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Buccaneers will not trade Darrelle Revis

Darrelle Revis may be misused, but that doesn't mean that trading him makes sense for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

By Sander Philipse
Al Messerschmidt

It seems I'm spending my time debunking idiotic notions today. Idiotic notion number two: the Tampa Bay Buccaneers should totally trade Darrelle Revis. This idiotic notion seems to have arisen from a meandering bit of logic that seems to boil down to "Revis good, Bucs bad, Revis good on other team, trade Revis", with no respect for things like salary cap hits, compensation, job security or, apparently logic.

A list of reasons as to why the Buccaneers won't trade Revis before the trade deadline next Tuesday.

Reason the number one: Revis' contract

Remember how it took something resembling three decades to trade Darrelle Revis this past offseason? Yeah, that was in large part because Revis demanded a $16 million contract, also known as ridiculous amounts of money only reserved for people who can throw passes, Darrelle Revis and Mario Williams. The Bucs were one of the very few teams willing to take on that contract -- so why would any other team take on that contract now?

Yes, sure, there's slightly under $7 million left on the contract for this year and none of the future salaries are guaranteed. So are you suggesting that a team give up a bunch of draft picks for a star cornerback only to release him next year? Because Revis isn't going to take voluntary pay cuts at any point in his career if he can help it.

Reason the number two: Mark Dominik is not suicidal

Mark Dominik presumably likes being the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' general manager. Or perhaps he isn't too fond of his job right now what with all the losing and hatred, but I'm just going to assume that he doesn't want to be fired. That seems like a reasonable thing to assume.

Hey, you know what gets general managers fired really quickly? Cutting ties with a star player just a few months after giving up two high draft picks and a huge amount of money for said player!

You know what else gets general managers fired? Losing lots and lots of games. The Bucs are well on their way to losing lots and lots and lots of games, but trading Revis isn't exactly going to make it easier to win any of those games. Which part of being a winless team, needing wins to keep your job and then trading your best player makes sense to anyone?

Unless Dominik wants to get fired, that is.

Reason the number three: the Bucs aren't going to misuse Revis forever

Greg Schiano is going to get fired. This is going to happen, unless he manages to win around eight straight games. That's about as likely as me winning the jackpot tomorrow. Important note: I don't buy lottery tickets.

This means the Bucs will have a different coaching staff next season. One that, presumably, won't be as completely stubborn about Darrelle Revis (mis)use and start using him properly. I bet that coaching staff would like to have a player like Darrelle Revis on his team. In fact, I bet that if you tell a defensive coordinator his team is going to have Mark Barron, Gerald McCoy, Lavonte David, Dashon Goldson and Darrelle Revis, said defensive coordinator would promptly soil his pants and then scream "YES PLEASE I WANT TO SIGN RIGHT HERE."

In other words: Darrelle Revis could very well be the centerpiece of a defense next year. The fact that he isn't right now doesn't mean that trading him is smart.

Reason the number four: gutting a talented team is a terrible idea

The Buccaneers may be 0-7, but they are a tremendously talented team. They lack a quarterback and a good edge rusher, not to mention a quality coaching staff, but they have quality players at pretty much every position and a bunch of Pro Bowlers and All-Pros across the roster. They are set up to win now.

This is not going to be a rebuilding job. This is going to be a plug-in-a-coach-and-quarterback-and-win-now-job, not dissimilar to last year's Kansas City Chiefs or the San Francisco 49ers and Denver Broncos from a few years ago. Why would you want to take talent out of this team for what would likely be a mid-round draft pick, given Revis' contract?

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