Is Asante worth 7.79 million a year?

[jczxohn1]

Samuel has been tackling well? REALLY? That's funny because I saw Maurice Jones Drew shrug him off like he wasn't even there. I watch Samuel HIT people well, but not TACKLE.

It would seem you have the wrong player the last 8 games.

As i recall J-D shrugged off Bruschi more often than Samuel. Nobody was ready for that guy.
IMO, CB's should be judged by pass break-ups and PI penalties, rather than tackles or even INT's. Asante definitely improved in that area the last 8 games.

Re: the original question-- 7.79 was the cost of franchising Samuel. It will cost more than that to sign him, IMO. The only way to keep the cap hit reasonable long-term would be to front-load it with a signing bonus that would eat up about 1/2 of our cap space. He will no doubt not be happy with anything that isn't within spitting distance of Woodson and Bailey's. They will no doubt be unhappy if he gets it. (Is that a bad thing?) More likely outcome is franchise and trade. We know Asante can be pretty mediocre if his heart isn't in it. Lackluster performance will be forgiven by others if he is tagged. Definitely need to control his destination.

 

[PatsFanInVa]

Ok, so from what we have seen, what we can determine is Asante is a very good, at least, young corner, who seems to be immune from the injury bug, who is steadily improving in all areas of his game (remember the drops he used to have which are now picks?), who now has numbers that indicate he is at least a solid #1`corner(and its important to understand that this has been a slow steady improvement, not a flash in the contract pan), and is an UFA in the biggest funny money year in history...tag the kid! Tag money is probably going to be pretty conservative in this market.

Yep, the tag is a bargain in this market (unless for some reason EVERYBODY decides at the same time not to shovel $$ to CBs. "Copycat" tendencies could conceivably do that, were we to have won this coming super bowl... probably not though. In any event the big "copycat" fad in the league this year is to hire a prepubescent head coach, because Mangini went to the wild card round with the Jets.)

PFnV

 

[notex]

Ideally...we tag him and then he has a kinda bad year...then his market value goes down and we sign him for around the same ammount

 

[Patriot_in_NY]

Ideally...we tag him and then he has a kinda bad year...then his market value goes down and we sign him for around the same ammount

I guess my question is............ what if we can't get a deal done with Daniel Graham (I'm not totally confident we can there either)?

If you had to choose between the two, IS there even a consideration for Graham? He is arguably the one of the best pass blocking TE's out there and when healthy, it shows in the O. Granted, we're pretty fat a TE right now, but is is possible that there could be a upcoming "tag" dilema? I think the Franchise number at TE last year was 3.3M. Not saying I'd go that route, but while Samuel is a great player, that had an even greater season, you gotta ask yourself is he an 7-8M guy? Also, I think Clements is ever bit bit as good and he'll likely be available too (unless the Bills tag him).

Also, pardon my ignorance, but what the hell ever happened to Randall Gay? Granted he's perpetual IR it seems, I've always liked his play. I mean, I do know he was injured and all, but he's a RFA and I bet there won't be tons of big $$ thrown at him. Is it worth trying to retain him? or at this point let him go spend time on someone else's IR.

 

[The_Dragon]

Mike Reiss' take:

January 25, 2007
Franchise tags
If the Patriots can not reach contract extensions with cornerback Asante Samuel and tight end Daniel Graham before free agency begins March 2, they could retain one player by using the franchise tag.

The franchise tag figures have been finalized for 2007 and the numbers for the cornerback and tight end positions are as follows:

Cornerback: $7.79 million
Tight end: $4.31 million

ANALYSIS: The franchise figure for Samuel would give him the second highest cap hit on the team, behind quarterback Tom Brady ($11.3 million). It is possible the Patriots could use the tag the same way they did with Tebucky Jones in February of 2003, when the Patriots tagged Jones and then traded him. Otherwise, the tag is likely too rich for the Patriots, who would have almost $19 million of the $109 million cap tied up in two players, which runs counter to their philosophy of spreading more money to more players. As for Graham, the preference on both sides is to work out an extension, but if that fails, it's hard to imagine the Patriots letting him go given that the franchise tag is "only" $4.3 million.

http://www.boston.com/sports/football/patriots/reiss_pieces/

 

[Patriot_in_NY]

Mike Reiss' take:

January 25, 2007
Franchise tags
If the Patriots can not reach contract extensions with cornerback Asante Samuel and tight end Daniel Graham before free agency begins March 2, they could retain one player by using the franchise tag.

The franchise tag figures have been finalized for 2007 and the numbers for the cornerback and tight end positions are as follows:

Cornerback: $7.79 million
Tight end: $4.31 million

ANALYSIS: The franchise figure for Samuel would give him the second highest cap hit on the team, behind quarterback Tom Brady ($11.3 million). It is possible the Patriots could use the tag the same way they did with Tebucky Jones in February of 2003, when the Patriots tagged Jones and then traded him. Otherwise, the tag is likely too rich for the Patriots, who would have almost $19 million of the $109 million cap tied up in two players, which runs counter to their philosophy of spreading more money to more players. As for Graham, the preference on both sides is to work out an extension, but if that fails, it's hard to imagine the Patriots letting him go given that the franchise tag is "only" $4.3 million.

http://www.boston.com/sports/football/patriots/reiss_pieces/

Thanks Dragon....

That's kinda what I was thinking when I wrote it. While it's pretty obvious they'd have to franchise AS to keep him (for play or trade), but It may not even come to that if the deal doesn't get done for Graham. I'd bet they'd give it to Graham before Samuel. Are you really gonna let arguably the best blocking TE go to keep a solid CB (that had an amazing year) for an inflated value. Some might, but I don't see NE doing it.

 

[brady199]

The Pats are eating Humble Pie,

and some of you are eating Crow.

 

[rhodeislandpatsfan]

I'm not 100% certain but I believe that if the Pats win the SB they can't franchise him. I think that was a concession they made in the 11th hour negotiations.

 

[JoePats]

I'm not 100% certain but I believe that if the Pats win the SB they can't franchise him. I think that was a concession they made in the 11th hour negotiations.

I think it was they just won't franchise him regardless of final team result.

 

[D-cleater]

Right now I see Asante as THE single most valuable player on D. Especially with Merriweather not sniffing the field on D.

Without Samuel. not only are we not 11-0, but possibly 9-2. He's going to get a big contract next year from someone ( I'm afraid it won't be us though)

 

[Remix 6]

Right now I see Asante as THE single most valuable player on D. Especially with Merriweather not sniffing the field on D.

Without Samuel. not only are we not 11-0, but possibly 9-2. He's going to get a big contract next year from someone ( I'm afraid it won't be us though)

hes been the most consistent and best player..yes..ahead of Warren, Wilfork, Thomas, Vrabel, etc

 

[SoonerPatriot]

The OP looks pretty dumb now. That said, I don't think we could keep him. He's having a very nice season and will be too rich for our blood.

 

[DisgruntledTunaFan]

Ok, we all know that Asante had 12 Ints on the season (10 during the regular season and 2 in the play-offs). Of those 10 regular season ones, at least 5 were because of pressure on the QB and NOT because he beat out the WR for the ball.

Also, Asante is a lousy tackler. He goes for the show-boat hit too much and doesn't wrap up.

Now, don't get me wrong, he is a good CB. But I don't consider him to be GREAT or ELITE by any stretch of the imagination.

Doesn't matter-he gives you the best chance to win. He may be over-rated AND over-paid, but he has pretty good skills(maybe not great) for a starting corner. You're not going to find many of those in this league nowdays.

 

[Remix 6]

Doesn't matter-he gives you the best chance to win. He may be over-rated AND over-paid, but he has pretty good skills(maybe not great) for a starting corner. You're not going to find many of those in this league nowdays.

hes not overrated at all. hes outplaying Bailey this year..and yes i've watched both. Samuel is playing lights out

 

[PatsWorldChamps]

best CB in the NFL this year... better than Bailey, who is overrated.
name anyone better than Asante.

sucks, because we wont be able to keep him, but he is the best CB in the NFL right now.

 

[Crazyeechrispats1]

I believe we will keep him.
Stallworth, Washington leave, Seymour takes a pay restructure for 2 years of so so play.
Bruschi retires, Harrison retires, Brown retires, Moss signs cap friendly deal.
Brady works out his contract to keep the team strong! :rocker:
I think BB realizes how important Assante is to this teams success and with wr's getting more favor than ever it's a good idea to have a playmaking shut down corner.
Although they have to sign him before he even get's courted by another team or we can definitely lose him.

 

[abdul7]

Didnt get to vote so have me as a big YES , ! Elite CB and my favorite player to turn the game around when we need it. My gut feeling says that he isnt leaving us after this historic season God Willing. GO PATS.

 

[Patters]

There are very few all-time great CBs, and Asante may not be one of them, but he's clearly one of very best playing right now. To have a shutdown CB like Asante is often the difference between winning and losing close games. Asante is well worth the money this year and will continue to be worth top dollars unless more outstanding CBs come on the market.

 

[cstjohn17]

Maybe a new Forum could be created called "Predictions", that way all the polls & other predictions could be stored in one place. Then we could easily go look at how stupid (or smart) we were.

Some items that could be stored for posterity:
- guesses at records, guesses at drafts, guesses at rosters, etc.
- predict the score, etc.

The items would live in the main forum while topical and then moved to the "predictions" folder when their time has past.

 

[PatsandTrojans55]

Yeah the original OP was dead wrong but it's not the first time for him and won't be the last. Some fans have a REAL issue with people getting paid in there job markets but wouldn't give back a raise even if they didn't deserve it. HYPOCRITES.
PT55