AND, imo the Pats should pick up the $20M option and then drop a lawsuit/petition to the NFL for $5M of the cap hit to be assessed against the Jesters based on the tampering charge. THAT WOULD BE HILARIOUS!!!!
However, I do believe from what I saw on one of the nfl timeline stories; the date-time for the Patriots to commit on the $20M and the date-time for the legal tampering period to start are exactly the same (4pm 7th ??).
So, if they do pick up the $20M; he is theirs for the next season and they can continue to work on an extension (and pursue the increased tampering penalties), but will have to cut a whole bunch somewhere else.
If they dont' pick it up the Pats have 72 hours to get to a deal with revis before he is a FA. But that 72 hours is at the same time as Revis/his agent are free to (LEGALLY) talk to spendthrifts like the Jesters about what pie-in-the-sky $$s they will give him. So at that point all the mojo is in Revis' court.