Bowles Knows What He Has
If Todd Bowles played Darrelle Revis like Rex Ryan did during the prime years, yes, we’d have a problem.
The Revis Island days are simply over. Rex used to literally devise gameplans around Revis. He’s stick his best defensive player with the opposing team’s best weapon and play the rest of the game 10 against 10. Taking it a step further, the free safety didn’t even have to worry about shading towards Revis’s side.
It was an unfair advantage for Rex.
Bowles, in 2016, simply can not and will not play it that way.
At times he was a little too reliant on Revis’s talents in 2015. It works with the average speedy wide-outs, but when Sammy Watkins or DeAndre Hopkins was the challenge, Revis joined burned city:
This is a play almost any corner would have trouble with. Where Revis does such a great job in defending the deep ball with his decreased speed is how he uses the sideline to his advantage.
Here, on a 2nd-and-3 play fake, it’s almost impossible to expect Revis to take Hopkins one-on-one down the middle of the field.
Could the Revis of 2009 have gotten this done? Sure. But this isn’t the same Revis. It’s a Revis who still plays at an elite level when though of as a part of one of 11, not a gamplean onto himself.
Bowles, the former NFL defensive back, knows this, and he won’t put Revis in vulnerable positions often.
