Darrelle Revis is reportedly on the Jets' trade block, and with former Seahawks' VP of Football Administration John Idzik now the man in charge of hearing any offers in New York, it's pretty obvious that Seattle's name would come up as an interested party. According to Mike Freeman of CBSSports.com, the Seahawks are one of several teams that are 'highly interested' in Revis' services, though at this point in time it's way to early to early to read too much into that reported interest other than Seattle likes to stir the pot.
This type of thing is the Seahawks' modus operandi in the 'leave no stone unturned' style of roster management. They've had their cards out there in the Peyton Manning sweepstakes last year, and as friend of the blog Glen Peer points out, were also rumored to have interest in Mario Williams, Nnamdi Asomugha the year prior, Vincent Jackson, Brandon Marshall, and the list goes on with high-profile and expensive free agents.
Seattle isn't a front office to sit back and let things play out - they like to ante up for every hand and see if anything goes their way. Incessant badgering of the Bills' front office eventually led Buffalo to cave and trade Marshawn Lynch to the Seahawks, for instance, and I think we were all a little surprised when, even after reports had Zach Miller re-signing in Oakland, that the highly sought after free agent took a trip up to Seattle to check things out. I remember that bright and sunny day vividly because I was at the VMAC watching training camp, and once Miller got to Renton, the Seahawks didn't allow him to leave without a contract.
Now, there's a wide range of potential motivations behind this supposed interest - Seattle could be looking to get a friendly deal from Idzik and/or Idzik might have a couple players in mind from Seattle's roster that would help to start in the rebuilding process for New York. Trades are always risky and become much riskier when you don't have an itimate knowledge of a players' abilities and attitude, confidence etc. Seattle is an obvious candidate for a trade with the Jets because they're in a different conference, don't play the Jets next season, and Idzik knows the Hawks' roster exceedingly well and this mitigates a ton of risk.
Revis is nearing the end of his four-year, $46M contract - he has two voidable years left following 2013, and a no-franchise tag clause - and with NY already $19 million over the salary cap, keeping Revis around long-term seems very unlikely. Odds are they are wanting to get some picks and/or young players for him while they still can.
Now, what's the potential cost? Per Freeman, "several team sources are claiming the Jets want a first- and second-round pick for Revis," which is extremely high and extremely unlikely for Seattle to give up. Replace one of those picks with a player or two though, and things become more realistic. I am not advocating that Seattle trade their first round pick, but to play devil's advocate for a minute, and let's assume Seattle feels good about their salary cap situation and feel they could sign him to a longer-term deal (or else why would they even have interest?):
Revis is the best cornerback in the game - you almost literally can't throw the ball to his side of the field -, is still only 27 (remember, Seattle drafted 25 year old Bruce Irvin last year with their first-round pick), and when paired with Richard Sherman, would make it damn near impossible for quarterbacks to pass outside the numbers. This would, in theory, funnel everything inside, to Earl Thomas' dominion, which, frankly, would be awesome. Past that, Seattle could further rely on their 8-man fronts even more extensively and aggressively, and may allow them to generate better pressure using more exotic blitz looks, knowing the deep three zones are covered. You really can't do that with Browner, as much as I love the dude.
Of course, people scoff at the price, and I get that. I do. I'm not excited about the thought of trying to negotiate a new mega-deal with a veteran CB coming off of a major knee injury. But I'm also vaguely intrigued because of the absurdly awesome schematic things a Revis-Sherman-Thomas secondary would allow - so it's something I'll watch with an open mind. I do know this - San Francisco has a couple of really good corners, but they've also got 14 picks and Alex Smith, and if Revis goes to the Niners I'm going to cry.
Of course, all this may be much ado about nothing and Seattle may have no real interest; they may just be looking to help their old buddy Idzik out in driving up the price and keeping demand high. The Hawks may just want to get themselves involved in negotiations to see what other teams are offering, or to get a better sense of how his rehab is coming, or any number of reasons - as Scott Enyeart put it - 'best way to know what other teams are doing is to involve yourself'. Perhaps Seattle is wanting to wait things out until Revis becomes a free agent next year, and are just doing their due diligence now.
Regardless, John Schneider is aggressive and thorough when it comes to these types of things so it's absolutely not surprising to hear the Seahawks' name come up early in this process.