DefenseRules

NE39

Clayton also reports the signing bonus as $300K.

spacecrime

Normally, one would think that this decent signing bonus) meant his chances of sticking were greater, but this year BB seems to be going for two year contracts with a bonus. Perhaps the extra cap room gives him the luxury of using a signing bonus to get a two-year contract. Too many times we signa guy for a year, he does well, and then some other team offers him bigger bucks. SInce BB has cap to burn, this may be a good use of some of it.

ilduce06410

seems like a plausible scenario to me.
clearly the 2-year contract approach patriots have been using is part of somebody's thinking about what happens aafter the 2007 season. perhaps some of us have read the cba closely enough to divine the rationale.
for me all i can think of is that BB does not expect to be here for 2008. from recent nfl/herald/globe articles on this, belichick's contract, set to expire after the 2006 season, was extended. nobody's asying (yet) the length of the extension.
will mcdonough, where are ye?

CrazyDave

Does the amount of $ indicate he may be doing a bit more than playing ST's?
Or am I reading too much into it.? What's the vet min?

BelichickFan

Although you may be right, none of us can know, it's more likely just a win-win where we get a player fairly cheap but on a short enough contract that they can still hope for another, bigger one if they do well. I don't think the length of contracts of Tebucky, Reche Caldwell and Mel Mitchell are significant indicators of Belichick's pending retirement.

BelichickFan

From Miguel's page :

Rookie - $275,000
1 Credited Season - $350,000
2 Credited Seasons - $425,000
3 Credited Seasons - $500,000
4 to 6 Credited Seasons - $585,000 *
7 to 9 Credited Seasons - $710,000 *
10+ Credited Seasons - $810,000 *

*All salaries for players with four or more years of experience AND who sign contracts that qualify for veteran's exemption will only count $425,000 against teams' salary caps.

I think he's in the $710,000 minimum range.

Lamanai

I would have to say "yes", it does appear that he's looking at more than just ST. He's getting more than Mel Mitchell, who is arguably a top ST player at the same position as TJ. On the other hand, a guy like Chatham got even more $$$ and he's really just a STer with some potential to play regular downs in a pinch. Perhaps there are other recent FA signings of top ST players that can be used as a benchmark. But based on these two examples, I would say Mitchell (veteran $, tiny bonus) probably came up on the short end of things.

richpats

I think the 2-year deals are more attractive to potential FA's. When guys sign for one-year the clock's already ticking and they think about where they're going to play next year.

Tunescribe

One thing I've never been able to figure is, how could anyone in their right mind name their kid "Tebucky?"