On Thursday, Jets G.M. John Idzik reached out to cornerback Darrelle Revis in the wake of reports that owner Woody Johnson wants to trade Revis. Idzik told Pro Football Talk that Revis reacted well to the explanation that Idzik needs time to get acclimated to the roster.
Still, anything other than an unequivocal statement that Revis remains firmly in the team’s short-term and long-term plans should raise eyebrows. Change the team and the player to the Patriots and Tom Brady or the Vikings and Adrian Peterson or the Saints and Drew Brees and a lukewarm it’s-too-early-to-know assessment becomes jarring.
It’s less jarring here because of the realities of the Revis contract. Revis will be a free agent after the season (unless he holds out and prevents the last three years of his deal from voiding), and a source familiar with his thinking tells PFT that the player understands what’s happening.
Revis realizes that owner Woody Johnson doesn’t want to pay Revis market value.
So if the philosophical decision has been made to not pay Revis close to what he could get when he becomes a free agent, the question becomes whether the Jets should part ways with him sooner and get more value than whatever compensatory draft pick the Jets would receive in 2015. The fact that the Jets have gotten the word out that they’re thinking about trading Revis means that the phone will ring and the Jets will find out what they could get in return for not having Revis during a season in which expectations will be low.
Regardless of how it gets worked out, it needs to get worked out sooner rather than later. The situation already has become a major distraction, and it will continue to be a major distraction until a resolution is reached.
The thing that will keep it from being resolved quickly is the status of Darrelle’s knee. Any contract or trade package negotiated now and finalized at the start of the league year in March would involve a leap of faith being taken that Revis will be ready to go and as good as new come September. Absent conditional picks and conditional contract terms, it will be hard to work out a deal that works for each of the three legs of the stool: the Jets, Revis, and the team to which he’d be traded.