“We did our work on him. He can still play. He can cover. He doesn’t have that long speed anymore; he’s not going to cover a No. 1 receiver deep. But he can cover in tight spaces and he has great instincts. The film is not as bad as some would have you believe. He’s a perfect fit in that quarters scheme Belichick runs, and they have the kind of safeties who can help him out, too. We’re convinced he’s going back to New England. It just makes too much sense.”
Source: NFL personnel man: We’re convinced Darrelle Revis is going back to New England – CBSSports.com
Interesting. I still don’t really see it but let’s play along and figure out how Revis might fit in if he were to come back.
First, who knows what’s going to happen with Malcolm Butler. The Patriots hold all the cards and the only way they trade him to the Saints is if they get a boatload of draft capital. As I speculated last week, Belichick might just be letting the Saints to the dirty negotiating work, and if they come to a acceptable offer for Butler who’s to say the Pats won’t just take their cap space and take the chance to match the deal and lock up Butler long term like we all hoped they would do all along?
But for our purposes here let’s just assume Butler gets traded to the Saints. That leaves the Pats with five corners — Stephon Gilmore is the best guy, Eric Rowe came on late last year but was still brought in as the third corner and played outside while starter Logan Ryan shifted inside to the slot.