Revis is a cornerback. Unless the Jets are starting a weak player in his place there's really not going to be a huge difference in the defense on a week in and week out basis. If they were starting a bad cornerback, then yes, there's going to be a real hit to the defense in his absence. I like Joyner a lot because I think he just looks at the numbers and goes from there, which is a great way to make accurate analyses of things that produce lots of numbers. I think his Brady-Cassell analogy is a bit off though. The Pats were 5 games worse in 2008 than 2007, and it's pretty clear that not having Tom Brady for the season was a pretty big part of that. His basic point that Tom Brady was not needed for the Patriots to be playoff-level good is also true however. Last season the Patriots only won 10 games but it's also clear that their defense took a massive hit with the retirements of Rodney Harrison and Teddy Bruschi and the trades of Richard Seymour and Mike Vrabel. They might well have gone 7-9 without Brady.
Comparing a undefeated season to anything after would be off. 16-0 is pretty damn hard to match. Brady's first year back they were 10-6, I realize a much different team but essentially Cassell did better under BB then Brady did than. The main point of the analogy to me is that coaches at least the ones that actually impact the game are rare and undervalued. It gets brought up a lot but when Jenkins went down last year many thought 09 was over on the spot. Pitoitua and Pouha stepped up and now Pouha excels at his position because he was lucky enough to be playing for Rex. As great as the Steelers D has been over the years when Polamalu is out they are a much different team, and that's coaching. Their defense was nothing close to what it was with Polamalu, with Rex I don't see that happening and as you said especially with a QB.
The Pats went 3-5 in games won by 7 or less last year. That's so much below the average season for them since 2001, which is like 5-2, that you have to think the defense folded a lot. Then you actually look at those games and you see score after score late in the game and you realize that giving up all that veteran leadership left them with no heart in the defense. They almost went 2-6 in that type of game last year. Brady lead 2 TD drives in the fourth quarter in the opener against Buffalo to offset the long drive that the Bills had after the Pats had closed within 4.
