Revis Island is back on the map, and even if it isn’t the most expensive property in the NFL, it just received a ton of new amenities.
Cornerback Darrelle Revis held himself out of New York Jets training camp for 36 days in an attempt to become the highest-paid cornerback in the league. But he won’t get that by signing the four-year, $46 million deal he agreed to with the Jets late Sunday night. At an average of $11.5 million over the length of the contract, Revis will still lag significantly behind the Oakland Raiders’ Nnamdi Asomugha by more than $3.5 million per year.
Well done to Jets general manager Mike Tannenbaum, who held his line against matching Asomugha and exacted an extra year from Revis, who didn’t dare skip out on a season in which the Jets believe they have a chance at the Super Bowl. Now the most important member of an already outstanding defense will be back in uniform in time for next Monday’s season-opener against Baltimore — and the following week against New England, and the following week after that against Brandon Marshall and Miami.
But Revis is still the bigger winner, and that’s not because his teammates welcomed him back with a Rudy clap.
According to reports, a hefty $32 million of Revis’ new contract are guaranteed. How much more is that over what he was set to earn this year under his previous deal? Um, $31 million. Revis was set to earn just $1 million this season, and even though he was due another $20 million, it wasn’t going to kick in until 2011.
If the money was guaranteed until next year, it wasn’t guaranteed at all, not in today’s high-risk NFL. Faced with the potential to have his entire career derailed, it was a far smaller gamble for Revis to get himself a deserved deal this summer, even if it cost him more than a half a million dollars in fines.
In addition, the length of the deal will also give Revis one more chance at free agency — i.e., another massive contract — before he hits 30 years old.
If Revis stays healthy and plays as well as he has thus far in his career, taking out Asomugha’s contract at that point will be an afterthought.
