Why the Patriots should trade (not wait) for Darrelle Revis. Now.



For starters: Goos fraba, Pats fans. Goooooosfraba.



Trading for Revis is the best option for New England at this point. Waiting for Tampa Bay to release him will just force the Pats to enter a bidding war against the likes of the Eagles and Jets, teams with far more cap space. That would likely be a recipe to come up empty handed.

Another benefit of trading for Revis is getting him on his current contract, which is expensive but likely more palatable than what it would take to land him on the open market. Revis' current deal is essentially a series of five one year deals, each worth $16 million. Because the contract doesn't include a signing bonus, Revis can be cut after any year with no dead money. You won't have that built-in flexibility if you wait for him to be cut and sign him as a free agent.

Furthermore, Revis' current contract can be easily restructured to open up more cap space this year. As Ben Volin noted in the Boston Globe, Revis' base salary ($13 million per year) can be converted into a guaranteed bonus at any time. This would actually be agreeable to the player, who would get the money up front, rather than spreading it across 16 game checks.

Wrote Volin:
So, for example, in 2014 the Patriots could decide to turn $10 million of Revis’s $13 million into bonus money, which would be spread over the final five years of his deal at $2 million per season.

That would put Revis’s 2014 salary cap number at $8 million — $3 million in base salary, $2 million bonus proration, $1.5 million roster bonus and $1.5 million workout bonus — which the Patriots easily could handle.

An $8 million cap hit for this year would immensely help the Patriots. They currently stand around $15 million in space, without cutting any major fat from the budget other than Steve Gregory. A few cost cutting releases and extensions- looking at you, Vince Wilfork, Devin McCourty and Steven Gostkowski, could easily open up enough space for the Patriots to address their other needs (particularly adding a pass rusher) despite adding the best free agent on the market.

The only drawback from Volin's hypothetical situation is that it would push the remainder of Revis' contract up to an $18 million annual hit. However, the rapidly expanding salary cap should make it possible for the Patriots to swallow that kind of hit, and they would still be able to release him at any time with no financial consequence if the deal becomes burdensome down the road.

If La Canfora's report that Revis can be had for a fifth round pick is true, it just goes to show how little leverage the Bucs have right now. Every team in the league knows that Revis has a roster bonus that becomes guaranteed if he's on the roster past 4 pm today, and every team in the league knows the Bucs have no intention of letting that happen. From a Bucs perspective, a fifth round pick for Revis is getting fleeced, but it's better than losing Revis for nothing.

The rest of the league seems content to sit around and wait for Revis to be released. However, if this report is accurate, the Patriots can cut Isaac Sopoaga for extra breathing room, call Tampa, offer up a fifth rounder, and add Darrelle Revis to their team. There's a gaping hole at cornerback where Aqib Talib used to be. There's no logical reason for them to not be on the phones right now.

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