Offseason Free Agents thread....

[Edelmania]

Hightower's a good player. What you mean? Alot of needy teams that could use a superbowl linebacker who makes big plays. He's a proven player over a draft pick.

Yeah obviously hes a great player but paying him as the highest inside linebacker in the league AND giving up a draft pick for him? Thats not gonna happen lol.

The franchise tag for a linebacker includes outside pass rushing linebackers like von miller that bring the number way up, so that would make him the highest paid inside linebacker. No team will pay him that and give up a pick.

 

[Gronkowski123]

Julius Thomas?? Potential cap casualty.

He can't block for ****, but is a good receiving TE!

 

[DaBruinz]

Guys whom I think the Pats will look at (provided they aren't resigned between now and the start of free agency)

Domata Peko - DT
Charles Johnson - DE
Jared Cook - TE
Quinton Demps - S

 

[Edelmania]

Guys I like that I think could fit with the Pats for a reasonable price:
Eddie Lacy (if we move on from Blount)
Dontari Poe (if Alan Branch is gone)

Potential Hightower replacements* if we lose him:
Rolando McClain - Shown interest in him before, talented but has injury/off field issues
Zach Brown - Under the radar guy, break out season with Bill

Players that I would love but are unrealistic:
AJ Bouye - Breakout season with Texans, undrafted, similar to Malcolm Butler. Pairing him with Butler would give us a couple very good scrappy corners.

 

[ViperGTS]

Guys I like that I think could fit with the Pats for a reasonable price:
Eddie Lacy (if we move on from Blount)
Dontari Poe (if Alan Branch is gone)

Potential Hightower replacements* if we lose him:
Rolando McClain - Shown interest in him before, talented but has injury/off field issues
Zach Brown - Under the radar guy, break out season with Bill

Players that I would love but are unrealistic:
AJ Bouye - Breakout season with Texans, undrafted, similar to Malcolm Butler. Pairing him with Butler would give us a couple very good scrappy corners.

Branch isn't going anywhere. He has said stuff about loyalty and how the Pats gave him a chance and no one else did.

Brown will get franchised or signed in Buffalo.
Bouye will get signed by Houston.

 

[Edelmania]

Branch isn't going anywhere. He has said stuff about loyalty and how the Pats gave him a chance and no one else did.

Brown will get franchised or signed in Buffalo.
Bouye will get signed by Houston.

I think he will play another year but Branch could decide to retire too. And like I said, Bouye is unrealistic, just something I like to think about.

 

[Love The Drake]

Would love Brown

 

[PatriotsPimp136]

If Ryan leaves than we need to get a decent corner in free agency. Morris Clairborne? Stephone Gilmore? I am pretty sure we will draft a corner. It's a deep class at corner.

 

[Pats1989]

Julius Thomas?? Potential cap casualty.

He can't block for ****, but is a good receiving TE!

Yepp. He'd be a good possible replacement for Gronk. ( When he gets injured).

 

[PatriotsPimp136]

Branch isn't going anywhere. He has said stuff about loyalty and how the Pats gave him a chance and no one else did.

Brown will get franchised or signed in Buffalo.
Bouye will get signed by Houston.

The bills only have 22 mil in cap space unless they start cutting everybody lol

 

[Pats1989]

I think Ryan is gone. Felger send Mazz srenas convinced he will get paid as a number one. Who will be the replacement? Cyrus Jones!!

 

[luuked]

I think Ryan is gone. Felger send Mazz srenas convinced he will get paid as a number one. Who will be the replacement? Cyrus Jones!!

You should have stopped at Felger and Mazz. Must have been years since anything meaningful came out of there..

 

[supafly]

I think Ryan is gone. Felger send Mazz srenas convinced he will get paid as a number one. Who will be the replacement? Cyrus Jones!!

I may end up being wrong, but I'm going to guess that the team will end up using a top 3 round pick at CB again this year.

Jones looked acceptable enough in the secondary, but that's a position that you need to address often. Also, the future situations with Butler, Ryan, etc cast a shadow of uncertainty.

 

[PatriotsPimp136]

I may end up being wrong, but I'm going to guess that the team will end up using a top 3 round pick at CB again this year.

Jones looked acceptable enough in the secondary, but that's a position that you need to address often. Also, the future situations with Butler, Ryan, etc cast a shadow of uncertainty.

I think they will look at a corner through free agency. I like shields but his concussion problems will scare teams. It's time for rowe to emerge as well. Take his game to the next level.

 

[Patsgofor4]

UFAs that I like, trying to channel BB (likely unsuccessfully):

RB: J. Rogers, B. Cunningham (Pats like him, had him in for visit last yr). Draft RB rounds 2, 3 or 5.

WR: K. Wright, P. Garçon, B. Quick, resign Floyd

TE: R. Griffin, J. Doyle, L. Willson. Williams will be back as blocking specialist.

OL: J. Hawley (Center, TB....tough SOB, more physical than Andrews). OG and OT depth in draft. Guard and Tackle depth in draft.

DE: C. Campbell (likely too pricey, W. Gholston (young, ascending, perfect size for Pats DE at 6"6', 180....really want him opposite Flowers)

DT: J. Hankins, re-sign Branch

OLB: Meh. Draft and/or post-June 1 cuts.

ILB: resign/tag Hightower, Z. Brown (undersized for Pats LB but I'm sure that BB took note of 28 tackles total in the two Pats games this year).

S: Resign Harmon

CB: Prefer to resign Ryan but he may be too pricey. High tender or extend M. Butler.
D. Butler (second go-round, this time as versatile slot CB with Rowe as CB2 on outside if Ryan leaves, price will likely be reasonable). D. Shead (will start year on PUP with ACL but value signing for second half of season because of injury). Cyrus Jones' development into top 4 CB will be key.

 

[thecore762]

Julius Thomas?? Potential cap casualty.

He can't block for ****, but is a good receiving TE!

I'll pass, we need a blocking TE incase Gronk gets injured again...

 

[dafoe2016]

This close to free agency you are a fool if you don't test the market, so in many ways whether players come back will be decided by the market. If some teams want to overpay then we will say goodbye, regardless of how much cap room we have.

Butler and one other can be kept via tags. Hightower is the obvious candidate there. I'm happy to give High a good contract but his injury history does scare me. I assume he will look for at least Jamie Collins money.

I personally would like to keep Logan Ryan. He is one of the better number 2 corners in the league, knows the system and by all accounts is a great locker room guy - hard working and film room junkie. It's gonna cost some though. On the open market he could get $10m a year. As a comparison, Robert Alford (Falcons number 2) signed a 4 year $38m deal a few months ago. I might pay that for Ryan depending on the guarantees. Butler is in line for $12m+ a year.

I'd like too keep Bennett around because of Gronk's injury situation but he will command decent money too - maybe $9m a year. If we don't TE becomes a big draft area.

Amendola will be cut and then probably resigned for much less.

Hopefully we can get Alan Branch back on a 1/2 year deal too.

All in all, we might end up giving out 2/3 pretty large contracts in the next 6 weeks. Could potentially see something like the following if we really push the boat out, but Ryan and Bennett might be too rich for our blood.

Butler 4 years $52m or transition tagged
Ryan 4 years $38m
Hightower tagged $13m (or 4 years $52m)
Bennett 2 years $18m
Branch 2 years $7m

You want to pay a guy who has had one decent year in his entire career 10 mil per? That's crazy. And 9 million for Bennet when we already have Gronk and desperately need to upgrade the OLine? Besides, didn't they already offer him 8? Some team will stupidly overpay him. It wont be us. I would also not give a guy with an injury history like Hightower's 50 million dollars. If you are going to spend that kind of money at that position you could do better than Hightower.

 

[patsbrasilpatriotas]

Bennett gone 10m+
Ryan Gone 10m+
Sheard Gone 8m+
HT gone 14m+

This year 9m+ was the number that granted a third round compensation. Next year 10m is probably the minimum.

We own all #3 round comp picks next draft.

With the 97/98/99/100 pick NE select...

We have 61m(#3 in cap room) + AH money + Extensions/Cuts and people act like everyone can outbid us and retain their own FA's.

LOL

 

[luuked]

You want to pay a guy who has had one decent year in his entire career 10 mil per? That's crazy. And 9 million for Bennet when we already have Gronk and desperately need to upgrade the OLine? Besides, didn't they already offer him 8? Some team will stupidly overpay him. It wont be us. I would also not give a guy with an injury history like Hightower's 50 million dollars. If you are going to spend that kind of money at that position you could do better than Hightower.

So much do disagree with in here.

I think the worst take is about us being desperate with our OL ? What the hell are you talking about ? How many of those 19 games this season have you seen ? There is no desperation at all. Yes it would be nice to draft a potential LT that can take over after Solder and if we can find someone as intelligent but bigger than Andrews center could also be in play but the line has played great this year. Stop with this recency bias and overvalue what happened in the SB.

Also, go join Marqui on his island if you wanna keep bashing Logan Ryan. The truth is, he is a good player and can be great if put into the right matchups. He will most probably be too expensive to keep but stop this crap about him only having one decent season.

Your take on Hightower is also complete asinine. Just the fact that he is a three down LB playing at this level makes him worth the money. Looking forward to those completely unjustified freakouts when he gets inevitably franchised.

Guess the honeymoon of the SB is soon over and we are back to the regular BB GM bashing by those that live in the fantasy world that wants a top heavy team.

 

[DaBruinz]

UFAs that I like, trying to channel BB (likely unsuccessfully):

RB: J. Rogers, B. Cunningham (Pats like him, had him in for visit last yr). Draft RB rounds 2, 3 or 5.

If the Pats wanted Cunningham, they could have signed him to a futures contract already. He's got STs ability, but as a returned. I don't see the fit with Lewis and White entrenched and the Pats liking Foster. He's not a replacement for Blount.

WR: K. Wright, P. Garçon, B. Quick, resign Floyd

TE: R. Griffin, J. Doyle, L. Willson. Williams will be back as blocking specialist.

OL: J. Hawley (Center, TB....tough SOB, more physical than Andrews). OG and OT depth in draft. Guard and Tackle depth in draft.

Unless the Pats cut Amendola, it will be bottom end only for WR.
None of the 3 TEs you mention are a fit for the Pats. Williams has to be re-signed.
The Pats have Thuney, Mason, Karras, Jackson, plus they signed the 3 PS players. Is there a guard in the draft outside the 3rd round who could come in and take a roster spot?

Many people believe that the Pats will be looking at a LT early in the draft as a replacement for Solder, who will be 29 just before the draft and turning 30 after the 2017 season.

I don't know that the Pats will look at Hawley. It will be interesting.

DE: C. Campbell (likely too pricey, W. Gholston (young, ascending, perfect size for Pats DE at 6"6', 180....really want him opposite Flowers)

DT: J. Hankins, re-sign Branch

Gholston is the 3rd TB Buc you've mentioned.. I'm guessing you watch a lot of their games..

OLB: Meh. Draft and/or post-June 1 cuts.

ILB: resign/tag Hightower, Z. Brown (undersized for Pats LB but I'm sure that BB took note of 28 tackles total in the two Pats games this year).

At 6'6 and 280lbs, Gholston does look like he'd be a prototypical Patriots 4-3 DE. That being said, he's 25 and will probably be highly sought after on the FA Market, though he may fall into the 2nd tier of signings because of people like Charles Johnson and Tyson Alualu being available.

S: Resign Harmon

CB: Prefer to resign Ryan but he may be too pricey. High tender or extend M. Butler.
D. Butler (second go-round, this time as versatile slot CB with Rowe as CB2 on outside if Ryan leaves, price will likely be reasonable). D. Shead (will start year on PUP with ACL but value signing for second half of season because of injury). Cyrus Jones' development into top 4 CB will be key.

The Pats will probably add a CB or two via the draft. CB is supposed to be one of the deeper positions.. They will probably add a S in the draft as well.