As with most times with players who have been here and are now gone, their time and contributions to the Pats are routinely minimized. Revis WAS a great player, now his is merely a good one. The contract, IIRC, that the Pats offered him was comparable to what the other top CB's were getting (Perterson, etc). The Jets, of course offered more.....a lot more. However ultimately, all things being equal, Revis wanted to be in NYC a lot more than being in Foxboro
Now I've seen several posts that claimed he no longer loved the game or wasn't committed because he's looked slow or fat. Well he might not have been able to get into the best of shape this year, but that was because he was rehabbing a wrist injury, and that kind of injury will affect how much work you can do in the off season. So while there may be reasons why his game has slipped this year, but I doubt they have anything to do with his competitive nature. Age, injuries, etc have likely taken their toll, but I watched a lot of TC practices in 2014 and watching Revis move and anticipate receivers breaks was a beautiful thing to behold. The gap between he and the other CB's was visible even to a casual fan's eye.
It's easy to laugh at the Jets for their overpaying Revis. It is alo easy to forget how badly fans wanted/demanded that the Pats sign him, regardless of the cost. To forget how pissed so many were when the news came down that the Jets, no less, had won the bidding.
Later saner heads prevailed as we found out more about the deal, Woody's tampering, and Revis' desire to get back to NYC. The Pats really didn't have a chance, and Revis skillfully got the Jets to overpay and bid against themselves for a player who didn't want to play anywhere else.
The net result is that Revis is slipping this year even faster than one would have expected as time and injuries are taking their inevitable toll at a position where pure athleticism is at a premium. (unlike QB) We found a lesser, but acceptable replacement in Butler, at about 4% of the cost (so far) And look forward to a busy off season with almost $65MM in cap space. The Jets won't be totally hamstrung by the cap next year as they will likely dump Fitz's $12MM, but they won't be swimming in cap space either. They are an old team that will be without an established QB, and a LOT of holes. In other words, "same old Jets"
You know the old adage: Sometimes the deals you DON'T end up making are the best deals. This looks very much like one of those cases.
