Darrelle Revis is returning to the place where his career began.
Revis signed with the New York Jets on Thursday. As expected, his new deal will make him the highest-paid cornerback in NFL history. Manish Mehta of the NY Daily News reports that the All-Pro signed a five-year, $70 million contract that includes a whopping $39 million guaranteed.
The first two years of the deal are fully guaranteed. Revis will get $16 million guaranteed in 2015 and $17 million in 2016. The New England Patriots obviously were not willing to offer that much money up front, which helps explain why they seemed to understand that Revis would be signing with the Jets as the start of the new league year approached.
In addition to losing Revis, the Patriots also declined Brandon Browner’s $5.5 million option on Tuesday. There’s still a chance that Browner could return, but New England obviously has a ton of work to do in its secondary. Bill Belichick and company just lost arguably the best defensive player in the game and the biggest difference-maker for their 2014 Super Bowl champion team.
