Darrelle Revis trade now unlikely to happen

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers seem to be unable to find a trade partner for Darrelle Revis, as his contract and unwillingness to take a pay cut appear to be a problem.

A trade for Darrelle Revis by the #Bucs is now considered unlikely. He won’t cut his pay to join the #Browns. Others willing to wait.

— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) March 11, 2014

So you mean he wouldn't take a pay cut to stick with the Bucs, and now won't take one to go join the Browns? I am beyond shocked.

In all seriousness: Darrelle Revis does not do pay cuts. He's a businessman first, and he cares about his money. The best way to get money in this business is to hit the open market, and that's exactly what he'll do now. Unless the Bucs change their mind, but they're unlikely to do that given the pace at which they've been spending cash. That is: like crazy.

Ironically, this opens the door for a move for Darrelle Revis to join the Jets. That would make the Bucs look pretty foolish, and would really cement this trade as one of the worst in sports history -- even if it was quite defensible when it did happen last season. Unfortunately, two consecutive coaches are refusing to make him the focal point of their defense, which means he simply isn't worth his $16 million salary under those coaches.

Still, simply releasing Revis seems like a drastic move, especially given the rising salary cap in future years and the ability to push cap space into those years. But it looks like that's what the Bucs are hell-bent on doing.