With Darrelle Revis inked to a $16 million-per-year, pay-as-you-play contract with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the NFL's premier cornerback is gambling that his talents won't melt away on the heels of major knee surgery.
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Around the League's Gregg Rosenthal asked if this unusual, non-front-loaded, contract structure might ultimately become a trend in NFL circles. It might in Tampa Bay, where general manager Mark Dominik believes the annual money on the table will prevent Revis from staging a future holdout.
"I think our unique structure, with the way we do deals in Tampa, that helps us with this situation," Dominik told WDAE-AM in Tampa on Monday, via SportsRadioInterviews. "... When you look at Darrelle Revis in general, it's a series of one-year contracts at $16 million a year, and so every year he's got $16 million in front of him to play. That's why a holdout isn't a concern at all.
"This is going to play out with -- we got a player that has motivation in front of him. The money is there, I believe, but he bet on himself, which I think is beautiful, and the agents understood that. They wanted to make it happen and that's how this thing came together. You have a player with a lot of confidence and then in year four, like it was with the Jets, his base salary isn't $3 million it's $16 million still. That stops him from holding out."
History tells us that nothing stops Revis from holding out, but the Bucs are in a good position. Revis generated headlines by opting for this non-guaranteed pact, but as players around the NFL can attest, his contract -- in spirit -- isn't so unusual. Very little in the NFL is guaranteed.
Follow Marc Sessler on Twitter @MarcSesslerNFL.
