Patriots place franchise tag on K Stephen Gostkowski

PatsFan2 said:

The FS Tag was $9Mill?? now I undersand the move McCourty is not worth 9Mill a year I hope they can work a a reasonable cap friendly deal.

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That's not the point.
Using the $9M tag TIES UP $9M during the critical period when the Pats have to get down UNDER the cap. It does NOT mean that he would have gotten a $9M/yr deal once re-signed.

Bruins29 said:

I am surprised they could not work out something long term for Ghost. 30 is young for a kicker. He must want megabucks.

Also, as stated, They tagged AV.

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Twice.

hwc said:

Pat Kirwin has said all along that the Pats would use the franchise tag on Ghostkowski. As he put it, "it's an easy tag to use..." It's all about the tag number at the position.

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Yep. $4.5m represents ~3% of the 2015 cap. Big deal.

Without Revis, VW and Mayo resolved and currently $6m over, there is no way they could have tagged DMC.

Lets hope that they have a deal in place but can't announce it until the cap stuff is resolved.

im just guessing here but I think the pats are looking to pay McCourty more in the 6 or 7 million per range not the top of the class 8 or 9 if so he is gone but like I said im guessing

BradyFTW! said:

Don't like this. Everything else aside, in a year where the Pats don't have much extra money to go around, paying $4.5M for any kicker just seems like too much. I'd much rather see a mid-late round pick used on a kicker, and the remaining $4M or so in salary put toward keeping some of the existing re-signs that need to happen.

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And when the kicker blows a couple of games for you in a league where every single game counts? Cause I've watched an awful lot of teams run afoul of /that/ particular fate.

PatsFan2 said:

The FS Tag is $9Mill?? now I undersand the move McCourty is not worth 9Mill a year I hope they can work a a reasonable cap friendly deal.

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The chief problem is that the free agent crop of safeties is horrible, as is the draft class. If /anyone/ wants a safety, they're gonna be looking at DMac first.

Gost was a about $3.8m hit last year. He'll be about a $4.5m hit this year, if nothing changes because of the tag. It's a difference of just about $.7m.

McCourty was about a $5.1m hit this year. He'd have been about $9.6 with the tag, meaning he'd have added about $4.5m to the cap number.

Huge difference.....

I guess we won't be taking a kicker with one of our 4th round picks

I am not surprised at all. Didn't they do this with AV one year? I am hoping that they have already worked out a deal with DMac so the Tag was not needed on him !!

Foxypats said:

I am not surprised at all. Didn't they do this with AV one year? I am hoping that they have already worked out a deal with DMac so the Tag was not needed on him !!

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They franchised AV twice. One time it lead to a long term deal, another it did not and he went to IND in free agency.

PatsWickedPissah said:

I guess we won't be taking a kicker with one of our 4th round picks

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A quick look at the stats of the top three kickers available in this year's draft should explain to you why this was never going to happen, even if Gostkowski had left.

No kicker is worth 4 million especially now that it is easier to get touchbacks on kickoffs. Also don't like that McCourty will be hitting the free market but it's early and we can still reach long term deals with both. Congrats to Steve.

The team and Ghost can still agree on a contract and remove the franchise tag right?Once a team uses a franchise tag they can not use it again for that year correct?

patchick said:

It's extremely common leaguewide because it doesn't break the bank. In 2012 5 teams used the franchise tag on kickers.

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Pretty sure those 5 teams didn't have DB's of the calibre of Revis and DMac to think about though....

BingoBrown said:

The team and Ghost can still agree on a contract and remove the franchise tag right?Once a team uses a franchise tag they can not use it again for that year correct?

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Yes and yes.

Pats-Phan said:

No kicker is worth 4 million especially now

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The cap hit for him playing with the franchise tag is $700k more than what he counted against the cap last year.

Plain and simple this just gives BB more time to concentrate on other matters over the next 7 days and all it cost was a $700k raise which could still be lowered if they came to an agreement on an extension down the road before July.

JMC00 said:

Plain and simple this just gives BB more time to concentrate on other matters over the next 7 days and all it cost was a $700k raise which could still be lowered if they came to an agreement on an extension down the road before July.

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I think they will. In his prime, kicking better than AV did, a double threat, gets his hands dirty, and has perhaps 10 more years left of good kicking.

Can't tag McCourty and keep your leverage of picking up Revis' 20 million dollar option.
McCourty tag puts us about 18-20 mil over the cap, Revis people then would know he's getting cut.

I entered the week thinking McCourty was going to get tagged or signed.

Then I looked more carefully at the numbers. Face it, this team is in cap hell.

Are they now 12+ million over (7.9+Gost's 4.5)? Letting Revis go puts them 7+ under. Letting Wilfork walk puts them another 8 million under.

They have got to be money magicians to get in shape to sign either McCourty or Revis at this point. They've got a million choices to make, and they all seem to hinge on the deal Revis wants.

I think it's likely both Revis and McCourty hit FA, with the Pats hoping to somehow get one or both back after the market is set. If not, it's next man up, which is next to impossible with Revis. Even letting Revis hit the market and letting Wilfork go, they're not all that cap rich to be chasing those guys, however.

Interesting times.

50-yard-line said:

I entered the week thinking McCourty was going to get tagged or signed.

Then I looked more carefully at the numbers. Face it, this team is in cap hell.

Are they now 12+ million over (7.9+Gost's 4.5)? Letting Revis go puts them 7+ under. Letting Wilfork walk puts them another 8 million under.

They have got to be money magicians to get in shape to sign either McCourty or Revis at this point. They've got a million choices to make, and they all seem to hinge on the deal Revis wants.

I think it's likely both Revis and McCourty hit FA, with the Pats hoping to somehow get one or both back after the market is set. If not, it's next man up, which is next to impossible with Revis. Even letting Revis hit the market and letting Wilfork go, they're not all that cap rich to be chasing those guys, however.

Interesting times.

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Revis counts $25M against the cap with his option this year. He's a huge piece of what they're able to do in free agency. Working out an extension to free up some of that cap would help a lot. Mayo and Wilfork are two others that might be looked at to free up space.