The Tampa Bay Bucs have a beneficial history of acquiring players the NY Jets have discarded and overlooked.
Tampa’s Jet-setting began in ’95. NY took Kyle Brady with the 9th pick of the first-round allowing Warren Sapp – the only Hall-of-Famer among the 32 first-round picks – to fall to Tampa Bay at 12.
Keyshawn “Just Give Me the Damn Ball” Johnson was Tampa’s big-fish signing in ’00. The Jets had enough of Johnson’s self-promotion, traded him to the Bucs, and two years later, he and Sapp were the vocal leaders for a Super Bowl-winning Bucs team.
The historical boomerang has led both teams back to a familiar place. The Bucs are hoping it brings similar success. The Jets are diamond mining for draft picks to rebuild a crumbling franchise.
After months of speculation, the Jets have officially traded Darrelle Revis to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for the 13th overall pick in Thursday night’s draft, and a conditional selection next year that could become a third- or fourth-rounder.
At the end of the day, the Jets and Tampa basically told Revis: “Relax. You’re not that nice.”
“It became quite evident to us that there is a substantial difference between Darrelle’s view of his value and ours,” Jets GM John Idzik said Sunday during a conference call as reported by ESPNNY. “We felt there would have to be a significant change on either side in order to create a path toward reaching an agreeable deal for either side.”
Social media has already flooded the information cipher with opinions as to which side came off the best. A lot of cats feel the Jets got fleeced, giving up the league’s top shutdown corner for an unknown pick in a draft that’s been projected as weak.
Revis’ history of holdouts, emotional swings, and injuries are the reasons some pundits also believe the Jets are smart to get rid of him and get some younger building blocks through the draft.
The totally optimistic cat figures if the Jets got Revis at 14, maybe they could hit the number again. Seems as though the Jets figure it’s part of a necessary rebuilding process.
Revis inked a six-year, $96 million contract as part of Sunday’s trade, but he gets no guaranteed cash, which is a breast-stroking-in-an-alligator-swamp type of risk for a player coming off major knee surgery.
It couldn’t have ended any other way. Revis was getting increasingly frustrated with the trade rumors and perceived “insensitivity” of the Jets publicly dangling him out there for suitors.
Revis is a money-first guy. His many contract disputes are testament to that. The Jets weren’t going to break the bank.
Tampa’s taking the risk that the Jets aren’t willing to take.
Tampa’s franchise needs a hero as bad as they need a deep playoff run. There’s no doubt – if he’s healthy – Revis is going to lift a Bucs defense that allowed an NFL-high 17 plays of 30 or more yards outside the painted numbers, to new levels.
The animosity between Revis and the Jets had swelled to a level that made rational thinking impossible. The Jets have their sights set on at least giving the impression that they’re moving in a championship direction. Cap space and financial flexibility is the key to rebuilding.
Winning championships has never motivated Revis’ decisions. He wanted to lock the Jets down like he’s done so many out-classed receivers. Once Revis realized it wasn’t going down like that, he took the best exit strategy possible. This one included playing Russian Roulette for the chance to fulfill a goal and become one of the highest paid defensive players in the game.
