Darrelle Revis Says Patriots Contract Offer ‘Wasn’t in the Ballpark’
The former Patriots cornerback said that the final offer the Pats made to retain his services wasn’t near the number he and his representatives were looking for.
Darrelle Revis is back in Green after signing with the New York Jets, and according to the man himself, the bidding war between his former and current employers wasn’t as close as some may have thought.
Appearing on ESPN Radio’s The Michael Kay Show on Wednesday, the former Patriots cornerback said that the final offer the Pats made to retain his services wasn’t near the number he and his representatives were looking for.
“I’m not going to speak [about] the numbers, but I had the option, the $20 million option, that they could’ve exercised and they didn’t,’’ Revis said. “We tried to work on a deal, and we felt that it wasn’t in the ballpark of what we were looking for. We just moved on and they moved on too, I had a great conversation with Bill [Belichick], and we moved forward just like they did, that’s how you look at it.’’
Speaking to reporters at the NFL owners meeting in Phoenix, Arizona on Monday, Patriots owner Robert Kraft said he believed the team “made a very competitive offer’’ to Revis. CSNNE.com’s Mike Giardi reported that the Patriots were not willing to give Revis more than $30 million guaranteed, $9 million guaranteed short of the deal Revis ultimately signed with the Jets.
“Contracts are contracts, we all know that,’’ Revis said. “Both sides have to agree on the deal and the numbers are the numbers. If a team doesn’t want to pay you money, they won’t pay you; they will give you a lesser deal. If they want to pay you, they will pay you. Everybody knows that. It’s not just one sided. Contracts don’t get done one sided; they get done with both sides agreeing to the terms.’’
While it was believed that the Patriots and Jets were the final two teams in the running for Revis, the cornerback revealed that several others had reached out to him as well.
“In free agency, they were one of the teams that called; the Jets were one of the teams who called,’’ he said. “It was a list of teams, it was the Steelers, it was Cleveland, it was the Chiefs, it was the Packers, Baltimore, and there was other teams as well, guys were willing to fly down and meet with me… I just felt like for me it was time to come home.’’
The $20 million team option the Patriots held on Revis for the 2015 season came at a salary cap hit of $25 million, an exorbitant number for just one player in a league where the salary cap sits at just over $143 million. Now, the Patriots must confront the same situation they faced from 2007 through 2012 – figuring out how to throw against one of the top shutdown corners in the NFL twice a year.
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