Darrelle Revis just suffered through a 4-12 season with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Now the All-Pro cornerback just wants to win.
Revis clearly signed with the Patriots with a Super Bowl in mind. Revis said he had offers from 25 other teams on the open market, and one of those teams had to be offering more than $11.5 million guaranteed for his services.
Obviously Revis still is getting paid a hefty sum, but a slightly smaller contract is worth it if it means experiencing his first winning season since 2010.
“My thing is all about winning,” Revis said. “I want to win. What better organization — the New England Patriots — to be a part of that? If you look at their track record, New England has won year-in and year-out or been to the playoffs, had playoff berths. Right now in my career, I think this is great — to team up with Tom Brady and Coach (Bill) Belichick and the New England Patriots team and help them win games. That’s what I’m here for. I’m here to win games and play hard-nosed football.”
Revis was earning $16 million annually with the Buccaneers before he was released. The team parted ways with Revis because it wasn’t logical to pay a cornerback so much to play in Lovie Smith’s Tampa 2 zone system.
Revis was in New England for joint practices with the Patriots last summer. He still was recovering from a torn ACL, so he didn’t get to go all out, but he got a firsthand look at how the Patriots run practice.
“It was really exciting for me,”Revis said. “I was rehabbing my knee, but at the same time, I got to see how New England really operates, how Coach Belichick runs the organization as a head coach. I was very excited, and you can kind of see, even during training camp when we were up here, those guys are very disciplined in what they do. They’re a veteran team. They’re a playoff-caliber team. They’re a very smart team. I did collect those things when I was up here. I really paid attention to those scenarios and really liked them.”
Revis said his knee is recovered now after he started last season “slow and sluggish.”
“Toward the end (of the season), I probably felt my best as a football player,” Revis said.
Revis joins a revamped Patriots secondary that also added Pro Bowl cornerback Brandon Browner, who also stressed that he joined the Patriots to win.
Photo via Twitter/@Patriots
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