Revis Island has been evacuated due to a tropical storm of young and explosive wide receivers who have made Darrelle Revis look old and vulnerable.
He has been so good for so long, it was taken for granted. Even the elite wideouts would disappear once they risked venturing onto the sacred ground of Revis Island.
It’s way too early to say the Island has been permanently shut down, that he can no longer be an elite player, but the Jets invested $39 million guaranteed in the first three years of the five-year, $70 million deal that brought him back from New England and clearly they expected a few more years when quarterbacks would be afraid to throw at him. That’s not happening.
Revis turned 30 in July, which is not like turning 30 for a running back. He’s also coming off an excellent season with the Patriots when he was the key to their defense and helped New England win its first Super Bowl in 10 years. His ability to take the best wide receivers out of the game by himself allowed Bill Belichick to double the second-best wideout and changed the way he could blitz.
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So, what’s going on here?
The mystique is gone.
The fear factor is gone.
Is age catching up with Revis? Are the stricter rules on defensive holding and illegal use of hands levelling the playing field? Is he just in a slump?
Yes, yes and yes.
Is Revis hurt? He was listed last week with a hip injury and earlier this year had a hamstring injury.
The most immediate concern for the Jets is that Revis suffered a concussion in the third quarter on Sunday in Houston and sat out the rest of the game. His availability for Sunday’s crucial game at MetLife Stadium against the Dolphins will be determined by whether he can pass through the league’s concussion protocol this week.
Even before the concussion, Jets rookie coach Todd Bowles had to be concerned about Revis.
He had been saved in games when he was beaten deep by Oakland’s Amari Cooper but quarterback Derek Carr missed him; when he was beaten deep by Buffalo’s Sammy Watkins but Tyrod Taylor threw an awful pass; and he was beaten deep by Houston’s DeAndre Hopkins but third-string QB T.J. Yates missed him.
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Earlier this season, Revis looked bad giving up a short TD to Washington’s Pierre Garcon, but later had an important interception off Kirk Cousins. In New England, former teammate Julian Edelman dropped a touchdown on a six-yard slant that would have gone against Revis’ record.
Yates didn’t miss Hopkins on a 61-yard touchdown in the second quarter when Hopkins left Revis looking at his heels. And it was Revis who was beaten on Taylor’s game-clinching four-yard pass to Watkins on a third and two from the Buffalo 15 with 2:43 left in Buffalo’s 22-17 victory over the Jets on Nov. 12.
How far has Revis slipped? The last time he played in Houston was the opening game of the 2009 season. Andre Johnson was then one of the best receivers in the NFL. Revis had him man-to-man the entire game. Johnson had four catches for 35 yards.
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Revis is the NFL’s best cover corner since Deion Sanders. He possesses the one mental trait that is essential for all corners: He has always been able to immediately forget about a bad play and put it behind him. Not that he had a lot of bad plays.
But teams clearly don’t go the other way anymore. They are going right at him. Even as recently as last year, quarterbacks stayed away, which cut the field in half. Revis has never had sprinter’s speed, but he looks slower this year. He has become a great player because nobody studies harder, he has near perfect technique, he knows how to bait a QB and he’s always been clever with the use of his hands inside and outside the five-yard bump rule.
Rex Ryan loves Revis. But Ryan violated the Revis Rules — stay away from him no matter what — when he had Taylor go right after him on the third-down play.
Belichick loved having Revis last season, but never got into a bidding war with the Jets. He set a financial value on Revis and the Jets’ offer blew him away. Remember this about Belichick: He removes emotion from the equation when he makes decisions on players. He doesn’t often let a player leave if he really wants to keep him.
As much as Revis meant to the Patriots defense, Belichick didn’t stray from the model he has set up. Besides, with Brady just starting a way-below-market three-year, $27 million deal that is paying him $8 million this year, he could not justify asking Robert Kraft to dig too deep into his pockets.
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The Jets paid for a shutdown corner. Revis is still one of those. He’s just not the same player he was in 2009, one of the best years a corner has ever had. He followed that with another great year in 2010. In an overtime victory in Detroit, he held Calvin Johnson to one catch for 13 yards. When the Jets beat the Colts in Indy in the playoffs, he covered Reggie Wayne by himself the entire game. Peyton Manning targeted Wayne once. He completed the pass. For one yard.
Revis has a tremendous amount of pride. Surely, he’s heard about Hopkins putting air quotes around Revis Island when he talked about him after the game. After Revis gave up a touchdown in the Super Bowl, and only because he was picked off by an official in the end zone, Seattle corner Richard Sherman put up two fingers on one hand and four on another, either mocking Revis’ No. 24 or noting the Seahawks had 24 points.
When he returns from his concussion, Revis will have to make adjustments. He is smart enough to do it and not stubborn enough to resist it.
But for now, Revis Island is being evacuated.
