MagicMarker

I have to believe he does? Lots of money for everybody to spend and not a very deep free agent class. It's possible somebody offers us a #1 for him, too. Gotta happen. After a 10 interception year, you can't let him go for nothing.

Plus, no other FA is really a possible candidate for the tag. Graham? I like him as a blocker, but he's just too big of an injury risk to give him big dollars long term.

Anybody disagree with that?

Pujo

A franchise tag is just for one year, who said anything about long term?

cblesz

What is the dollar amount for the tag going to be? I know it's the average of the top 5 corners...anyone got a dollar figure? They could franchise him, see how he performs out of the gate next year, then sign him long term...

Jimke

It might be a good idea to franchise him. He is not the second

coming of Champ Bailey but he is the best cornerback on the Pats

team. Without him, we are left with Ellis Hobbs and Chad Scott as our

starting cornerbacks. 2007 free agency has very few good cornerbacks.

Eric Mangini probably has his eyes on Asante.

shirtsleeve

If he wants to test the market for all that cash out there, then count on it. The team will tag him, offer him a fair for the team offer, then let him walk for the compensation.

SeauOUCH

I'm 99% sure the Pats will franchise him, then either trade him or let him play 1 year under the franchise tag. I believe the franchise price for a corner would be in the 6 mil per year range.

This off season is the worst possible time for the pats to spend on free agents, the cap jumped a HUGE amount this year. Let the Washington's of the world give insane offers to marginal players this year. I'm hoping everyone but the Pats goes nuts this off season & gets in cap trouble then we could clean up next year when the cap only goes up a small amount.

Also there is no way in hell I'd use the franchise tag on Graham. I really dont see how he is deserving of a huge contract anyway, he's a good blocker but very injury prone & has some of the worst hands on a TE I've ever seen.

I'm hoping the Pats franchise Asante, sign Graham to a decent contract ( let him go if another team throws crazy $ at him ) re-sign Seau, sign London Fletcher & then use the draft to get some studs at CB, Safety, LB that we can groom for the future.

DaBruinz

I wonder how many more "Are they going to Franchise Asante Samuel?" threads we are going to have from now until the franchise announcements are made.

1) I believe that the 10 interceptions he had is quite mis-leading. Of the 10, I can think of 4 or 5 that were the direct result of the PASS RUSH forcing the QB to put up a DUCK and Samuel being in the right place instead of Samuel having to OUT-MUSCLE a receiver for the ball.

2) Yes, Asante had a career year for Passes defensed and tackles. But, his tackling ability is loudy at best. There have been numerous comments about how Asante goes for the big hit and either misses or bounces off the offensive player as Asante did with Maurice Jones-Drew.

If Asante is willing to take a 5 year deal worth 32 million and that includes an 9 million signing bonus, the Pats should go for it. But, anything more than that and they are really over-paying Samuel, imho.

DaBruinz

The franchise number THIS YEAR was 7.225 million for Cornerbacks according to our resident cap expert, Miguel. I will take his word over anyone else save the NFLPA website itself. (of course, that is where Miguel gets a majority of his info).

So, if the number was 7.225 million this year, what makes you think that the franchise number will only be 6 million next season?

DaBruinz

The cap this past season jumped 17 million. In contrast, the Cap is going to go up only 7 million in 2007. Not nearly the large jump it was previously.

However, the Patriots have 30 million in which to spend money on the draft (about 5.5 million) free agents, and re-signing their own players.

BTW, Graham has very good hands. Your comments are very much misplaced.

DarrylS

I am not convinced on Samuel, has some great ballhawking skills, but has gotten beaten a few times as well. Tom Curran a while ago felt he was a nickel back, not sure if he is in that category either. It also has been said that to get all of the INT's have to be thrown at a lot.

Not sure I would want to pay him the same number as the top 5 DB's in the NFL... that would be pretty big cash, the economics of this is something that might not sit well with this team.

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