Jones: Starting To Look Like Belichick Was Right In Letting Revis Go, Sticking With Butler
BOSTON (CBS) -- Much like any move made by the Patriots, Bill Belichick took a lot of heat over the offseason for seemingly choosing to not even try to keep Darrelle Revis in a Patriots uniform. He is one of the best cornerbacks of all time, and he helped the Patriots win a Super Bowl, but Belichick seemed content to let him walk away for greener pastures (literally) with the Jets.
In doing so, the head coach put a tremendous amount of pressure on Malcolm Butler, an undrafted kid out of West Alabama who made a sports history-altering play to win the Super Bowl but nevertheless was a largely untested, young player.
With the 2015 season now halfway over, and with Revis looking like he's slipping a bit and with Butler getting better as the year's gone on, Adam Jones wondered if Belichick actually nailed the decision.
"Week after week, he's given up a player here or there," Jones said of Butler, "but I think he one, bounces back, and two, makes more plays defensively than he allows. He hasn't been perfect, but he's making a lot of plays defensively -- Sunday included. And he made the biggest play in that game, by knocking the ball out of Odell Beckham Jr.'s hands in the end zone for what would have been a touchdown that would have made it awfully difficult on the Patriots to tie and send that thing to overtime and who knows how it would've gone?"
Butler's performance in Week 10 contrasted a bit with Revis' on Thursday night against the Bills.
"It's not like Sammy Watkins lit up Darelle Revis. He didn't. But [Watkins] made the biggest play in the game," Jones said. "Watkins roasted him, turned him inside out, Revis was spinning like a top. It was a huge third-down conversion that sealed the game. So while Watkins didn't have a big play, Revis couldn't make a play when the Jets needed it. And Malcolm Butler did just the opposite on Sunday. And that's before you get into the week before, where Darelle Revis gave up over 100 yards to Allen Robinson. ... The Darelle Revis of last year, the Darelle Revis of the last few years, at least when he hasn't been hurt, a player like Allen Robinson isn't getting the best of him."
Jones also shared a tidbit from SI's Peter King: The Jets have allowed 1,227 yards over the last four games. There was no four-game stretch last year in which the Jets allowed 1,200 passing yards.
"That's not purely about Revis, but on some level that speaks to Revis not quite being what he was, certainly not being the Defensive Player of the Year that he was in the apex of his career with the Jets, and not even what he was a season ago, when I think he was the No. 2 cornerback in all of football. I'm not saying he's a bum, but I am saying that maybe Bill Belichick knew what he was doing when he let Darelle Revis go."
Jones isn't willing to necessarily state it as fact, but he said it's looking like Revis may end up going in the bin with Logan Mankins, Wes Welker and Richard Seymour as players whose departure causes an overreaction from fans and media.
"It's starting to look like Bill Belichick got the Revis/Malcolm Butler decision right," Jones said. "It's starting to look that way."
Do you agree?
Listen to the full discussion between Jones and Keefe below: