While everything went according to plan in the opening weekend of the NBA Playoffs (higher seeds going 8-0), the biggest news in sports involved Darrelle Revis relocating “Revis Island” to Tampa Bay.
The deal to send Revis to the Bucs has been in the works for what feels like months now and finally came to fruition on Sunday. In return for arguably the league’s best cover corner, the Jets received the 13th overall pick in this week’s draft as well as a 2014 conditional pick. Outside of the legalities and paperwork, however, reside three interesting subplots to the deal.
1. Maybe Darrelle has something to prove to not only himself or the Bucs, but the league as a whole. Just six months removed from a torn ACL which ended his season, Revis accepted a six-year, $96M deal from Tampa that includes no guaranteed salary. The upside? According to ESPN, with Florida’s no state income tax, Revis Island will “pay less in state tax from the Buccaneers than the $538,200 he would have had he remained with the Jets on his $6 million salary in New Jersey this season.”
2. Who said sports wasn’t the best reality show on the planet? The Bucs travel to New York to play the Jets Week 1. Pending the Jets waltz Mark Sanchez out there as their opening week QB, Revis could start the season off with a pick six and one giant (no pun intended) “FU” to his former squad. Oh, and who do the Bucs play Week 9? At Seattle, which means – while Revis and the sudden biggest threat to the “best DB in football” crown Richard Sherman won’t be on the field at the same time – we’re almost guaranteed for something to pop off during warm ups. Plus, there’s always the hope Sherman takes a pick to the house and runs it over to Tampa’s sideline to personally deliver Revis the ball. Or vice versa.
3. The Jets will probably stink again this year, but come 2014 Revis will officially be off the books ($12M cap hit this year). Looking ahead, they’ll be poised to make a run at a talented free agent class which could include the likes of Matt Ryan, Maurice Jones-Drew, Brian Cushing and more.
Bonus: Ok, so with Revis gone, is it safe to say we can just hand New England another AFC East crown now? On the flip side, we’ll really get to see what Revis Island is made of. He’s moving from a division with Tom Brady as the only real threat at QB to one where he’s now going to face Drew Brees, Matt Ryan and Cam Newton a total of six times this year.