Who are the priority for signing long-term?

VectorPrime · Jan 1, 2016

BelichickFan said:
There's always that awkward possibility that Brady will be suspended for the first 4 games

It's far more likely he gets hit by a bus in the offseason and misses 4 games because of a broken everything.

supafly · Jan 1, 2016

ctpatsfan77 said:
To be fair, the OP's list is for 2017 FAs. I agree that Ebner should be brought back: he's played every single game he's been healthy.

No way in hell that Nate Ebner's going anywhere in my opinion. He's a hard worker, a staple on STs, gives us something on the backend in a depth role, has a positive, respectful, hard-working attitude, and has proven to overcome challenges like the loss of his father.

I believe that he'll re-up on a reasonably priced contract and continue to be one of the kinds of players that Belichick prefers to build the entire team concept around.

supafly · Jan 1, 2016

deters said:
Lafail can GTFO, so thats one less to resign...

LaFell on a bit of a cheaper deal would be just fine, although who knows if that's a possibility or not? It should also be noted that there's likely something else going on behind the scenes that may not necessarily be LaFell's fault.

He's a fine WR2-3 option, but once the other short passing options are taken away and he becomes the focus he falls off a bit (or a lot). Then there's the fact that he was injured and has recently been dealing with something again, not to mention the piss poor protection that the OL is giving Brady. There's too big of a dropoff between last year and this year's versions of LaFell for me to believe otherwise.

supafly · Jan 1, 2016

Retaining Hightower should be one of the top priorities, along with Butler and Jamie Collins as the 2a and 2b options. Any of the 3 could be considered equal, depending upon personal opinion.

Chandler Jones may have to go to a higher bidder, and judging by the selection of 2 DE draft picks and our top 2015 FA in Sheard, Belichick may have already been preparing for that possibility.

Marinlik · Jan 1, 2016

deters said:
Different guy. That one last year could catch.

Yes, he's having a bad year. But he played very well last year, and missed the whole off season, and first part of the season because of an injury. I will give him the benefit of the doubt for this season

alvinnf · Jan 1, 2016

supafly said:
Retaining Hightower should be one of the top priorities, along with Butler and Jamie Collins as the 2a and 2b options. Any of the 3 could be considered equal, depending upon personal opinion.

Chandler Jones may have to go to a higher bidder, and judging by the selection of 2 DE draft picks and our top 2015 FA in Sheard, Belichick may have already been preparing for that possibility.

Those would be my thoughts as well.
A very good core of younger guys to work with. I would say the OL will be next area of development focus. Even though we haven't really had to spend a ton of capital to get a top flight line in years past. We might have to start identifying some higher picks or free agents to get this area right.

p8ryts · Jan 1, 2016

Butler, Hightower, Collins, Sheard
Jones, Ryan and maybe Vollmer.

PATSYLICIOUS · Jan 1, 2016

VectorPrime said:
We better win the Super Bowl next season because thats the best team we are going to be able to give Brady before he decides to hang it up.

They'll still be contenders imo if Brady can play a couple more good seasons beyond 2017. We should hopefully able to keep butler Hightower Collins and stay a formidable defense. Yes we may have to say by to Jones and a couple others and we wont be AS strong but they'll stay among the contenders long as brady/gronk are healthy. Other than the 2013 Seahawks there hasn't been a team recently that makes you think you'd have to put an A plus effort to get it done against them.

My prediction is a title this year or next with the stacked team, then if brady has 2-3 more decent years after we can pull off one more. Of course it wont happen with a sharp decline in Brady but if he's 75% of what he is now its possible.

scout · Jan 1, 2016

meatface said:
BB has consistently shown that he likes ST contributors much more than fans do

I wager that Slater is the first one signed.

scout · Jan 1, 2016

deters said:
Lafail can GTFO, so thats one less to resign...

He stepped up last year. He's been missing this year, but that's not even the focus. How many times have you heard a Patriots question BB's strategy to the media (film)?

Rob0729 · Jan 1, 2016

Players to lock up:
Collins
Hightower
Jones
Ryan
Sheard

The rest will be likely gone before then (Cannon, Chandler, LaFell). Others will be old and we will have to have a wait and see to see what they have left by then, but will likely come at the veteran minimum when they resign (Ninkovich, Vollmer, Slater).

zipster9 · Jan 1, 2016

Frankly, Scott Chandler has been a letdown so far. His contract runs thru 2017 (3million).
IMO

I'd cut him and re-invest the $$ to key players.

IllegalContact · Jan 1, 2016

Everyone is replaceable, but the starting DEs and LBs would come first to me....sheard, jones, Collins, Hightower

Butler is an rfa so he's another year later

I like Harmon ..... The rest seem very replaceable

resdubwhite · Jan 1, 2016

Does anyone think someone will come to the team and offer a 1st for any of the 4 pick free agents the year after?
and if so, are the team likely to accept. I've no idea what the talent pool in the draft is like.

convertedpatsfan · Jan 1, 2016

deters said:
Lafail can GTFO, so thats one less to resign...

Posts like this are why I laugh whenever I see complaints about a player's lack of "loyalty" to their team.

Fans are fickle assholes who turn on players the second things go wrong. I've seen people call out to cut Gronk, Ghost, Dola, and that's just recently. And then there were the fans who wanted Cassel over Brady and thought Brady looked washed-up after 2009.

Every player who is not a 1st-ballot HOFer is a JAG. And every 1st-ballot HOFer will get **** on (see KC game). When Watkins ripped the fans earlier in the year, the surprise shouldn't have been that a player called out against fans, but that it doesn't happen more often.

LaFell was a key contributor on a championship team. Injuries have affected his play this year but he has not mailed it in, he has not given up. Every single guy on this roster, even the worst JAG at the bottom, works harder than pretty much every single fan on this board. Few of us could handle even one week as a Patriot.

Show some ****ing respect for the defending world champions.

varjao · Jan 2, 2016

That #12 kid seems promissing

Fencer · Jan 2, 2016

We have a consensus, pretty much, it seems. Anyhow:

Collins and Hightower are very high priorities. They seem to enjoy playing together, as well. I think they're Patriots lifers, or close to it.
Jones is very, very nice to have, but likely to get overpaid in the open market.
Ditto Butler, but he seems like a guy who SHOULD give the team a discount to get financial security early, so he's right up there at the top of the priority list.
Sheard is partway between the previous two cases. I think the Patriots can and should get a deal done with him.
Mayo, Ninkovich and Vollmer will need to sign for a lot less than their peak value, for reasons of age and/or health. So they get take-it-or-leave-it kinds of offers, and we have to think they're likely to be gone.
How is Ebner as a locker room leader? I think of him as Slater's successor, just as Slater was Izzo's. (And he happens to play a role more like Izzo's than Slater's on the field.)

ashley · Jan 2, 2016

zipster9 said:
All are free-agents in 2017

Sebastian Vollmer RT 31 7 4 yr$16,750,000 $4,187,500 $8,250,000 2017
Jabaal Sheard DE 26 5 2 yr$11,000,000 $5,500,000 $5,500,000 2017
Brandon LaFell WR 29 6 3 yr$9,000,000 $3,000,000 $3,000,000 2017
Marcus Cannon LT 27 5 2 yr$9,000,000 $4,500,000 - 2017
Chandler Jones DE 25 4 4 yr$8,172,552 $2,043,138 $7,421,215 2017
Dont'a Hightower OLB 25 4 4 yr$7,724,002 $1,931,001 $6,280,729 2017
Rob Ninkovich DE 31 10 2 yr$7,000,000 $3,500,000 $4,500,000 2017
Scott Chandler TE 30 8 2 yr$5,300,000 $2,650,000 $2,000,000 2017
Alan Branch DT 31 9 2 yr$4,300,000 $2,150,000 $700,000 2017
Matthew Slater WR 30 8 2 yr$4,000,000 $2,000,000 $3,000,000 2017
Jon Bostic ILB 24 3 4 yr$3,940,798 $985,200 $1,830,163 2017
Jamie Collins OLB 25 3 4 yr$3,761,000 $940,250 $2,096,227 2017
Aaron Dobson WR 24 3 4 yr$3,428,370 $857,093 $1,173,360 2017
Logan Ryan CB 24 3 4 yr$2,773,252 $693,313 $563,252 2017
Duron Harmon SS 24 3 4 yr$2,711,100 $677,775 $533,600 2017
Brandon Bolden RB 25 4 2 yr$2,320,000 $1,160,000 $300,000 2017
Chris Jones DT 25 3 4 yr$2,252,512 $563,128 $92,512 2017
Jonathan Freeny ILB 26 4 1 yr$1,750,000 $1,750,000 $500,000 2017
Malcolm Butler CB 25 2 3 yr$1,530,000 $510,000 - 2017
Eric Martin ILB 24 2 2 yr$1,260,000 $630,000 - 2017
Kelcy Quarles DT 23 1 2 yr$1,100,000 $550,000 - 2017
Michael Williams TE 25 2 2 yr$960,000 $480,000 - 2017
Cameron Fleming G 23 2 2 yr$960,000 $480,000 - 2017
Chris Harper WR 22 2 yr$960,000 $480,000 - 2017

The top priorities in my opinion are:

Collins
Butler
Jones/Sheard
Hightower
Ryan
Vollmer
Bolden
Slater

All the other guys on the list can be replaced. Hopefully, guys like Slater and Bolden won't break the bank. Collins is amazing, if there was one guy that we must keep, it's him.

zipster9 · Jan 2, 2016

Last year the scheme was to have the secondary deal with the pass, using press coverage. This hides the DL deficiencies.

This year the scheme was to have a top-tier DL to hide the secondary deficiencies.

Next year will be a different scheme.

BillB is such a schemer!

nabwong · Jan 2, 2016

Why is slater so low on a lot of fans' list? Fans don't appreciate the advantage we get with field position.

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