Former longtime GM Bill Polian believes the key to a potential Darrelle Revis trade is his health. He applies the same logic to contract negotiations.

"Keep in mind that all general managers deal with facts and not sound bites or noise," Polian, an ESPN analyst, said Tuesday on a media conference call. "The fact is, he's an injured player who has not proven yet that he is what he was before he got hurt.

"How can you negotiate when you don't know what the player is likely to be? You can surmise, but you don't know until he gets on the field," Polian continued. "To me, that's a very important issue. I presume that if they have an intention to keep him, at some point they'll enter into the negotiations. But the timing of that depends entirely on what they find out vis-a-vis the medical."

On Monday, GM John Idzik said Revis is ahead of schedule in his recovery from major knee surgery. That also could be a message to a team that might be interested in trading for Revis, who stirred the pot by indicating in an interview he'd be intrigued by the prospect of playing for the 49ers.

The Jets have yet to open negotiations with Revis, who has one year left on his current deal. There's still time to sit down and hammer out an extension before the draft, but as I predicted last week, there's no chance of that happening. They will either trade him before the draft or let it play out to the summer.

"I can't predict what's going to happen," Polian said, "but I can tell you what's going to drive the decision -- and that's the medical."