Report (Unconfirmed) - Patriots sign Brandon Browner

Mark12 said:

A little bit more money than I expected, but our secondary is now one of the best in the league.

How much cap can we free up be releasing Arrington?

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Actually we lose cap space if we release Arrington this year. The soonest we can release him and gain cap money is next year and we'd only save 1.4m.


Finally the Browner saga is settled!! Welcome to New England, Brandon Browner! We added the best CB in the league, and one of the tallest most physical CBs in the league. I think we are set to handle all kinds of receivers and tight ends now. I could see Browner as our #2 and/or as a CB/Safety hybrid with his job being to help nullify tall receivers or tight ends.

Having missed out on Woodyard, signing Browner is huge for us!
3/17 does sound like significant money, but I'm sure the construction of the contract attempts to save us as much cap money as possible in the short term.

...Browner's not signing here..he's in Washington..we haven't signed anybody!!! Patriots are cheap!@!He would've fit perfectly!...wha???...huh?...oh, he signed with the Pats?...he's getting TOO MUCH!! It's real bad!!! He's suspended eight games!! What are the Pats doing??? They must be stupid!! This sucks...we HAVEN'T REALLY SIGNED ANYBODY YET!!!

zipster9 said:

Prior to the POT suspension, it was PEDs.


Browner was suspended for four games in 2012 for violating the NFL's performance enhancing drug policy for using a prescription drug.

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But that is not the reason he is suspended now. This suspension is all about substance abuse and missed tests while he was not in the NFL.

PATS16N0 said:

I'm gonna' give Hitman Harris another 15 minutes to go full ****** before I bring up JI to check it out.

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I honestly feel kinda sorry for the guy. Most of the posters over there are pretty much fine - they hate the Pats, I hate the Jets, but if I had been born a few hundred miles to the south or they'd been born a few hundred miles north, etc. etc.

But that guy seriously has mental issues.

BradyFTW! said:

3-4/year would have been excellent, but it would have been a huge bargain. If they're moving him to SS, they paid market rate for an upper-tier SS. Considering that most strong safeties are bad in coverage but make up for it with physicality, Browner should be worth a major premium, if anything. He hits as hard as anyone and covers well enough to make pro bowls as a CB. That's an extremely rare skillset, and the Pats didn't have to pay a premium for it.

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Oh, the only reason I figured that much was the risk involved in signing him (4 game suspension, 1 strike away from Full year).

I think the contract he got matches his talent, and is what he earned with his play.

The contract I thought he would have received was what I felt he earned by making some silly off - field decisions.


Either way, I'm really happy with the signing.

Our secondary is the best it's been in years. But to play Devils Advocate, our run defense went from 9th in 2012 to 30th in 2013. A LOT of that had to do with Wilfork, Kelly and Mayo being out. Will the return of Kelly and Mayo bring us back to the top 10 again, or was Wilfork that big of a difference maker. Obviously BB's focus has been on defense, 4 of the 6 FAs who visited were defenders.

BUT, the run D has to be fixed, the Oline gave up more sacks than any year since Brady's rookie season, AND TE and WR are a big weakness as well. We don't have enough $ to fix the weaknesses after the Browner signing. I really don't think he's worth 5.5 mill a year. In fact, I read somewhere that the Seahawks were gonna bench him in favor of the guy who replaced him. And that was BEFORE he got hurt and suspended. So, LOVE the deal, hate the terms. Is it possible the "trip to Washington" was used to pressure the Pats to overpay ? Hopefully there is some black magic like they did with Revis' contract (12 mill but only 7 mill against the cap this year). That's just my 2 cents. Maybe I'm overreacting. Love our secondary now. But will they be doing a lot of tackling the running backs instead of receivers. Will we have a pass rush to help them be even better ?

Let's face it, Seattle has the Legion of Boom, but Manning lost the game because they brought a ton of pressure at him.

So Is This Official Or What?! lol

New England Patriots, Brandon Browner reach agreement on deal - ESPN Boston

nekromantique said:

Oh, the only reason I figured that much was the risk involved in signing him (4 game suspension, 1 syringe away from Full year).

I think the contract he got matches his talent, and is what he earned with his play.

The contract I thought he would have received was what I felt he earned by making some silly off - field decisions.

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Right on, I think we agree there. I figured they'd likely get him at a moderate discount (say $5M AAV) based on the suspension and ongoing risk of a yearlong ban. But I guess you could look at paying SS market rate for a SS who can cover like a CB as a discount in its own way.

one more violation and they'll suspend him for a year...

BradyFTW! said:

I honestly feel kinda sorry for the guy. Most of the posters over there are pretty much fine - they hate the Pats, I hate the Jets, but if I had been born a few hundred miles to the south or they'd been born a few hundred miles north, etc. etc.

But that guy seriously has mental issues.

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"Hahahahaha!! The Patriots now have the best secondary in football! Just more proof the pasts* are desperate!!"

Expecting something like that^
Popcorn done in 2 minutes

With this signing how much cap do we have left

PATS16N0 said:

I'm gonna' give Hitman Harris another 15 minutes to go full ****** before I bring up JI to check it out.

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I want to smash that kid's face in.

Marqui said:

A lot more money than I was expecting but oh well. Now we just need one of Allen/Peppers/Philips.

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It's not a bank breaking deal and frankly, you can't buy bargain basement players and get Pro Bowl performance from them all the time.

The Patriots are making significant investments this season. They're well placed to understand how much the cap is going to increase in the coming years and appear to be allocating salaries accordingly.

BradyFTW! said:

3-4/year would have been excellent, but it would have been a huge bargain. If they're moving him to SS, they paid market rate for an upper-tier SS. Considering that most strong safeties are bad in coverage but make up for it with physicality, Browner should be worth a major premium, if anything. He hits as hard as anyone and covers well enough to make pro bowls as a CB. That's an extremely rare skillset, and the Pats didn't have to pay a premium for it.

If he's playing CB, then that's a bit below market rate for a guy with his qualifications.

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Agreed. If he'd hit FA as a SS and had any tape, he would've easily priced himself out of NE.

With his skillset, his ceiling is top 5 @ the position.

Happy with this signing but definitely a little more than I thought. I thought 3 years @ 14 mill would've been more accurate but whatever.

I think, as always, Bill will be open minded with Browner. His days of him being a full on starter at CB are unlikely IMO. We've got Revis now...Arrington, Ryan and Dennard. Revis is a stud and the other 3 are all very solid #2-3 CBs, at minimum.

Browner, I would hope, will play some safety. I would love if they used him in a role to cover Tight Ends. At his size that shouldn't be an issue.

Just have to shore up the D-Line and coverage LB and this defense is going to be looking good.

515 guests viewing this thread.....hey jets fans!...hows the FA treating you!?

Need to rethink my Kyle Fuller pick in the mock draft thread. With the Pats being in a bit of a reduced cap space position, lower cap space situation combined with what I perceive to be a general sentiment around the league that the draft class is deep (meaning that more teams than usual may be open to trading down), I wonder if this move with the secondary could be a prelude to BB trading up for once to grab someone. I was intrigued, for example, to read that they met with Mike Evans. I'm not saying he would be my guy if they were able to get into say the 11 - 17 range, but especially if Edelman is gone, this team could really use a move the chains threat on offense like him or Ebron, or obviously a DL like Donald to create pressure up front on defense.

We just jumped to a top 3 secondary in the league and I am loving it.

BradyFTW! said:

The suspension is for 4 games, not 8 (thankfully).

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Right. But I believe he has to forfeit the next 4 game checks after that.

crownontherocks said:

With this signing how much cap do we have left

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We don't know his cap hit for this year