{"id":807,"date":"2013-04-24T01:17:13","date_gmt":"2013-04-24T05:17:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bigredsportsmachine.com\/?p=807"},"modified":"2013-04-24T08:51:11","modified_gmt":"2013-04-24T12:51:11","slug":"tuesday-teabag-april-23-2013-tampa-bay-bucs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bigredsportsmachine.com\/?p=807","title":{"rendered":"Tuesday Teabag, April 23, 2013 – Tampa Bay Bucs"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Laughing<\/a>

Inevitable holdout looming<\/p><\/div>\n

Let\u2019s get right to it:\u00a0 just days before the Draft (come back tomorrow to check out The Machine\u2019s Draft Day Drinking Game) the New York Jets and the Tampa Bay Bucs pull off a blockbuster trade.\u00a0 The Jets send Darrelle Revis to Tampa and in exchange receive Tampa\u2019s first round pick (#13) and a conditional pick in 2014 (likely to be a third round pick).\u00a0 Tampa then signs Revis to a six year, $96 million dollar contract, making him (by far) the highest paid cornerback in the league.<\/p>\n

So who \u201cwon\u201d the trade?\u00a0 Jason Cole of Yahoo! Sports argues<\/a> that the Bucs got the better end of the deal, and that the Jets caved in to Revis\u2019 demand for a trade.\u00a0 True, the Jets had to trade him:\u00a0 per his contract, they couldn\u2019t franchise him, so if he played for them this year he walks a free man at the end of the season\u00a0and the Jets get nothing.\u00a0 Also true, the Jets put themselves in this situation by agreeing in Revis\u2019 contract that they could not franchise him (note to GMs:\u00a0 read the fine print) so they at least deserve an honorable mention teabag (does anyone really think Rex Ryan and crew are savvy, detailed oriented negotiators?)<\/p>\n

Well, the dust has settled, and The Machine is here to tell you that the Bucs just paid a ton of fool’s gold.\u00a0 Mark our words:\u00a0 this is a horrible deal and ultimately will not end up well for Tampa Bay.\u00a0 Let\u2019s break it down:<\/p>\n

\u00a01.\u00a0 $16 Million Per Year?\u00a0 Really?<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is an incredibly absurd amount to pay a cornerback.\u00a0 Let\u2019s assume, for sake of argument, that Revis plays as the Bucs hope, and that he\u2019s the best cornerback in the league.\u00a0 Even if that\u2019s true, $16 million per year is way above market.\u00a0 The next highest paid cornerback:\u00a0 Champ Bailey at $11.5 million.\u00a0 That\u2019s a $4.5 million dollar gap between them, and a 40% increase.\u00a0 Rarely, if ever, do you find that much disparity between the highest paid and second highest paid player.\u00a0 Here\u2019s a breakdown of the Top 2 paid players at other positions:<\/p>\n

QB<\/strong>:\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 Joe Flacco ($20.1 million), Drew Brees ($20 million).\u00a0 % increase:\u00a0 0.5%<\/p>\n

RB<\/strong>:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Adrian Peterson ($11.25 million), Chris Johnson ($10 million).\u00a0 % increase:\u00a0 12.5%<\/p>\n

WR<\/strong>:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Calvin Johnson ($16.2 million), Larry Fitzgerald ($16.1 million) % increase: 0.6%<\/p>\n

Now, Aaron Rodgers will likely eclipse Flacco as the highest paid QB, but The Machine guarantees you it won\u2019t be 40% more than Flacco.\u00a0<\/p>\n

What makes that number even more absurd is that there was no bidding war.\u00a0 There was no other team that was driving the price up.\u00a0 Everyone knew that Tampa was the only team interested in trading for Revis.\u00a0 There is simply no justification for spending like a druken sailor.<\/p>\n

\u00a02.\u00a0 His contract is not guaranteed<\/strong><\/p>\n

But Ginger King, you argue, the Bucs protected themselves by making sure the contract is not guaranteed.\u00a0 In theory, that\u2019s true.\u00a0 In reality, total bullshit.<\/p>\n

There is no way he\u2019s not on that team for at least two years, even if he is underperforming (see Nnamdi Asomugha).\u00a0 The Bucs gave up a lot, so they can\u2019t just cut and run if he doesn\u2019t play as expected.\u00a0 Doing so would almost surely result in some front-office changes.\u00a0 And good luck getting him to restructure his contract.\u00a0<\/p>\n

So, at the very least, the contract has $32 million guaranteed (cue drunken sailor).<\/p>\n

\u00a03.\u00a0 He\u2019s coming off of ACL surgery<\/strong><\/p>\n

Did people forget that Revis played in only two games last year before blowing out his ACL and having reconstructive knee surgery?\u00a0 Arguably, having healthy knees is somewhat of a must have for a cornerback.\u00a0 Perhaps we\u2019ve been spoiled by what Adrian Peterson did last season, coming off of knee surgery and coming back stronger and better.\u00a0 However, AP is the exception, not the rule.\u00a0 It\u2019s a big unknown whether Revis will be back to his old shut down self.\u00a0 In fact, we\u2019re already hearing rumors that he might not be ready for Game 1.\u00a0 At $1 million dollars per game, the Bucs need an instant return on their investment.<\/p>\n

\u00a04.\u00a0 Revis is the best cornerback in the NFL<\/strong><\/p>\n

Again, let\u2019s assume that Revis fully recovers from knee surgery, and re-establishes himself as the best corner in the NFL.\u00a0 Good news for Tampa, right?\u00a0 Not so fast.\u00a0 You heard it here first:\u00a0 Revis will holdout.\u00a0 It\u2019s in his blood to hold out.\u00a0 He held out before even playing a game, and has been nothing but a malcontent diva always in search of more money and more spotlight.\u00a0 If he is the best corner, you can guarantee he\u2019ll argue he\u2019s outperformed his contract, that the $16 million was watered down to account for potential knee problems, and that a fully healthy Revis (we assume he talks in the third person) is worth more.\u00a0 The Bucs remedy (unless they cave and pay him more) is to cut him, which they won\u2019t want to do because they won\u2019t want to have the NFL\u2019s top cornerback walk away and get nothing in return (sound familiar?).<\/p>\n

No argument that Revis, if healthy, is the best corner in the game.\u00a0 But you have to ask the question is he worth it?\u00a0 He’s devisive and not what you would call a team player.\u00a0 And at $1 million dollars per game, you want a guy that makes Tim Tebow look like a whore.<\/p>\n

In short, there\u2019s no way this works out well for the Bucs long term.\u00a0 They grossly overpaid for a player with an unproven knee.\u00a0 If he plays well, he\u2019ll hold out for more cash and if he underperforms, the Bucs can cut him but will be admitting defeat and will become the laughing stock of the league.\u00a0 The contract just reeks of desperation.\u00a0 At the very least, the first year of this deal should have been heavily incentive laden; with easy to moderate levels of reachable incentives (games played, ints, fumble recoveries, etc.).\u00a0 This would protect the Bucs in case he doesn\u2019t come back 100% from surgery.\u00a0 If he performs, then you give him the $16 million.\u00a0 Instead, they just write him a $16 million dollar check.\u00a0 That\u2019s questionable decision making from the front office.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While it will take the rest of the sports world a year or two to realize this, The Machine can smell a bad deal right away.\u00a0 And this friends, is a bad deal.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Enjoy your teabag.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Let\u2019s get right to it:\u00a0 just days before the Draft (come back tomorrow to check out The Machine\u2019s Draft Day Drinking Game) the New York Jets and the Tampa Bay Bucs pull off a blockbuster trade.\u00a0 The Jets send Darrelle … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-807","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2Bp3y-d1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bigredsportsmachine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bigredsportsmachine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bigredsportsmachine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bigredsportsmachine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bigredsportsmachine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=807"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.bigredsportsmachine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":812,"href":"https:\/\/www.bigredsportsmachine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807\/revisions\/812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bigredsportsmachine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bigredsportsmachine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bigredsportsmachine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}