Former New York Jets superstar cornerback, Darrelle Revis, was back in the news on Wednesday.
The future Pro Football Hall of Famer turned 36 years of age and it sparked an abundance of tweets celebrating the NFL legend.
Revis hung up his cleats following the conclusion of the 2017 season as a member of the Kansas City Chiefs. During his 11-year career, the star corner played for four different franchises but is best known for his eight-year run with the green and white.
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Celebrating One of the Best Players in Jets History
When you’re trying to determine how good Revis was you could go to the advanced metrics:
- Coverage grade (93.2)
- Forced incompletions (49)
- Forced incompletion percentage (18.8 percent)
- Completion percentage allowed (38.7 percent)
- Passing yards/attempts allowed (5.0)
- Passer rating allowed (45.5)
In all of these categories from 2009 through 2012, Revis ranked No. 1 in the National Football League, per Pro Football Focus. This list ranked the 83 cornerbacks who qualified with at least 1,000 coverage snaps.
Although the most obvious way to evaluate his greatness is a commonly shared graphic image from his historic 2009 campaign with the Jets:
Happy 36th birthday to the eraser of top wide receivers.
The former All-Pro cornerback was a unique weapon of mass destruction. You could line him up on the opposing team’s top wideout and they were literally erased from the game.
Normally NFL American football is a contest between 11 offensive players and 11 defensive players. Although when the Jets played football from 2007 through 2012, it was 10-on-10 football.
Revis erased every single top wide receiver he faced which included some of the best receivers in NFL history and some of the top stars of the NFL game at that moment in time.
It’s still confusing, now 12 years later, that Revis didn’t win the Defensive Player of the Year award in 2009 despite his incredible achievements.
As time passes, they say your legend should grow, but for whatever reason, it has been the opposite for Revis in the court of public opinion.
Despite some of that noise, make no mistake about it Revis is the best cover corner of all time and he will be a first-ballot Pro Football Hall of Famer when he’s eligible (class of 2023).
True shutdown cornerbacks only come once every couple of decades and Jets fans got to enjoy a transcendent star that will one day be immortalized forever for his efforts in Canton, Ohio.
Boy, Could They Use Him Heading Into 2021?
It feels like just yesterday the Jets had a championship-caliber defense led by a true shutdown No. 1 cornerback. Now? They may not have a No. 2 cornerback on the roster.
A wise man once said, “life moves pretty fast, if you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”
The Jets cornerback group is absolutely barren with unknown names and unproven commodities. This has created a level of anxiety from fans on the outside looking in who fear this group could be torn apart this season.
If you could go back in the annals of Jets history and grab any one player from some of the greatest teams of all-time and drop them on the current squad, you’d be hard-pressed not to pick Revis.
For what it’s worth, head coach Robert Saleh doesn’t appear willing to go outside of the organization to add a veteran body. Instead, he’ll opt for youth and development in 2021.
It’s a bold strategy Cotton, we’ll see how it plays out this season.
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Former Jets Star CB Darrelle Revis Deserves More Respect on His Name