A story from the National Football Post’s Mike Lombardi reported that Jets cornerback Darrelle Revis is seeking a new contract that will pay him an average of $20 million per year.
Contacted by The Post yesterday, Revis’ agents, Neil Schwartz and Jonathan Feinsod, vehemently shot the report down as preposterous, wondering aloud where that information could have come from.
“We have never spoken to Mike Lombardi — ever, not even when he worked for the Raiders,” Feinsod told The Post. “Where he’s getting his information I don’t know, but it’s not coming from our side.”
It certainly isn’t coming from the Jets’ side, either. After all, why would someone from the Jets leak that Revis was seeking such big money?
Revis, scheduled to make $1 million this season, the fourth year of his original contract, is seeking a new deal and he is on record as saying that Jets general manager Mike Tannenbaum promised him a new one before the 2010 season begins.
Revis’ contract is a complicated one that can be voided after this season if the Jets opt to pay a $21 million buyout. The Jets could keep Revis under his existing contract and pay him $21 million over the next three years, but it’ll be better business for them to tear it up and start over.
Revis, who finished second in the NFL Defensive Player of the Year voting to Packers cornerback Charles Woodson and started in the Pro Bowl, is likely seeking at least similar money to the $15.1 million Raiders’ cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha is making.
Asomugha signed a three-year, $45.3 million deal last offseason, a contract that makes him, based on average salary per year, the fourth-highest-paid player in the NFL.
The three players above him are Panthers defensive end Julius Peppers ($16.7 million), Bengals quarterback Carson Palmer ($16.2 million) and Giants quarterback Eli Manning ($15.3 million). Peyton Manning, considered by many as the most valuable player in the league, makes an average of $14 million.
Only three players last season — the Giants’ Eli Manning, Chargers QB Philip Rivers and Bears QB Jay Cutler — made more than $20 million last season.
Revis, who hasn’t talked about what his contract goals are, said last week that his agents had begun contract negotiations with the Jets, and Tannenbaum has said he’s committed to keeping Revis in a Jets uniform for the rest of his career.
Revis last week hinted that, should he believe that the Jets are not backing up their promise to ink him to a new deal before the season, holding out of training camp, which begins Aug. 1, is not out of the question.
The Jets, by policy, do not comment on contract negotiations.