Jets Now Willing To Make Darrelle Revis The Highest Paid CB?

Rich Cimini of ESPNNewYork.com believes that the Jets are willing to make Darrelle Revis the highest paid cornerback in the NFL, but they don’t want offer him a contract that would pay him north of $16 million a year.

“Their stance, shared by many teams, is that cornerbacks aren’t worth as much as pass rushers,” Cimini writes. “They’ll make him the highest-paid corner (he’s already close to it at $11.5 million per year), but it’s hard to imagine them going into the $16 million-a-year neighborhood — unless (Jon) Idzik revamps the organization’s value system.”

Revis has made it clear that he wants to not only be the highest paid cornerback in the league, but he also wants to change the way the league pays corners. The Jets have serious cap issues, so it will be interesting to see how they can afford to lockup Revis.

Cimini believes that if the Jets opt to trade Revis, a likely landing spot for him could be the 49ers if Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco “torches” them in tonight’s Super Bowl. He also suggests that Revis could be dealt for 49ers quarterback Alex Smith and a first-round draft pick, which was an idea that was floated by ESPN’s Adam Schefter earlier in the week.

It wouldn’t be easy to fit Smith’s $8.5 million salary in their cap unless he’s willing to renegotiate that figure. They could obviously use help at quarterback and it would be great to high draft pick for Revis, but this is of course assuming that the 49ers would even be willing to consider the idea.

If the Jets are serious about trading Revis, they almost certainly find plenty of interest in him, but it looks as though keeping him long-term is still an option.