The seemingly pending divorce between the New York Jets and cornerback Darrelle Revis has gotten a little uglier and, perhaps worse for the team, a little more questionable.

Darrelle Revis missed most of the '12 season. (AP)Revis' agents, Neil Schwartz and Jonathan Feinsod, recently asked new Jets general manager John Idzik if the cornerback could be excused from the first two weeks of the team's offseason conditioning program. The two-week period starts April 15 and ends after the NFL draft, by which time Revis had been expected to be traded.

However, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, long regarded as the team most likely to trade for Revis, are apparently growing impatient with the process, three sources said.

Revis wanted to avoid the awkward possibility of being hounded by the New York media and having to show up to work for a team that doesn't appear to want him long-term.

However, the star cornerback needs to be at the team's offseason program in order to collect $3 million in scheduled bonuses. That's half of the $6

If the Cincinnati Bengals and San Francisco 49ers had known how favorable the contract rules were going to be at the time of the 2011 NFL draft, Andy Dalton and Colin Kaepernick might have been first-round picks.

Not second-rounders.

Matt Barkley works out during USC's pro day. (AP)As a result, there's a chance that if quarterbacks such as Geno Smith or Matt Barkley slide to the end of the first round, some team with a high second-round pick may trade up for them. A couple of other quarterbacks, such as Ryan Nassib or Mike Glennon, could also end up being late-first rounders rather than second-round picks where most draft analysts expect them to be taken.

"If you're going to take high-value positions, like cornerback, defensive end and especially quarterback, this system is set up to take those players at the end of the first round," a contract negotiator from an NFC team said.

That may seem counterintuitive to the seemingly logical assumption that the lower you draft a great player, the better value he is,

The NFL draft hasn't been viewed as this mediocre for quarterbacks since 2000.

Then again, "mediocre" is a loose term. While the 2000 draft didn't feature a quarterback drafted until No. 18 overall (Chad Pennington by the New York Jets) and is the last time that a passer didn't go in the first half of the first round, it's the same draft that produced Tom Brady in the sixth round.

That fact should demonstrate just how inexact the science of selecting a can passer be. With that in mind, for all the knocks on guys like Geno Smith of West Virginia, Matt Barkley of USC and many of the other young passers available, who knows what this draft is going to look like in five or 10 years?

Where will Geno Smith land in the draft? (AP) Today, however, it looks questionable.

On Thursday, first-year Arizona Cardinals coach Bruce Arians put it in the most telling terms.

"We were going to take the best player available at that position, at No. 7, whether it be a tackle, pass rusher, corner, or quarterback," Arians said on

NFL union leader DeMaurice Smith is asking NFL player agents to report any hint of suspected collusion among teams to keep salaries down during free agency, according to a memo from the NFLPA's executive director.DeMaurice Smith looks on before Super Bowl XLVII. (USA Today)

Numerous agents have privately complained about the slow pace of signings for veteran free agent players and the associated low salaries for those players. Only one player, Miami wide receiver Mike Wallace, has received a contract in excess of $10 million per year as a free agent. 

Furthermore, many free agent players have signed one-year deals in hopes of hitting free agency again next season because the market has been so poor. That has led agents to suggest that collusion has occurred among teams.

NFL spokesman Greg Aiello dismissed the notion.

"Player signings in 2013 have been characterized by robust spending and intense competition. Anyone seeing collusion in this market is seeing ghosts," Aiello said via email.

[Also: San Francisco 49ers offensive

Each offseason, Atlanta Falcons coach Mike Smith has his players read a book of inspiration or listen to a motivational speaker.

This offseason, Smith and the Falcons have gone a step further and brought in the real deal with Brian Banks, who signed with the team Wednesday. You can excuse Banks if his signature on the contract looked even larger than John Hancock's famous autograph.

This moment of personal accomplishment and freedom was 10 years in the making.

Banks is a living, breathing combination of the best of Stephen Covey, Joel Osteen and Jon Gordon. Ray Lewis has nothing on Banks when it comes to overcoming adversity. Smith has had his players listen to Gordon and even read some of his books, such as "The Energy Bus", "Soup" and "The Shark and The Goldfish".

Brian Banks goes through a drill during a workout with the Seahawks last year. (AP)Spend 30 minutes listening to Banks and you get the message better than Gordon could ever write or speak. Banks is a man who has gone from losing 10 years of his life to having a shot at a dream after

For the third time this offseason, a quarterback-needy team drafting in the top 10 is on the verge of trading for at least a semi-prominent passer.

Thus, in the aftermath of Alex Smith going to the Kansas City Chiefs, Matt Flynn going to the Oakland Raiders and Carson Palmer likely getting traded to the Arizona Cardinals, according to Yahoo! Sports' Michael Silver, there is a legitimate question about what those moves mean for prospect Geno Smith.

"My read is that it's not good," said a personnel man with one of teams drafting in the top 10. "It's like with us, we like him, but we only like him so much."

So even though Smith spent Monday visiting with Kansas City, which has the No. 1 overall pick, it appears that there's a good chance he could slide past the top 10 even though the Jacksonville Jaguars at No. 2, Cleveland Browns (No. 6), Buffalo Bills (No. 8) and New York Jets (No. 9) all appear to need quarterbacks. If Smith falls out of the top 10, he could slide for a long

Sesame Street is not normally a place you would go for high-level football analysis, but occasionally even The Count can help decipher good cap management from bad.

With that in mind, here's a list of NFL quarterbacks who have received contract extensions that included at least $48 million paid over the first three years (as noted by NFL.com's Albert Breer shortly after Romo's six-year, $108 million deal was announced). The three-year total is important because most contracts are relatively easy for a team to get out of after that time:

• Tom Brady: $48.5 million in 2010
• Eli Manning: $49 million in 2009
• Peyton Manning: $58 million in 2012
• Drew Brees: $61 million in 2012
• Joe Flacco: $62 million in 2013
• Tony Romo: $57 million in 2013

To borrow a line from the folks at the children's TV show, one of these things is not like the other. One of these things just doesn't belong.

Yeah, that's Romo, who unlike the other five guys on that list has yet to win a Super Bowl

As quarterback quandaries play out around the NFL, the Kansas City Chiefs hope that one leads to enough desperation for a team to trade up for their No. 1 overall pick.

Could one such bidder be the Oakland Raiders, owners of the No. 3 pick, where quarterback Carson Palmer appears willing to force himself out of the franchise?

"I certainly hope so," one Chiefs source said Thursday when asked about Palmer and whether his uncertain future could force the Raiders to deal.

Geno Smith drops back to pass during West Virginia's pro day on March 14. (AP)The problem for the Chiefs, who are under the stewardship of new coach Andy Reid and first-year general manager John Dorsey, is that they likely require the perceived need for a quarterback to cause enough panic that some team will feel obliged to trade up for West Virginia's Geno Smith. Smith is considered the top quarterback in a draft that pales in comparison to the crop from a year ago.

That said, the overwhelming trend in the NFL right now is for a quarterback to go No. 1 overall. That has