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Darrelle Revis

Darrelle Revis Dismisses Retirement Rumors

December 1st, 2016 at 9:35pm CST by Connor J. Byrne

A source told Manish Mehta of the New York Daily News on Wednesday that Jets cornerback Darrelle Revis is ready to walk away from football. The 31-year-old refuted that on Thursday, however, and has now dismissed the possibility of retirement twice since October.

Darrelle Revis

“I’m under contract until [2019] … I don’t know what source said this or not. I’m playing football. That’s what I’m here to do,” said Revis (per Andy Vasquez of USA Today).

By retiring, Revis would forgo a $6MM guarantee from the Jets for 2017, which Vasquez notes is unlikely. Based solely on that, then, odds are the seven-time Pro Bowler and five-time first-team All-Pro will take the field next season.

As Revis mentioned, he does have three years remaining on the $70MM contract he signed with the Jets in March 2015. This could be his final go-around with Gang Green, though, as the club would save upward of $7MM on next season’s cap by cutting him when the 2017 league year begins. Revis would otherwise carry a cap number in excess of $15.33MM next season, but he isn’t ready to commit to a pay cut to remain in New York.

“We’ll see. We’ll see what happens next year. A lot of things going on, so we’ll figure it out,” he said.

The longtime elite defender is amid the worst year of his career, ranking 82nd among Pro Football Focus’ 120 qualifying corners, and his stark decline has been unexpected after he surrendered a quarterback rating against of just 47.2 and intercepted five passes last season. Revis has started in all 10 of his appearances this year, but he hasn’t picked off a pass and is on track for his first season without an INT since 2010.

Jets CB Darrelle Revis Ready To Retire?

November 30th, 2016 at 9:45pm CST by Dallas Robinson

By nearly every metric, Jets cornerback Darrelle Revis‘ once-great level of play has declined in 2016, and much of that fall-off can be attributed to effort level, as one source close to Revis explains to Manish Mehta of the New York Daily News. “He’s done,” the source told Mehta, adding that Revis has “tanked” this season. “If he had his way, he’d be done right now. He doesn’t want to play anymore. He’s made a lot of money.”Darrelle Revis (vertical)

[RELATED: Ryan Fitzpatrick To Remain Jets’ Starter]

Revis, 31, has started 10 games this season without registering a single interception, and most observers believe that he’s posted the single worst season of his All Pro career. Among 120 qualified cornerbacks, Revis ranks just 82nd according to Pro Football Focus‘ grades, a far cry from his days of living near the top of that list. And the Jets’ defensive backfield as whole, once thought to be the strength of the New York roster, places just 29th in passing DVOA, thanks in large part to Revis’ poor play.

Revis has already had to answer questions about retirement this year, and just last month denied that he was ready to hang up his cleats soon. Additionally, general manager Mike Maccagnan has said that he doesn’t have any concerns about Revis’ commitment level. “I’m sure there’s plays he’d like to have back, but you watch a lot of other plays where he does give effort,” Maccagnan said earlier this month.

But Revis was evasive when asked about his future with the Jets, and the club could clear between $7-9MM by releasing him next offseason (depending on when the cut occurs). However, as Jason Fitzgerald of Over the Cap explained yesterday, New York will likely need to wait until the 2017 league year begins to cut ties with Revis due to the fact that his 2017 guarantee comes in the form of base salary, not prorated signing bonus.

Jets Notes: Bowles, Petty, Revis

November 28th, 2016 at 9:48am CST by Zachary Links

Should Todd Bowles be fired after this season? Some fans are dissatisfied with the second-year coach, but Jets players believe that he should stay. “No, no coaching change,” cornerback Buster Skrine said (via Kimberley A. Martin of Newsday).

“Todd Bowles is a great coach . . . We need to finish. Coach can’t go out there and play the game. Obviously, he’s coaching us well enough to get us in situations to win. We just have to make plays at the end of the game.”

After a promising start on Sunday, the Jets collapsed against New England. Gang Green is now 3-8 with no hopes of making the playoffs and, understandably, there is speculation about Bowles’ job security. So far, owner Woody Johnson and GM Mike Maccagnan have stood by Bowles.

Here’s more out of the Meadowlands:

  • At 3-8, it’s time for Jets to see what they have in Bryce Petty, Bob Glauber of Newsday opines. Yesterday, Bowles declined to discuss what he’ll do at quarterback. Glauber feels that even though Petty has not really wowed in his time on the field or in practice, the Jets have to evaluate the younger quarterback and figure out what he can provide going forward. Fitzpatrick looked good against the Pats, but he won’t be part of the team’s future plans. Petty is still only 25 and still has a chance to be the team’s QB of the future.
  • Does Darrelle Revis want to be a part of the future in New York? “It’s [management’s] decision,” Revis said, dodging the question from a reporter (via Connor Hughes of NJ.com). “Everyone has their individual decision. That being said, every year there are different roster changes. You have to see. We’ll see how it goes.” Revis is set to have a cap hit of $15.333MM in 2017. If he doesn’t accept a pay cut, he’ll almost certainly be released. By cutting Revis before the second day of the new league year, they Jets will free $9MM, or more than that if he signs elsewhere. If Revis wants to stay with the Jets, that could require a move to safety after he has gotten picked apart all season long.
  • Running back Matt Forte nearly wound up with the Patriots instead of the Jets.

AFC East Notes: Jets, Fitzpatrick, Revis, Fins

November 16th, 2016 at 2:45pm CST by Zachary Links

Jets GM Mike Maccagnan says he has “no regrets” about re-signing Ryan Fitzpatrick, as NJ.com’s Darryl Slater writes.

“We’re obviously disappointed by the season in terms of the record,” Maccagnan said. “Based on the season [Fitzpatrick] had prior to this season, he was very instrumental in a lot of our success in the 10-6 season. I have no regrets about bringing Ryan back. I think going into it, we felt very good about the season Ryan had previously. I have no regrets from that standpoint. Of course, I think everybody, and Ryan included, would probably say he holds himself to a fairly high standard. I’m sure there are aspects that he would like to … we all would like to have better success on the field as a team. But from the standpoint of bringing Ryan back, no, I don’t have regrets on that.”

Given Fitzpatrick’s struggles (and possible ceding of the job to Bryce Petty), many fans will roll their eyes at Maccagnan’s assertion. Fitzpatrick turns 34 on Thursday and the Jets will carry a $5MM cap hit on the books for him next season even though he will almost certainly be gone.

Here’s more on the Jets and the AFC East:

Jets’ Darrelle Revis Not Thinking Retirement

October 28th, 2016 at 9:48am CST by Zachary Links

Anyone who has watched Darrelle Revis since his return to New York knows that the sequel to Revis Island hasn’t been anywhere near as good as the original. The Jets cornerback admits that he is a shell of the player that he once was, but he also says that he’s not considering retirement, as Kimberley A. Martin of Newsday writes. Darrelle Revis (vertical)

[RELATED: Rival GMs Doubt Jets Would Get Much For Brandon Marshall]

“My body’s breaking down,” Revis said. “Yeah, I am. I mean, not in a bad way. I can still play…It’s just, I’m breaking down. I’m 31. How many corners are 31 right now in the league? The league’s getting younger. I know [Vikings cornerback Terence] Newman’s still playing [at 38], which is impressive. But I don’t know how he’s doing it.”

Revis went on to say, “I’m not thinking about retirement at this moment.” That doesn’t come as a huge surprise given the salary that Revis is pulling in. Revis has the second highest average annual value in the league at $14MM+ per season with only Josh Norman ahead of him. He’s paid more per season than Patrick Peterson, Richard Sherman, Trumaine Johnson, Joe Haden, Janoris Jenkins, Darius Slay, and every other big name cornerback out there.

Meanwhile, his performance has slipped to the point where he is actually among the worst corners with regular playing time in the NFL. Pro Football Focus has Revis ranked 83rd out of 116 qualified cornerbacks with poor scores in every major category. In 2014, the year before he returned to the Jets, PFF ranked Revis as the fourth-best corner in the league behind only Chris Harris Jr., Vontae Davis, and Sherman.

Jets Notes: Decker, Trades, Revis

October 22nd, 2016 at 9:36am CST by Ben Levine

Jets wideout Eric Decker recently underwent hip surgery, and the 29-year-old is also awaiting an operation to repair his partially torn rotator cuff. Despite these setbacks, Decker said he wouldn’t miss any games in 2017.

“I’m not worried about missing any time next year,” Decker said on ESPN New York (via Darryl Slater of NJ.com). “I’ll be fine by the start of next year.”

Decker will be on crutches for a few more weeks, and he’ll have his shoulder surgery once he’s recovered from his hip operation. The shoulder should take about eight months to recover, which should line up perfectly with offseason workouts.

“I think they say eight months is kind of the time frame where you’re back to full strength lifting,” Decker said. “But there are a lot of guys that say after six weeks, after eight weeks, they feel pretty good. And then it’s a matter of obviously strengthening the shoulder.”

Let’s check out some more notes from the Gang Green…

East Notes: Drake, DRC, Revis

September 25th, 2016 at 9:54am CST by Rory Parks

The Dolphins will treat rookie running back Kenyan Drake as the starter this week in place of the injured Arian Foster, according to Ian Rapoport of NFL.com. Rapoport, though, passes along more interesting news regarding Miami’s running back corps and head coach Adam Gase‘s attempts to instill discipline in his new club.

After Gase’s highly-publicized decision to leave Jay Ajayi off the team’s travel list prior to the Dolphins’ regular season opener in Seattle, there was another incident involving the team’s running backs the following week. Both Isaiah Pead and Damien Williams missed a meeting in advance of Miami’s Week 2 matchup against New England, which is why both were inactive for that contest. Drake, it appears, is the only back on the 53-man roster who is both healthy and has not had a lapse in maturity over the past several weeks.

As Rapoport notes, time will tell if more “messages” are necessary or if the Dolphins will begin to fall in line with Gase’s vision.

Now for more from the league’s east divisions:

  • Despite his team-friendly deal and his still considerable abilities, Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie is clearly not in the Giants‘ long-term plans, James Kratch of NJ.com writes. Janoris Jenkins and Eli Apple are entrenched as the team’s top two corners, and it would make no sense for New York to pay $6.5MM for a 30-year-old slot corner after this season (especially when the team could recoup the full $6.5MM by cutting DRC). But there are plenty of cornerback-needy teams for whom Rodgers-Cromartie would represent a significant upgrade, so Kratch opines that the Giants should look to trade DRC prior to this year’s deadline, and if that fails, then the team should release him before free agency begins next year.
  • Rich Cimini of ESPN.com believes the Jets and cornerback Darrelle Revis are set for a “contract staredown” after the season. Revis is scheduled to earn $15MM in 2017, including a non-guaranteed roster bonus of $2MM, which is due to be paid on the second day of the 2017 league year in March. Of course, if Revis begins to recapture his prior level of play, his contract may not be as much of an issue, but if he continues to struggle, the team will probably ask him to renegotiate, which Revis has never shown any inclination to do. As Cimini notes, the roster bonus puts a deadline on what could become one of the bigger storylines of the offseason.
  • Eagles head coach Doug Pederson expects Dorial Green-Beckham‘s role to increase as DGB continues to learn the offense and get healthy, as Jimmy Kempski of PhillyVoice.com writes. Through the first two games, Green-Beckham has had just six passes thrown his way, though Pederson says DGB was the primary target on several plays in the team’s Week 2 win over Chicago, but the defense dictated that the play go elsewhere.
  • If Eagles right tackle Lane Johnson is in fact suspended for PED use–his hearing is set for October 4–Marc Narducci of The Philadelphia Inquirer writes that the team will move left guard Allen Barbre to right tackle and promote Stefen Wisniewski to the starting lineup to take Barbre’s place.

East Notes: Redskins, Garoppolo, Romo, Revis

September 20th, 2016 at 8:38pm CST by Connor J. Byrne

With the Redskins off to an 0-2 start, some of quarterback Kirk Cousins‘ teammates have reportedly expressed dissatisfaction with his early season output. That doesn’t surprise former Redskins linebacker Keenan Robinson, who spent the first three years of his career with Washington before signing with the Giants over the winter. “When I was there, three out of four years, it was the same thing,” he said Tuesday (via Jordan Raanan of ESPN.com). “Once they get down, they start pointing fingers. And that is true. That is what happens. And for the Redskins — I’ve only been on one team before I came here, and that was them — and all I saw was not the right way to handle it. I feel like they didn’t handle it the right way when I was there.”

Robinson is glad to have left the Redskins in favor of the Giants, saying, “I like it here better. I would say that for sure.”

As we wait for this Sunday’s tilt between Robinson’s ex-team and his current one, here’s more from the East divisions:

  • The Redskins’ offseason decision to place the franchise tag on Cousins in lieu of signing him to a lucrative long-term deal looks prudent now, opines John Keim of ESPN.com. But if Cousins is unable regain something resembling his 2015 form, it’ll leave the team looking for a quarterback again, Keim notes. Ideally, he’ll emerge as a legitimate franchise-caliber passer and prove himself worthy of a major commitment for the foreseeable future.
  • On one hand, it’s possible quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo will be the successor to Tom Brady in New England. On the other, Ryan Hannable of WEEI writes that Garoppolo might never play a meaningful snap as a Pat again once Brady returns from his four-game Deflategate suspension in Week 5. Brady is signed through the 2019 campaign, his age-42 season, and Garoppolo is only under contract through the end of next year. The best-case scenario for the Patriots would include retaining both, but that will look unrealistic as long as Brady continues as one of the league’s elite signal-callers.
  • Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo had a back exam and a brief pregame throwing session in Washington, D.C., over the weekend, Ed Werder of ESPN.com tweets. One observer was surprised by Romo’s velocity and lack of restrictions. The 36-year-old is hoping to return sometime in October and it seems he is on track to do just that.
  • While Brian Costello of the New York Post expects cornerback Darrelle Revis to rebound from his early season issues, his $13MM salary for 2017 will still be an anvil, Costello opines. Cutting the 31-year-old Revis after the season would leave the Jets on the hook for $8MM in dead money, which means he’s likely to remain with the club, per Costello. In the Jets’ first two games this year, the five-time first-team All-Pro has given up 10 catches and 152 yards to Bengals receiver A.J. Green and allowed an 84-yard touchdown to a far less formidable wideout, the Bills’ Marquise Goodwin.

Zach Links contributed to this post.

AFC East Notes: Revis, Ajayi, Forte

September 18th, 2016 at 8:40am CST by Rory Parks

Let’s take a look at some notes from the AFC East before the early slate of Week 2 games get underway:

  • Considering Darrelle Revis‘ much-discussed struggles over the first two weeks of the 2016 season, the Patriots‘ decision not to get into a bidding war over his services after the 2014 campaign is looking especially shrewd, as Mike Reiss of ESPN.com writes. New England was never going to come close to the five-year, $70MM pact Revis received from New York, as the Pats favored a contract with option bonuses that protected them financially in the event that Revis had a sharp decline. But the Patriots did receive a lot of criticism for not making more of an effort to re-sign Revis, and although it is far too early to say Revis will never regain any of his past form, New England’s approach is pretty tough to criticize right now.
  • Dolphins RB Jay Ajayi was left off the travel list for the team’s Week 1 matchup in Seattle, and Miami head coach Adam Gase reportedly made that decision to send a message to Ajayi about the second-year back’s lack of professionalism. Now, according to Ian Rapoport of NFL.com (via Twitter), that message has been received and Ajayi will be active for today’s game. However, as the third running back on the Dolphins’ depth chart (per Roster Resource), it remains to be seen how much playing time Ajayi will actually receive.
  • The Jets need to be mindful of Matt Forte‘s workload, Rich Cimini of ESPN.com opines. Through two weeks, Forte has 52 rushing attempts, which puts him on pace for 416 at season’s end. As Cimini notes, 416 is the league record, which was set by a 26-year-old Larry Johnson in 2006. Forte, however, is 30, and New York would do well to protect its investment a bit better, especially since the team saw firsthand how Chris Ivory‘s heavy workload early in the 2015 season reduced his effectiveness down the stretch.
  • Although it’s never a good sign when a coach is fired after the second game of a season, we learned yesterday that Bills‘ players are generally excited about what the dismissal of OC Greg Roman could mean for the team’s offense.

Extra Points: RG3, Falcons, Panthers, Revis

September 17th, 2016 at 12:38pm CST by Ben Levine

Robert Griffin III took some criticism for putting himself in danger during the Browns‘ season-opener against the Eagles. On a third and 14, the speedy quarterback ran towards the sideline, where his ribs collided with Eagles cornerback Jalen Mills‘ helmet. The result? Well, if you haven’t heard, RG3 landed on the injured reserve.

Griffin explained the hit (and defended the play) to Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com:

“It was just an unlucky situation. I got pushed in the back — maybe not the hardest push — but I was running full speed, and I didn’t have an opportunity to slide before that. I felt like I could get out of bounds. That didn’t happen. I watched the play. I did get pushed in the back, and at the last second, the defender (Mills) came off of Gary, and hit me and I didn’t have an opportunity (to protect myself). That’s why I think what happened happened, because I didn’t get a chance to truly protect myself and that’s when I got hit underneath my shoulder pad.

“(But) not everybody wants to look at that. They want the sexy story. They want to say that I’m not protecting myself. It’s just something that happened and it’s unfortunate.”

Let’s check out some more notes from around the NFL…

  • Falcons outside linebacker Vic Beasley is on the “hot seat,” writes D. Orlando Ledbetter of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Despite playing 39 snaps in the team’s season-opener against the Buccaneers, Beasley didn’t compile a single tackle. The former eighth-overall pick understands that he needs to produce if he wants to stay on the field, and his coach is optimistic that he can be a force on the Falcons defense. “I’m looking for his arrow to be going up in this game,” said Dan Quinn. “He just didn’t perform the way he’s capable of. When those opportunities come up to go make a play, can we just nail the technique just right?”
  • The Panthers considered quarterback Blaine Gabbert with the first-overall pick in the 2011 draft, coach Ron Rivera told Joseph Person of The Charlotte Observer. The team ultimately preferred Cam Newton, who impressed the organization during his pre-draft visit. “As you go through it, you look for certain things, certain characteristics. And probably the biggest difference was the situation Cam had been in, going through the adversity and then coming out on top,” Rivera said. “Cam was tremendously impressive, and Blaine did a nice job for us.”
  • The Jets need to handle the Darrelle Revis “problem” sooner than later, opines Mark Cannizzaro of The New York Post. The cornerback has struggled through his team’s first two games, and while the writer doesn’t anticipate a move to safety, he believes the Jets may start double-teaming the opposition’s top target.
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