Let's say McCourty walks. What is the plan?

Sources close to the Pats today indicated they are more likely to use the tag on Gost than McCourty. I heard this on the radio so i have no link to it but will find one shortly if i can.

If that is the case knowing the Pats need to be under the salary cap when FA starts it is not outside the realm of possibility that McCourty is an unrestricted FA come that time.

I still believe he wants to be here and the Pats want him here. I think it will get done. For the sake of argument (and the last time we might be able to argue this) lets say some team comes in with a huge over the top offer and gets him. Where do the Pats go from there?

Harmon.

Personally I look to improve the D somewhere else.

Maybe Terrance Knighton - DT or Jared Odrick - DT/DE while also getting some safety help to stop the bleeding.

Edit: found a link

http://espn.go.com/blog/boston/new-...-likely-candidate-for-tag-than-devin-mccourty

Harmon.

Though, I think that bringing back McCourty would be Plan A. If they think that 9.6 M is too high a number, they might go not tag him and risk that he will give the team a chance to match market value.

varjao said:

Harmon.

Click to expand...

Harmon or Ryan. Remember they supposedly liked Ryan at Safety when they drafted him.

varjao said:

Harmon.

Click to expand...

That'd be my guess. And no, I'm not saying it's a given that Devin is a goner but if he hits FA things become more bleak.

We need a good plan though. We'd need an adequate fill in if there are any out there. Having Chung, Harmon and Tavon as your guys back there would be a concern. You also can't bank on Ryan making a good transition to safety.

If McCourty goes, you can pretty much write in stone that a safety-ish selection will be made by the end of the third round. I'd say better than 50/50 that it happens before pick #65.

micronin127 said:

Harmon.

Though, I think that bringing back McCourty would be Plan A. If they think that 9.6 M is too high a number, they might go not tag him and risk that he will give the team a chance to match market value.

Click to expand...

If the Pats have Revis/BB/MB/Arrington/Dennard at CB, you might see Logan Ryan at FS part deux in TC.

I'm wondering why the Logan Ryan to FS rumors never materialized. Was there nothing to them in the first place? Did they try and he failed? Was he kept at CB out of necessity due to questions about Dennard? Did Chung's career revival make the move unnecessary?

Wouldn't surprise me if Ryan to FS would be one piece of the puzzle of it was one of those last two scenarios. Obviously less likely if it was the first and a lot less likely if it was the second.

Sciz said:

I'm wondering why the Logan Ryan to FS rumors never materialized. Was there nothing to them in the first place? Did they try and he failed? Was he kept at CB out of necessity due to questions about Dennard? Did Chung's career revival make the move unnecessary ?

Click to expand...

Probably just because we had a lot of Safeties. McCourtey, Chung, Harmon, Wilson legitimately played and we had Ebner just in case.

Oswlek said:

If McCourty goes, you can pretty much write in stone that a safety-ish selection will be made by the end of the third round. I'd say better than 50/50 that it happens before pick #65.

Click to expand...

Just reading some of Mike Mayock's stuff and seems like there isn't a top-level FS prospect that has coverage ability like DMCs.

I think Ryan may move to safety. He seems to be a poor man's McCourty. He isn't as good, but he is similar in style and play.

We will see just how much dmac likes it here.

Let's hope he stays and him and Revis both sign team friendly deals.
That would be great

Can he rush the passer?

He would have alot of endorsement deals in Tennessee and you know Jason has been tampering.

Rob0729 said:

I think Ryan may move to safety. He seems to be a poor man's McCourty. He isn't as good, but he is similar in style and play.

Click to expand...

Remembering that McCourty wasn't a very good CB once we went to more man to man so Ryan's struggles at CB may not translate to struggles at CB.

Based on the pro days, McCourty has a notable edge in straight line speed but the change of directions between him and Ryan were about the same.

That said, I expect DMac back even if he's allowed to test the market.

I think it's obvious we aren't going to sign both McCourtey and Revis, it'll be one or the other. I'd be SHOCKED if we lost both. As much as I love McCourtey, I prefer we get Revis signed if we can't have both. That being said, BB won a SB despite Law and Poole going down in 2004, with a rookie 3rd round pick (Assante Samuel) and an undrafted rookie FA (Randal Gay) playing in their place.

I think it's a good move not to franchise him instead opting to work out a deal in FA. Unless a safety is Earl Thomas, $9M seems like a poor value. I would prefer to spend that type of money on a CB or 3-down DL.