The 2014 season couldn't have gone any better for Darrelle Revis. He became a champion while helping the New England Patriots win Super Bowl XLIX. The six-time Pro Bowler also reclaimed his status as a shutdown cornerback after spending the 2013 season miscast with Tampa Bay Buccaneers in a zone-based scheme while shaking off the rust in his comeback from reconstructive knee surgery.

Revis could be facing a choice of living up to his reputation as a mercenary or making the potential of winning multiple championships his top priority. The two-year, $32 million deal he quickly signed after the Buccaneers released him one year into a six-year, $96 million contract is in reality a one-year deal for $12 million.

2015 is an option year that the Patriots must exercise by March 9, which is the final day of the 2014 league year. Patriots president Jonathan Kraft recently acknowledged in an interview with a New England radio station that the option year was just a placeholder. By exercising the option, Revis would make $20 million in 2015, which includes a $12 million roster bonus payable on March 10. If the option isn't exercised, the Patriots are prohibited from designating Revis as their franchise or transition player for 2015.

Revis' $20 million salary on a $25 million salary cap number and New England's salary cap situation practically ensure that the option year won't be picked up. The Patriots are approximately $7.5 million over the 2015 salary cap, assuming it is finalized at $143 million. This is because a majority of the unused cap room the team can carry over to the 2015 league year, which starts on March 10, is being eaten up by not-likely-to-be-earned incentives that players achieved during the 2014 season. If Revis hits the open market, the Patriots will gain $20 million in cap space with the absence of his 2015 option year salary.

Retaining Revis is New England's top offseason priority. The Patriots have an exclusive negotiation window to rework his deal before the March 9 deadline for the option year and he becomes an unrestricted free agent on the following day. The problem for the Patriots is Revis has the leverage in the situation because of how he performed in 2014 and the team's limited ability to prevent him from hitting the open market.

Revis negotiating tactics

Revis' agents and the New York Jets' front office had an acrimonious relationship because the Revis camp took a hard-line stance in contract negotiations. He had a contract dispute with the Jets in 2007 where he was the next-to-last pick in the 2007 NFL Draft to sign with his club. Three years later, Revis held out for 36 days until the Jets renegotiated his contract. He got a front-loaded four-year, $46 million deal. $32.5 million was in the first two years. Technically, it was a seven-year deal containing an additional three years (2014-2016) with extremely low salaries that voided if Revis was on the team's roster one day after the 2013 season's Super Bowl, provided he didn't withhold his services during those first four contract years. This was considered as insurance against another holdout.

It was unusual for a first round pick to receive a new deal prior to the beginning of his fourth NFL season, like Revis did. Less than five percent of the players taken in the first round between 2005 and 2009 got one. Revis contemplated holding out of training camp for a new deal in 2012 despite the deterrent in his contract.

Darrelle Revis knows how to maximize his value.  (Getty Images)
Darrelle Revis knows how to maximize his value. (Getty Images)

The cornerback market

At a minimum, it will likely require a contract near the top of the cornerback market to sign Revis long-term. $12 million per year doesn't appear to be satisfactory to him since he opted for essentially a one-year deal at that amount over long-term security at the same level. Below is a chart outlining the top of the cornerback market.

Highest paid NFL cornerbacks
Name Club Year Signed Contract Guarantees First 3 New Years Average Salary Contract Length
Patrick Peterson Cardinals 2014 $48,000,000 $46,250,000 $14,010,000 5-year extension
Richard Sherman Seahawks 2014 $40,000,000 $45,000,000 $14,000,000 4-year extension
Joe Haden Browns 2014 $45,078,193 $42,750,000 $13,500,000 5-year Extension

Revis' agents may focus more of their attention on the amount in the first three years of a deal for him instead average salary and total compensation. Those metrics are somewhat misleading because of the lack of security with NFL contracts.

Compensation for the first three new years in a contract is a different metric than cash flow in the first three years of a deal. The cash flow analysis looks at the compensation in its totality, while the new years approach focuses on the amount of money in a contract excluding what a player was scheduled to make before receiving a new deal. It is important because professionals within the industry (agents and team negotiators) typically value deals by new money.

The difference in the two metrics can be illustrated with Patrick Peterson's five-year contract extension. His cash flow in the first three years (2014-2016) is $37,969,114. The compensation in the first new three years (2016-2018) is $46.25 million. When Peterson signed his new contract, he had two years remaining on his deal with $2,888,114 and $10.081 million salaries in 2014 and 2015. His two existing contract years for $12,969,114 were subtracted from the 59,219,114 five year cash flow total to arrive at $46.25 million.

Highest-paid defensive players

Revis could set his sights on a deal at the top of the defensive player market because the Patriots may have competition from AFC East rivals for his services if he becomes a free agent. Former Jets head coach Rex Ryan could make a run at a reunion with Revis in his first season at the helm for the Buffalo Bills. Jets owner Woody Johnson commented in a December 29 press conference that he would "love for Revis to come back" to New York. The Patriots filed tampering charges against the Jets after Johnson's statement. The Jets will enter free agency with more than $45 million in cap room and Johnson has expressed a willingness to spend money after former general manager John Idzik's cautious approach to free agency.

This distinction seems to have some importance to Revis because his contract with the Buccaneers made him the highest-paid defensive player, along with Mario Williams, at $16 million per year. The Williams contract contains $4 million in incentives which weren't in Revis' deal. His current contract is also listed at $16 million on paper to keep him at the top of the defensive player pay scale even though both sides don't consider 2015 as a real contract year. The chart below summarizes the top defensive player contracts.

Highest paid NFL defensive players
Name Club Position Year Signed Contract Guarantees First 3 New Years Average Salary Contract Length
J.J. Watt Texans DE 2014 $51,876,385 $54,000,000 $16,666,667 6-year Extension
Mario Williams Bills DE 2012 $50,000,000 $53,000,000 $16,000,000 6 Years
Robert Quinn Rams DE 2014 $41,171,136 $44,082,563 $14,253,724 4 Yr Extension

Unlike J.J. Watt and Robert Quinn, the first three new years compensation and cash flow in the first three years are the same for Williams. This is always the case when a player signs a new contract as a free agent or when his contract is set to expire.

Prediction

Whether becoming a champion is something Revis can scratch off his bucket list where he concentrates on maximizing value or money takes a backseat to the prospect of more championships remains to be seen. Look for Revis to try to have his cake and eat it on a long-term deal that keeps him in New England.

It wouldn't be a surprise if Revis left a little money on the table while still driving a very hard bargain with the Patriots. He could accomplish this by leveraging interest from division rivals during the three-day period beginning on March 7 when the agents of players can negotiate with other teams before free agency starts on March 10. Since Revis will be 30 in July, the Patriots may be reluctant to make more than a three-year commitment to him.

A deal that could work for both sides might be a five-year deal, which commits the Patriots to Revis for three years but gives the team flexibility to get out of the deal after the 2017 season if he is no longer a shutdown cornerback when he will be on the verge of turning 33 years old. This can be done by giving the Patriots the option of picking up the final two years (2018 and 2019) like the team currently has with Revis' 2015 contract year.

The deal might contain $46.5 million over the first three years, which would have player-friendly guarantees, so that Revis is ahead of Patrick Peterson in this important contract measure but is still behind J.J Watt and Mario Williams, who set the defensive player market in this metric. The overall value of the deal could be as high as $85 million if it is important to Revis that it appears as if he is the NFL's highest-paid defensive player.

The Patriots would get significant cap relief from the $25 million cap number for his existing 2015 contract year. Depending upon the exact structure, $10 million to $15 million of 2015 cap space could be freed up with a long-term deal of this nature for Revis.


Joel Corry is a former sports agent who helped found Premier Sports & Entertainment, a sports management firm that represents professional athletes and coaches. Before his tenure at Premier, Joel worked for Management Plus Enterprises, which represented Shaquille O'Neal, Hakeem Olajuwon and Ronnie Lott. You can follow him on Twitter: @corryjoel | You can email him at jccorry@gmail.com