Trading Up For and Drafting Darrelle Revis

As Darrelle Revis is inducted in his rightful place this weekend, the Pro Football Hall of Fame, it created a tremendous sense of pride for me personally. The pride is not just for drafting an all-time great player, arguably the greatest corner of all time (sorry Deion Sanders), but more fundamentally the process that led to the decision to trade up and select him in the 1st round in the 2007 NFL Draft.

The first part of the process began with the proper self-evaluation of our 2006 team, which exceeded expectations and went to the playoffs in year one of Eric Mangini’s tenure as our head coach. Following the 2006 season, Darrelle declared for the draft after his junior season at the University of Pittsburgh.?That season, in the Big East, there weren’t a lot of good receivers so we had a lot of work to do on Darrelle in a short amount of time. There were two moments in his evaluation that were critical to us.?First, at his Pro Day, he exceeded our expectations and Terry Bradway, who covered the Pro Day for us in person, quickly notified me that based on his performance there was no way he would be available when we were picking with the 25th pick.

Equally important to his on-field ability was to get to know Darrelle as a person.?He came in to the Jets facility for a pre-draft meeting and we were blown away by his professionalism and his approach to the game. It was also very clear to us that he had a very close relationship with his mother and uncle, and that he came from a loving and disciplined background that would likely portend significant on-field success. Based on his athletic ability and off-the-field intangibles, we identified Darrelle as the best corner in the draft that year and knew we would have to trade up from the 25th pick to select him.?We had identified two other corners that were worthy of a first round read, Aaron Ross, of the University of Texas and Leon Hall, from the University of Michigan.?

The night before the draft I reached an agreement in principle to trade up from the 25th pick for the 14th pick with the Carolina Panthers. Their general manager at the time, Marty Hurney, was someone who I knew very well and trusted. We had the framework of a trade that would’ve sent our first, second and fifth round picks to Carolina for their first and sixth round picks. Essentially, we were able to move up 11 spots in the first round for our 2nd round pick and flipping a 5th round pick and a 6th round pick.?This trade was contingent upon “our player” being there on the clock when Carolina would have selected.?You need to have tremendous confidence and trust in your trade partner, that the trade parameters you agreed upon the day before would still be the same at that critical moment in the Draft.?Marty, as usual was a man of his word, and we were able to execute the trade quickly and seamlessly.

Darrelle was the best player on the field from the moment he walked on it, starting from the first rookie minicamp. One of the true privileges of my career over 20 years with NFL teams was to watch Darrelle compete not only in games but also in practices. He didn’t want to get beat in any rep, in any drill, at any time. He set a bar not only for the players, but for everyone in the organization. Only your best, each and every day, would be the acceptable standard of performance. It was an honor and privilege to be able to work with him and watch him compete each and every week for many years. I‘m equally proud of Eric Mangini, Joey Clinkscales, JoJo Wooden, and Terry Bradway, who collectively evaluated and constructed a winning strategy to trade for and draft an all-time great.?

Congratulations Darrelle.