So Jets owner Woody Johnson wants to entertain the possibility of trading cornerback Darrelle Revis. Or maybe the team just wants to keep its option open.
If the latter is the truth, coach Rex Ryan’s vote would be clear: Keep Revis.
Per a league source, Ryan doesn’t want to trade Revis. And that’s hardly a surprise. Ryan has raved about Revis for years, and Ryan played a key role in breaking the impasse that led to the four-year contract that suddenly has Johnson reportedly “pessimistic” about keeping Revis in 2014 and beyond.
Without Revis, Ryan will make a lame duck look like Sthuper Duck. Without Revis, Ryan will be far less likely to put together the kind of season that allows him to keep his job. Without Revis, Woody Johnson might as well just fire Ryan now.
Still, the talk has been lingering for a while of a possible trade. A couple of teams, we’re told, were considering a possible trade for Revis before he tore his ACL. The torn ACL, however, changes everything.
What hasn’t changed is the pessimism within the building that Revis will drive such a hard bargain that a new deal won’t be possible, given the hard bargain he drove in 2010. But there has been no effort, we’re told, to even try to work out a new contract with Revis by their new G.M., John Idzik, who was hired less than a week ago.
Idzik could get a baptism by F-bomb as he meets the New York media for the first time at 11:00 a.m. ET Thursday, and as Jets fans begin to digest the possibility of their best player -- and arguably their best player at any position since Curtis Martin -- being shipped to a new team.