The Revis Precedent

On the surface, the new deal for cornerback Darrelle Revis would seem to be a win-win for both player and team; Revis gets his big payday and the Jets get their shutdown corner back in time for their primetime season opener. However, when you consider the amount of money Revis is going to get over the next three seasons against what the Jets got in return, one may wonder if the Jets have set a precedent that could come back to bite them in the future, not only with Revis but other players.


On his rookie contract, Revis had 2010–2012 remaining with a value of $20.5M with, practically speaking, all of that guaranteed. On his new deal, over 2010–2012, Revis will make $40M with $32.5M reportedly guaranteed. When extensions are valued by agents and teams, the important metric is the amount of new money received by the player in exchange for additional years under contract received by the team. With that in mind, over the 2010-2012 seasons that the Jets had already paid for via Revis’ rookie contract, the Jets are giving Revis an additional $19.5M. When you add the new year of 2013 and the $6M to be paid in that year, the Jets have essentially paid Revis $25.5M of new money to get one additional year under contract, and herein lays the potential problematic precedent set by the Jets.

The problem faced by the Jets was that, whether they instigated the conversation or not, they faced a player who wanted to hold them hostage despite having three years under contract; not one, and not even two. The historical precedent has been that players get new deals when they have one year left, and occasionally when they have two years left, a la Patrick Willis.

In Tennessee, the Titans faced this same predicament with a player, who like Revis, is considered to be arguably the best player at their position in running back Chris Johnson. To put a band-aid on this situation, the Titans didn’t give Johnson new money on his deal, they simply moved his $1.25M year five escalator into this year in the form of a $1.25M signing bonus but, again, gave Johnson no new money.

Prior to his extension Revis was due roughly $500K, $5M, and $15M over 2010-2012. Applying the Johnson solution to Revis, the Jets could have simply moved the money around so that he received the $15M in 2010, $5M or so in 2011 and under a million in 2012, with a wink-nod agreement that a new deal would be consummated prior to the 2012 season.

I am not saying that the Jets didn’t think of nor propose this Johnson solution to Revis, but as an alternative to accepting the Johnson solution, the Jets perhaps should have called Revis’ bluff further in lieu of capitulating and giving him $19.5M and receiving nothing in return from a contract management perspective.

Revis is clearly a difference maker on defense, but if one were purely managing this situation from a contract management perspective, they would then call Revis’ bluff and see how you fare with former Pro Bowler & contract year player (meaning motivated) Antonio Cromartie and 2010 first round pick Kyle Wilson. Perhaps the expectation set by head coach Rex Ryan and the angst of living up to those expectations resulted in the coach flexing his juice in the organization and forcing a questionable contract decision.

Not only have the Jets set a precedent that could lead to players like Mark Sanchez and/or Shonn Greene looking to reopen their deals after 2010, but there’s no guarantee that Revis isn’t going to want to reopen his deal in 2012 and definitely by 2013. In fact, I would venture to say it’s almost a certainty that Revis is getting a new deal by 2013. If Revis is willing to holdout with three years remaining on his rookie deal with $20.5M guaranteed, then do you think he’s really going to think twice about holding out again prior to 2013 when he’s due only $6M. Sure there’s the issue of his 2014-2016 voiding if he doesn’t hold out, but if he was willing to hold out with three years remaining on a deal, then he’ll surely hold out with four years remaining on a deal and thereby rendering this voidable provision toothless.

So kudos to Neil Schwartz and Darrelle Revis for getting something for nothing, and I’m guessing the Jets front office may have some disappointment after having to possibly swallow a pill forced down their throat by boastful coaching staff. Over the course of the Revis saga, we heard about the anomaly that the Nnamdi Asomugha contract is on the cornerback market; going forward, we’ll similarly be referring to the Revis extension as an anomaly in the framework of contract extensions because the Jets got nothing in return for giving Revis a boat load of money.


Follow J.I. Halsell on Twitter: @SalaryCap101

Recap: Tale of the Tape | Dallas (0-1) @ Washington (1-0) | Week One

Most Valuable Player (this is a player compensation site; get it, "valuable"): Redskins Safety LaRon Landry, $17.5M guaranteed
When we did LaRon's contract in 2007, we based a significant amount of his incentives on him making tackles. This season LaRon finds himself playing his natural in-the-box strong safety position, and boy did he produce tonight as he was envisioned with a career-high 17 total tackles.  His prior career high came prior to the death of Sean Taylor in the blowout loss to the Patriots; Landry had 14 total tackles on that day.

Other notable Value Players: Linebacker Rocky McIntosh, $0 guaranteed & Cornerback Carlos Rogers, $0 guaranteed
Restricted free agents Rocky McIntosh and Carlos Rogers, who have no money guaranteed this year and are playing for their next contracts, had solid games.  McIntosh tallied 10 total tackles and a sack.  Rogers played well, and had a chance at a game-clinching interception, but as has been the case over the course of his career, he was unable to finish the play.

Least Valuable Player: Cowboys Wide Receiver Roy Williams, $27M guaranteed
If it wasn't already confirmed that Dez Bryant has surpassed the lucratively paid Williams on Tony Romo's target list, then it absolutely apparent now.  Save for a late 4th quarter reception, Williams was a non-factor in the Cowboys' passing game; while it was clear their was concerted effort to get Bryant involved.  Perhaps instead of trading away Patrick Crayton, the Cowboys could've leveraged the uncapped year and absorbed the dead money of Williams' contract.

Random Notes:
The Redskins nearly loss this game and found themselves in a nail-biter; what was a 6-point lead coming down the stretch could've easily been a 9-point lead instead.  With 10:29 left in the 3rd quarter, Graham Gano hit a 36-yard field goal attempt.  On the play, Cowboy cornerback Orlando Scandrick was called for defensive offsides.  The Redskins chose to take the points off the board; which at the time didn't seem like a bad decision, until, on the same drive, the Redskins botched a field goal attempt.  Hind sight is always 20-20, but it's definitely a pivotal aspect of tonight's nail biter in Landover.

Tale of the Tape | Dallas @ Washington | Week One

I've spent my afternoon trying to figure out how to get my analysis tables into this blog, as blogger's posting interface was far from helpful.  That said, I finally found a way that presented the tables in a legible manner; given that I'm a former programmer this shouldn't have been this painful.

Anyway, this entry marks the first installment of "Tale of the Tape."  I apologize to my non-Redskins readers, as this series (exclusive to Inside the Cap) over the course of the season will compare the Redskins' current guaranteed money commitments to their starters versus the current guaranteed money commitments to the Redskins' weekly opponent's starters.  Hopefully, the numbers allow the reader to see how the Redskins compare to their opponents via the compensation metric that is most important in the NFL player contract landscape, guaranteed money.  Guaranteed money is the chosen metric for this analysis because it's telling of the perceived quality of the player.

Couple of notes regarding the content below.  The next to each starters' name you will see how the player was acquired by the club (thanks to Ourlads.com).  Also, players whose contracts have been traded to their current team may or may not have guaranteed money that is the responsibility of the current team.  For example, Donovan McNabb's contract contains 3.5M in guaranteed salary that is the responsibility of the Redskins; conversely, Adam Carriker's contract contained guaranteed money, but that money has been paid and was the responsibility of the Rams.

The second table takes a cumulative look at guaranteed money committed to position groups.  The first comparison looks at a group seven players versus the opponent's group of seven; on offense this group of seven consists of the 5 starting offensive linemen, fullback, and quarterback versus the defense's group of defensive linemen (in the case of a 3-4 defense, three down linemen) and linebackers (four in the case of a 3-4).  The second comparison looks at the four offensive and defensive starters on the perimeter; so for the offense the group consists of the wide receivers, running back, and tight end versus the defense's group of cornerbacks and safeties.

If guaranteed money is the indicator of perceived quality of a player, then Jerry Jones' Cowboys are perceived to be a better team than Dan Snyder's Redskins.  It will be interesting to see over the course of the season, which team or teams consist of quality players with little guaranteed money committed to them.

TALE OF THE TAPE: GUARANTEED MONEY
REDSKINS				COWBOYS
Pos	No	Player	Guar $	Guar $	Pos	No	Player
Offense			$87,975,500	$147,061,368	Offense
LWR	84	GALLOWAY, JOEY U/Pit	$0	$27,000,000	LWR	11	Williams, Roy T/Det
RWR	89	MOSS, SANTANA T/NYJ	$10,000,000	$18,000,000	RWR	19	Austin, Miles CF06
LT	72	Williams, Trent 10/1	$36,750,000	$425,000	LT	68	Free, Doug 07/4
LG	66	DOCKERY, DERRICK 03/3	$8,200,000	$5,000,000	LG	63	KOSIER, KYLE U/Det
C	61	RABACH, CASEY U/Bal	$4,200,000	$10,000,000	C	65	GURODE, ANDRE 02/2
RG	75	HICKS, ARTIS U/Min	$1,000,000	$17,750,000	RG	70	DAVIS, LEONARD U/Arz
RT	77	Brown, Jammal T/NO	$0	$11,500,000	RT	75	COLOMBO, MARC SF05
TE	47	Cooley, Chris 04/3	$14,000,000	$12,000,000	TE	82	Witten, Jason 03/3
QB	5	MCNABB, DONOVAN T/Phi	$3,500,000	$29,294,118	QB	9	ROMO, TONY CF03
FB	45	SELLERS, MIKE CF98	$1,000,000	$92,250	FB	34	Anderson, Deon 07/6
RB	26	Portis, Clinton T/Den	$9,325,500	$16,000,000	RB	24	Barber, Marion 05/4
Defense			$70,900,000	$102,847,000	Defense
LDE	94	Carriker, Adam T/SL	$0	$0	LDE	96	Spears, Marcus 05/1
NT	96	KEMOEATU, MA'AKE CC/Car	$300,000	$8,000,000	NT	90	Ratliff, Jay 05/7
RDE	64	Golston, Kedric 06/6	$0	$8,000,000	RDE	99	Olshansky, Igor U/SD
LOLB	98	Orakpo, Brian 09/1	$12,100,000	$6,407,000	LOLB	93	Spencer, Anthony 07/1
LILB	59	FLETCHER, LONDON U/Buf	$10,500,000	$8,000,000	LILB	56	James, Bradie 03/4
RILB	52	McIntosh, Rocky 06/2	$0	$2,500,000	RILB	51	BROOKING, KEITH U/Atl
ROLB	99	CARTER, ANDRE U/SF	$9,000,000	$40,000,000	ROLB	94	Ware, Demarcus 05/1
LCB	22	Rogers, Carlos 05/1	$0	$21,895,000	LCB	41	NEWMAN, TERENCE 03/1
SS	30	Landry, LaRon 07/1	$17,500,000	$1,000,000	SS	43	Sensabaugh, Gerald U/Jax
FS	37	Doughty, Reed RFA/2	$0	$0	FS	20	Ball, Alan 07/7
RCB	23	Hall, DeAngelo SF08	$21,500,000	$7,045,000	RCB	21	Jenkins, Mike 08/1
Special Teams			$0	$3,448,500	Special Teams
P	6	BIDWELL, JOSH CC/TB	$0	$2,500,000	P	1	MCBRIAR, MAT SF03
PK	4	Gano, Graham SF09	$0	$148,500	PK	18	Buehler, David 09/5
LS	57	Sundberg, Nick SF10	$0	$800,000	LS	91	Ladouceur, LP SF05
TEAM TOTAL			$158,875,500	$253,356,868	TEAM TOTAL

Notes from the Individual Starters Analysis:
- I'd bet you'd be hard pressed to find another team in the NFL that has committed more guaranteed money to its starters than the Cowboys at $253M

- The battle between LT Trent Williams and OLB DeMarcus Ware represents $36M guaranteed versus $40M guaranteed.

- 8 of the Cowboys' 11 starters have contracts guaranteeing them in excess of $10M

- Players with $0 guaranteed represent players who have higher desire to perform well, as they're seeking the all important next contract with some level of guaranteed money.  To this point, the Cowboys have 2 players with no money guaranteed, while the Redskins have 10 players (inclusive of their K, P, & LS).

TALE OF THE TAPE, POSITION GROUPS: GUARANTEED MONEY
REDSKINS		COWBOYS
Offense		Defense
Trenches + QB	$54,650,000	$72,907,000	Front 7
Skill	$33,325,500	$29,940,000	Back 4
Total	$87,975,500	$102,847,000	Total
Defense		Offense
Front 7	$31,900,000	$74,061,368	Trenches + QB
Back 4	$39,000,000	$73,000,000	Skill
Total	$70,900,000	$147,061,368	Total
Special Teams		Special Teams
Total	$0	$3,448,500	Total
Team Total	$158,875,500	$253,356,868	Team Total
Definitions: Trenches + QB = OL, TE, FB, QB; Skill = WRs, TE, RB; Front 7 = DL, LBs; Back 4 = DBs; Teams = K, P, LS

Notes from the Position Group Analysis:

- based solely upon guaranteed money, the only position group the Redskins have an advantage is their skill players versus the Cowboys' secondary; this comes in large part to Cowboys safety Alan Ball currently playing on an exclusive rights 1-year tender, and cornerback Mike Jenkins and safety Gerald Sensabaugh both have a million or less in guaranteed money.

- the Cowboys' offense easily doubles the Redskins' defense in total guaranteed money.

- the Cowboys have committed 63% more in guaranteed money to their starters than the Redskins have to their own starters; the HUGE caveat being that Albert Haynesworth's $41M guarantee is not included in this analysis.

- the difference in guaranteed money between the Redskins offense and Cowboys defense is only approximately $15M, so one could assume the the Redskins offense should be able to fare decently well against the vaunted Cowboys defense.  However, if guaranteed money is an indicator, then Redskins defense simply doesn't have the horses to compete with the Cowboys offense.