11:50pm: The Bucs are receiving calls on Revis from interested teams, tweets Ian Rapoport of NFL.com.
8:47pm: If Revis is released Wednesday, the Jets would only receive the Bucs fourth-round-pick, not their third-rounder, as per the terms last year’s trade, tweets Manish Mehta of the New York Daily News.
8:37pm: In addition to attempting to trade Revis, the Bucs are also trying to rework his contact, tweets Roy Cummings of the Tampa Tribune.
8:18pm: As of now, the Bucs haven’t found any takers for Revis, according to Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times (on Twitter). If no trade partner is found, Revis will likely be released by 4pm on Wednesday, tweets Adam Schefter of ESPN.
7:45pm: The Buccaneers are “stepping up” their efforts to trade cornerback Darrelle Revis, according to Alex Marvez of FoxSports1 (via Twitter). 2013 was Revis’ first season in Tampa Bay, after the Bucs sent a first-round-pick to the Jets to acquire him. Upon his arrival, he signed a six-year, $96MM contract, none of which was guaranteed.
After missing 2012 with a torn ACL, Revis once again ascended to the top of Pro Football Focus’ cornerback rankings. While Bucs coach Lovie Smith has stated that Revis and his fondness for playing man-to-man coverage could fit in Tampa’s Cover-2 defense, some believe this scheme incongruity might be driving the Revis rumors. But NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport reports on Twitter that the team is simply “uncomfortable” with paying Revis’ schedule $13MM base salary. In fact, his high salary leads several executives to believe that the Bucs might have to just release Revis, according to Jason La Canfora of CBSSports.com (on Twitter).
The talks could get serious this week, as Revis is due a $1.5MM roster bonus on Thursday, as ESPN’s Adam Caplan tweets. Last week, we noted that both the Broncos and Patriots have expressed interest in acquiring Revis. On the Bucs side, Caplan tweets that some executives believe Alterraun Verner will land in Tampa in the event of Revis being cut or traded, noting that Verner would fit well in Tampa’s Cover-2 scheme.