In a vey guarded way, I am more filled with anticipation for Revis than any other acquisition of the BB era. I still have many of those "...Wow, Revis is a Patriot ... somebody pinch me" moments. Revis comes without baggage and is at what should be a prime age; I envision an unlimited ceiling ... but am still ... guarded.
Why "guarded?? In the word of Inigo Montoya, let me 'splain:
The last player about whom I truly felt this was Adalius Thomas. I thought — prime years guy, amazing talent, no known baggage ... wow. Well, he had some moments here but ultimately was a disappointment, and he seems to have been part of the cancer that spread through the locker room in 2009. I would be shocked if Revis let us down, but ... anything can happen.
Moss and Dillon both came with a ton of baggage and questions. They delivered in a big way and became the poster children for Bill Belichick's Reputation Football Reputation Rehab Clinic. Ochocinco and Haynesworth — they just followed in the footsteps of Dillon and Moss, coming here as big name baggage/rehab curiosities, but never worked out the same way. Colvin — great team guy but the hip injury held him back.
Finally, there's Rodney. Since we're talking about anticipation — which means pre-season hopes — who here was not thrilled at the potential of a Milloy-Rodney safety tandem? Wow. Now that I think about it — Rodney was one of those Football Image Rehab guys, the precursor to Moss and Dillon. IIRC, there wasn't a hot market for Rodney when he signed here; the Rodney-Milloy fantasy came with some ifs ... and "if Milloy is still with the team" was not on of them!
Guess that's my bottom line: A lot of the "name" signings came with "ifs." Among them, Rodney, Dillon and Moss met our dreams; Ochocinco and Haynewsorth not so much. The only two guys who I felt didn't come with "ifs" were AD and Revis. Hopefully the latter makes up for the former.