbacks this year. Neither worked out.
Revis, given his knee, may not work out. But his potential upside coupled with the inherent downside of a draft pick makes a decision to essentially make Revis the Bucs’ first-round pick a good idea.