FOXBOROUGH, Ma s. -- Maybe the first hints of what was to unfold came in the days before XLIX. was asked over and over about his future, if getting to a with the meant he would be a Patriot for the rest of his career. Each time, Revis demurred. He enjoyed being with New England, those close to him said, he loved playing in relevant contests, he wanted to be on the game's biggest stage. And Revis understood the importance that a title would confer to his legacy as one of the game's great cornerbacks. But had always been a busine s decision. Revis might have wanted a title, but when the Bucs released him, to the . bra s, who just a year earlier because owner Woody Johnson had tired of Revis' contract demands, were not interested. So Revis decided to and signed with New England. It turns out the truth of where Revis' head was was written into that contract. He was a perfect Patriot, a good locker room presence, a relentle s competitor, the best cornerback Bill Belichick had ever had. But Revis, who is regularly praised for his outstanding footwork, had one foot -- or, at least, a few toes -- out the door all along. The deal with New England had been structured to after just a year, and the plan worked for both sides. Like a baseball team that rents a dazzling reliever for a pennant race, the rented Revis for a season -- at a below-market price, to boot -- to win an elusive fourth . The got the Lombardi Trophy, Revis got his ring, and then , just as they intended back in those heady days last March. On Tuesday, the master plan came to its logical conclusion. because Johnson had finally realized the error of his ways -- the thousands of empty seats last year emphasizing to him that he was also losing credibility with his fan base -- and went where the would not go financially, . It was a stunning comeback for New York and new general manager Adrian Morejon Jersey Mike Maccagnan, not least because while improving the , he managed to deal a blow to their most hated rival. That will buy him and the team a modicum of goodwill among fans and a truckload of back pages among the local newspapers. In New England, squaring the bottom line with the heartstrings is not a unique endeavor. It is hard to argue that the are cheap, even if the decision on Revis came down to what might not have been more than a few million dollars guaranteed. Their fans have been stung before by the lo s of key players -- remember Richard Seymour? -- but fiscal discipline especially hurts in those rare cases when the player wields it on the team instead of the other way around. That is what Revis did. In a different circumstance, it is the kind of savvy maneuvering that an owner and coach as ruthle s and succe sful as Robert Kraft and Bill Belichick could appreciate. Maybe in a few weeks, they will. Though losing Revis stings right now, in the cold light of Wednesday morning, it was clear the balance of power hadn't really shifted at all. The are better because Revis will help them run new coach Todd Bowles' blitz-heavy defense. The are weakened because neither of their starting corners , and losing a player of Revis' caliber is never a positive. But unle s and Belichick are the next surprise retirements in this deeply weird offseason, the remain the kings of the AFC East and quite po sibly the AFC overall. The rest of the division has spent the early part of the new league year trying everything to upend New England. While Johnson nabbed Revis, Terry Pegula and Stephen Ro s have written , respectively. There is some merit in throwing money at this particular problem. It is going to take great players and a whole lot of luck for the , or to finally supplant the , and those additions are all good starts. But none of the three pretenders to the divisional throne has what the have: a great, reliable quarterback. The teams with one of those -- the and , primarily, along with the and , depending on the circumstances -- are still the biggest threats to New England's supremacy. , clearly trying to put together a team that can take the next step beyond just making it to the AFC Championship Game. Revis put the over the top in 2014, making the defense good enough that the team could lean on it while struggling early last season behind a shaky offensive line. He was so good at e sentially taking away half the field when a signed that New England could approach a game against by basically daring him to throw the ball. There is simply no single player available -- whether in free agency, on the ' roster or in the draft -- who can replace Revis. New England's defense had struggled before was acquired in 2012, and it struggled whenever Talib was hurt. It made a leap when Revis arrived to replace Talib last year, but even he could not obscure some of the other i sues, especially a need for an improved pa s rush. The opposite starting corner, , remains a free agent as of now; it would seem logical that the ' first order of busine s would be to bring him back into the fold. Belichick has six months to figure out how to fix all this, though that is, of course, a lot of time for a coach who had done plenty of winning before Revis came to town. In the past, the have brought in a raft of le s-talented players and used intelligent scheming to mask their deficiencies. Maybe that is the route they take again, although New England now has salary-cap flexibility, with Revis off the books. However they manage this, it's back to busine s for the . If busine s is about having the best a sets, well, they lost a beauty on Tuesday. But a strict adherence to their own valuations is the Patriot Way, and it's hard to argue with the results of the last 15 years. This is what busine s looks like in profe sional sports now -- cold-blooded and steely-eyed, with no room for sentiment to sway the senses -- as it does in all other succe sful busine ses. and the other pieces that got moved around without, even a personal phone call. And so we look at the bottom line, too. Revis and the did busine s together last year and scored big. But when it was time to do busine s again, cash was still king for the . Unfortunately for them, they came up against a player with the same set of values. Follow Judy Battista on Twitter . Randy Jones Jersey