NFL Free Agency Thread

OhExaulted1 said:

To all the pessimists and naysayers, no one has ever hoisted a Lombardi in March. The team was a 2-point conversion away from OT in the AFFCG and the very young established core is basically still intact for this season and hopefully the injury bug cuts us a break this year.

R-E-L-A-X

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Not to mention there's still the rest of free agency (where we've picked up some diamonds in the rough in the past), the draft, and the inevitable pre-season/early season trade that gets us an Ayers, Hicks, Williams, etc. There seems to be one of those every year. This team is far from done building, if history is any indication.

reamer said:

I think you have selective memory. We almost never sign a big name free agent. I can think of Moss and Revis off the top of my head in the last decade. Who else? Adalius Thomas is the only other name that immediately comes to mind. Most of our signings are lower profile. This happens every single year.

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And Moss wasn't a free agent.

reamer said:

I think you have selective memory. We almost never sign a big name free agent. I can think of Moss and Revis off the top of my head in the last decade. Who else? Adalius Thomas is the only other name that immediately comes to mind. Most of our signings are lower profile. This happens every single year.

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We've certainly attempted to sign big-named free agents in the past. Let's not act as if BB isn't interested in any if them. It has to be the right price.

Chiuba E. Obele said:

I don't understand the hype around Chris Long. He's only had 2 double-digit sack seasons in 8 years with Rams, and never made a Pro Bowl. Even worse, he's produced about 5 sacks in the last two years. That's right. Just 5 sacks!

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So then Sheard was a **** signing based on this logic?

Anybody who wanted the Pats to go big in FA this year needs to take a look at the list of players on defense that are in a contract year...

Talk about panic mode

JMC00 said:

Was that from a legit source or a "NFL Draft Insider" twitter type source?

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It was on ESPN's "NFL Live" television program, they had a list of visits happening today/soon and it listed Beadles and the Pats. I haven't seen it on Twitter, but I chalked that up to general NFL fans not really giving a sh*t about guards.

I'm just not seeing a player they could have signed that would have made the team substantially better. Jermaine Kearse seemed to be a favorite of many but we're talking about an extremely inconsistent guy who never cleared 50 receptions in a season; he may have been a good signing, but he seemed to morph from expensive lottery ticket to the next coming of Jerry Rice in the offseason mind. It's like people just want a new option of jersey to buy rather than thinking about the role they would play given the current roster or long-term implications based on the salary cap.

OhExaulted1 said:

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You should see some of the idiots i follow..well followed up until today on twitter...holy bad

I have to admit that it's not usually a lot of fun being a Pats fan at this time of the year. Shiny new toys always look good on Christmas morning, after all.

They've been quieter so far than I expected (but the market was pretty insane, too), but I didn't expect much. They had 62 players under contract, with pretty much their entire team coming back, and have 4 big names and several other key contributors they have to lock up this year or replace next year.

I'm glad Waddle is back. I like the Hogan signing. Don't know anything about Kearse, but I'm sad that Hicks left (felt the same way about Ayers last year).

Still want a OL vet, a #3 LB (unless they saw something in Bostic, which I find hard to believe since they hardly played the guy, or value Freeny more than i can figure out why), and another receiver would be nice (Boldin!). And I like shiny toys, too, so Long and Laurenitis, or some other bigger surprise, is always welcome!

Other than a few tweaks, though, this team was ready to be the favorite int eh AFC next year, and with Denver's explosion, Cinci losing a couple of key contributors, and Pittsburgh apparently off-setting their gains by losing Bryant, I'm confident the Pats will be right there again next year.

Oh, adn the biggest pick-up so far? Scar is back.

JMC00 said:

When has giving a 31 year old player a 4 year/$29m deal that plays a position that isn't a hole been the norm for the Pats?

As for Hicks they had their price and offered him a longer deal than Chicago. He wanted to go to Chicago..

Let's not forget Pats have Collins, Hightower, Sheard, Ninkovich, Jones, Ryan, Harmon, Branch all set to be UFA next year. They wanted Hicks back but maybe not at the cost of potentially losing Sheard assuming Collins and Hightower are priority #1 & #2 to re-sign.

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What I really mean was what happened to the Rodney type situation? Aka I told my agent do what is needed I'm playing in NE.

That what I find disconcerting. Take Long or Streater or player X. The play in NE for less or the almost dream some players seemed to have has been diminished somewhat.

this was a very weak FA class akiem hicks got 5 million per i wish the guy the best of luck but he was a injury fill in for a back up DL men, the market is starting to die out a little in the next few days the pats will bring in some guys Alfred Morris is still out there they need OL dept and WR dept

primetime said:

I'm just not seeing a player they could have signed that would have made the team substantially better. Jermaine Kearse seemed to be a favorite of many but we're talking about an extremely inconsistent guy who never cleared 50 receptions in a season; he may have been a good signing, but he seemed to morph from expensive lottery ticket to the next coming of Jerry Rice in the offseason mind. It's like people just want a new option of jersey to buy rather than thinking about the role they would play given the current roster or long-term implications based on the salary cap.

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Given the contract he took, I have to believe there's no way anyone was prying Kearse out of Seattle. They could have gone up if they needed to, and he clearly wanted to stay by taking half of what Sanu got (still can't believe that contract).

ViperGTS said:

What I really mean was what happened to the Rodney type situation? Aka I told my agent do what is needed I'm playing in NE.

That what I find disconcerting. Take Long or Streater or player X. The play in NE for less or the almost dream some players seemed to have has been diminished somewhat.

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Rod Streater was injured two years ago and then was a healthy scratch for 15 games last year and the Chiefs were still willing to throw nearly $5m at him with substantial guarantees to compete for a starting job. In New England he'd be no better than 5th or 6th in the pecking order for targets after Edelman, Gronk, Lewis, Amendola, and now probably Hogan as well. They weren't going to give him nearly $5m to do that, and he wasn't going to turn down that kind of money for that. It would have been really dumb for both sides.

ViperGTS said:

What I really mean was what happened to the Rodney type situation? Aka I told my agent do what is needed I'm playing in NE.

That what I find disconcerting. Take Long or Streater or player X. The play in NE for less or the almost dream some players seemed to have has been diminished somewhat.

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I don't think there were nearly as many of those types of deals (EVER) as you think.

Lots of fanbases think players OF COURSE would want to join their family. it's money first, period, although many teams seem to get a few players who take those discounts to stay once they're there.

I smell a big trade coming, along with a few extensions/restructures.

50-yard-line said:

I don't think there were nearly as many of those types of deals (EVER) as you think.

Lots of fanbases think players OF COURSE would want to join their family. it's money first, period, although many teams seem to get a few players who take those discounts to stay once they're there.

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Yup. There's probably some marginal value for some players based on location, reputation, chance of winning, and so on, but for the most part these guys have very short careers and need to realize their value while they can.

The Patriots are a very young team with a lot of players at many positions who are waiting at a shot to prove their worth; they're fortunate that they have a relatively young core with a timeless great at QB. They also have a number of core players coming up for contract renewals at the end of this season, and may want to save cap space in order to extend those players and have flexibility in how they structure those contracts. Retaining the services of as many of Collins, Jones, Hightower, and Butler is much more important than bringing in some relatively marginal players just to excite fans.

The Brandon Five said:

I smell a big trade coming, along with a few extensions/restructures.

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In your Madden season?

TommyBrady12 said:

We've certainly attempted to sign big-named free agents in the past. Let's not act as if BB isn't interested in any if them. It has to be the right price.

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Well, right. And your last sentence is the key one. Of course Belichick is aware of top talent, but signing them is another matter.

FourierSeries said:

In your Madden season?

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I don't play Madden. But I can't imagine the Pats heading into TC with $17 million in cap space.