Yup, he may not have called Walt Michaels at halftime of the 1983 AFC Championship Game, but he is the reason we have the problem with Revis today. Recall: the going rate for top corners from 2008-10 was about $9 MM. $10 MM would have been an 8-figure salary. If you boosted it to $12 MM, that's a quantum leap (25-33%) for Revis, clearly the best corner in the league. I believe Champ Bailey was at that $9 MM level, maybe 1-2 others were too (my memory is fuzzy). Here's where Davis killed us: He game Nnamdi Ashomougha that $13-$15 MM annual salary which was WAY high for the position. It was so much above the existing amount it would be like giving an elite QB today $32 MM a year where everyone else (Manning, Brady, Flacco, Eli, Brady, etc.) is at $20-$22 MM or so. It's one thing to top the existing salary structure. But you don't blow past it by that extent in a salary cap-constrained NFL. Why did Davis give Nnamdi so much $$$ ? Well, the Raiders had fallen on hard times...their #1 (and #2) draft picks for most of the 2000's were collossal busts, led by Jamarcus Russell in 2007. Davis needed to keep the sole winning 1st Round pick they had and for whatever reason, he caved (as he would do with Jamarcus when he held out in 2007). If Nnamdi gets $10-$12 MM, then the Jets likely are able to offer a smaller signing bonus and a longer deal. We probably have Revis locked up for 5 or 6 years, not 4. Think about it: how many times does the clearly BEST player at his position in the NFL only get signed for 4 years ? No team in their right mind wants that.....they don't want to have to re-sign in 3-4 years, plus by signing longer you get a lower per-year salary cap figure. Look at all the elite QB, WR, and RB contracts -- all 6 years or longer. I hate Al Davis !!!! :-(
Al Davis paid Aso $48M over 3 years. That was $16M a year. That's where Revis fixation comes from. It was a hugely inflated figure for a CB that was given because Davis just could not let go of Aso when free agency beckoned. He franchised him for a year and then he capitulated and gave him a ridiculous contract just to keep him. The Raiders went 2-14 in the first year of that deal. So, yeah, if Al Davis is not allowed to run the Raiders in the mid 2000's we have Revis locked up long term at $10M a year and he's happy with that.
If that contract was really all given to Nnamdi, then that's unreal. It means he got over 70% more than the next-highest paid CB. Wow..... That'd be like someone paying the Super Bowl winning QB $35 MM -- and then watch all the other elite QB's play catch-up.
I don't buy this one bit. Revis should be smart to know that the Aso contract was a huge anomaly and was given by an owner that went senile. That contract is no more, and thus 8-10 mil should be given to Revis and make him the highest paid CB.
You're absolutely right -- but no player or agent would even entertain that possibility. That's why this version of 'pattern bargaining' is so dangerous. You have a non-elite position like QB (or even LB or safety) which are clearly not worth as much as a skill position but if just 1 dumb team -- "1 dumb owner" as a NY sportswriter calls it -- wants to pay the 2nd best player more than anyone else by a wide margin, then the #1 player is going to want more. Now that Nnamdi is no longer making $16 MM/year, maybe the Jets can pay Revis $10-12 MM a year -- but guarantee most/all of the years ? They could also add a proviso that he cannot be paid less than "X" number of CB's in any given year or must be within "Y" dollars of the highest-paid CB. If the Jets do something like that, I think they could keep him. The question is, would the Jets give a long-term GUARANTEED contract to Revis (or any player) if that was the best-way to keep him within the confines of the cap ? Modest signing bonus, and a contract that is flat for 3-4 years and then has balloon payments in Years 5 (and maybe Year 6) when the cap rises ???? Only way to sign him, IMO, if they want to.
Davis paid Asomaugh that because it was the Raiders. It took that much to keep him there. It is crazy to pay that in the NFL, MLB can get by with it, but not under a hard cap system.
The thing is though... it seems like the Bucs are willing to pay him in the 15-16 mill range... I kind of wouldn't mind to have him on the team this coming year just to see if in FA he just takes the highest offer no matter how bad the team he goes to is..
Tanny paying Revis $16M/yr was even more insane than what Al Davis did. Tanny was not some 90 yr old senile bastard with no clue. Or maybe he was.
It's an easy cop-out to blame Al Davis, if it wasn't him it'd be Snyder, or Jerry Jones, or someone else giving Aso a goofball contract anyway. And Revis and his agents have 'always' been about the money. They held out his rookie year too, Aso had nothing to do with that. And nobody's holding a gun to the Jets' head to make them trade Revis now anyway...
$32M over the first 2 years of his current 'band-aid' contract. You can blame Al Davis for Revis 'asking' for Aso crazy jack-ass money, but you can ONLY blame Tanny and Rex for giving it to him......driving to Rosco Diner every day during Hard Knocks and eventually caving in to Revis' crazy demands. Revis was only half way through his rookie contract and held out of training camp....again. It was THEN that Tanny had to power to say "Fuck Aso, and fuck Al Davis. Sign here for $8M/yr or sit home for the next 2 years". But with Rex pounding the podium every day/week on Hard Knock calling Revis the 2nd coming of Christ All Mighty he tied Tanny's hands to an extent, which is where many ppl to this day say Tanny was a Rex drone and deserved to get canned.
It wasn't even a question of sit home for the next two years. It was a question of sit home for the rest of your career. A player who holds out for a year doesn't fulfill the year of the contract, it tolls over and he has to fulfill it the next year under the same terms he found so offensive the year he held out. The Jets decided they couldn't do that. They were aimed so heavily at 2010 with all the vets likely to decline thereafter that they had to go for it that year and they double-visioned themselves into a position where Revis was the key to a Super Bowl run. Then they caved based on that. It's one of many Jet tragedies over the years. Now the new regime has to manage the fallout from that decision.
The pressure on the Jets was pretty insane. Everybody said that Revis was the key to the best defense in the NFL in 2009. Nobody knew that Rex was about to change that defense around and stop blitzing like a crazy man. Nobody knew the Pats were going to go double-TE spread. There were a lot of false perceptions running through the whole debate. Revis and his people saw that and pounced. Can you imagine what 2010 would have been like for the Jets with Revis sitting at home if the team had gone 9-7 again and missed the playoffs this time? Like I said, it was a tragedy and the Jets were playing the victim in it no matter which way they jumped. They took the easy way out for 2010 but that has turned into the rocky road in 2013.
please explain how you dispute this? Revis has been seeking to be the highest paid CB, and to do so that would require around $16 million to be higher than Aso, which is a result of Al Davis' ridiculous contract. so how the hell isn't Revis' demands a repercussion of Al Davis' actions. this has nothing to do with Revis being smart enough to know he can't get that much, it has to do with him being so self absorbed that he doesn't care.
it is not a cop out at all. the dollar amount that Revis seeks is based on an existing benchmark -- a benchmark that only exists because of Al Davis. that doesn't absolve Revis for seeking that amount, but you can't eliminate the origin of where that amount came from.
Revis and the people that he hired to represent him are the problem. He held out as rookie before he ever played one single down in the NFL. Then, he held out again against the first contract that he held out for. His uncle, Sean Gilbert, who was/is part of his representation I'm sure encouraged his behavior. Every step of Gilbert's career contracts/money were a constant problem. The signing of Aso to that ridiculous contract was the trigger for the Revis group to hold out. If Davis doesn't sign Aso, it would've been somebody else's contract that would've caused Revis to use as his worth to the Jets.
Aso's contract with the Raiders is ancient history. He signed a FA contract with the Eagles since for 12mil per, and the Eagles have dumped him. He has no contract now, and will not see anything remotely close to that money any longer as his played has taken a huge step back. Right now, i don't think any CB's are making over 11mil per year. So giving Revis 12-13mil range would make him the highest paid by far, and higher than Aso's last huge FA contract.
