Patriots extend offer to Bills RFA RB Mike Gillislee

[DaBruinz]

What is the deadline for the Bills to match or not?

5 days from submission of the contract to the NFL.

 

[DaBruinz]

3 reasons why:

1- They need picks
2 - All RB's except for White are FA's next year
3 - The RB class is deep

No, they don't "need" picks. Despite having no 1st or 2nd rounder, the Pats still have 8 draft picks. They also have 20+M in free cap space and plenty of roster room to sign UDFAs..

If Gillislee's offer sheet isn't matched, then he'd also be signed past this year.

You're the second person who has said that this year's RB draft class is deep. I respectfully disagree. There are 5 RB prospects who have rated out in the 1st 3 rounds. One of them is Joe Mixon, who is not likely on the Pats board due to his arrest of hitting a woman. The other 3 will be off the board before the Pats draft unless they pick up a 1st or early 2nd rounder. And, even then, I'm not sold they'd pick a RB because their proven strategy is to pick from Lines or LBs early on.

 

[Dexter]

 

[amazinPats]

it will be much more difficult to defend 4M for Gillislee in 2017 when they could easily have him for 2.7 or the 2nd round pick.. (Quoted from Long Distance)

bing! bing! bing! We have a winner!!

 

[TheFlyingWedge]

Who declared Burkhead starting tailback? Bolden is more a reserve/utility back and special-teams specialist. Bringing in someone to replace Blount was a given; I thought they'd do it via the draft but apparently they like Gillislee. Right now it looks like RB by committee, perhaps a true lead back will emerge.

Some fans who were a quite ecstatic over the Burkhead signing were adamant that he wasn't going to play ST here concidering the salary. I think there's still a possibility that Burkhead and Bolden could fit very similar roles.

 

[Dexter]

 

[PatsFanSince74]

3 reasons why:

1- They need picks
2 - All RB's except for White are FA's next year
3 - The RB class is deep

The Pats don't "need picks." They had all the picks they needed and chose to use two big ones to trade for proven quality rather than roll the dice this time around. I think they used those picks just fine. Probably not something you do every year, but at least a half dozen teams will trip over their feet to copy the Pats strategy next year, trading their picks. He's playing Chess not Checkers.

Next year is an eternity away, while we're on the topic of playing Chess, not Checkers. What might seem obvious to us is just another move on the Game Board to him.

The RB class is not deep when you exclude Mixon for "character" issues and assume you won't be drafting in the top ten.

 

[PatsFanSince74]

Win-Win for BB.
He could end up with a pretty good RB to replace Blount AND he gets to mess with the Bills "management," creating a big distraction with their fan base, which is already apoplectic over the role Hogan played when it counted last January/February, when they should be worrying about other things.

 

[IcyPatriot]

70 pages at TwoBillsDrive .... Pats sign Gillislee to offer sheet - The Stadium Wall

Guy is/was an insurance policy over there.

 

[ChessToCheckers]

IMO the Gillislee signing isn't about "the Pats swindling the Bills again" story line that the mediots are propagating. I think it's more boring than that.

Gillislee is worth more to the Pats than the Bills and the Pats have far more Cap available than Buffalo.

Buffalo has a great running game with or without Gillislee as their backup. In NE, we currently need a "short yard, power specialist" who can punch through to get us 1-2 yards for that First Down or Touchdown. Said differently, MG will fill a specific need in New England. I don't think he does as much in Buffalo.

That said, Gillislee is a proven talent, a great pass protector, has decent hands and has a high YPC. I'd love to see him in a Pats uniform!

 

[RobertWeathers]

IMO the Gillislee signing isn't about "the Pats swindling the Bills again" story line that the mediots are propagating. I think it's more boring than that.

Gillislee is worth more to the Pats than the Bills and the Pats have far more Cap available than Buffalo.

Buffalo has a great running game with or without Gillislee as their backup. In NE, we currently need a "short yard, power specialist" who can punch through to get us 1-2 yards for that First Down or Touchdown. Said differently, MG will fill a specific need in New England. I don't think he does as much in Buffalo.

That said, Gillislee is a proven talent, a great pass protector, has decent hands and has a high YPC. I'd love to see him in a Pats uniform!

Why are people slotting him as a short yardage, power-back? I don't think he is THAT.

The guy averages 5.6 ypc. He's a 1000 yd runner waiting to happen here

 

[Kontradiction]

I can easily see them doing that as well. Williams was a favorite of many in the draft forum last year (including me). If he makes an expected second year leap, the Bills will have a couple of pretty decent options at the tailback position.

 

[patsinthesnow]

Dang, Gillislee makes Blount, Ridley, & BJGE look like snails. We haven't had a main RB with speed in quite some time.

 

[SHOWTIME15]

That would be awesome!! Bye bye blount.

 

[slam]

It baffles me as to why the Pats are the only team doing this. Has any other team tried to sign an RFA? We tried with Emmanuel Sanders, which was worth a shot. Why wouldn't the Jets or Browns try to do this when he seems undervalued? He could help a team for three years.

 

[Ross12]

I can easily see them doing that as well. Williams was a favorite of many in the draft forum last year (including me). If he makes an expected second year leap, the Bills will have a couple of pretty decent options at the tailback position.

Agreed, really liked what I saw from Williams prior to the draft and was really hoping he was taken by NE. I thought he showed flashes last year in Buffalo. I think it's smart for them to get him more involved.

 

[Hammer of Thor]

It baffles me as to why the Pats are the only team doing this. Has any other team tried to sign an RFA? We tried with Emmanuel Sanders, which was worth a shot. Why wouldn't the Jets or Browns try to do this when he seems undervalued? He could help a team for three years.

By their nature, RFA signings require teams spotting what they consider to be market arbitrage. By that, I mean the salary at all RFA levels are relatively cheap, even a 1st round tender. So teams tend to set their tender based on the concept, "this is the minimum we need to pay this guy to virtually assure us that we won't lose the player." Thus the draft pick compensation is usually worth more than what the player himself is worth on the open market.

Brian Hoyer is a great example of this. Patriots placed a 2nd round tender on him in 2012; no one bit. Just months later, the Patriots couldn't even find a trade partner for him, they wound up outright cutting him. Clearly he wasn't really worth a 2nd rounder months earlier, but the salary associated with that was so low that the Pats were happy to pay that to ensure Hoyer would at least be part of the team in training camp.

So most RFAs just cost too much versus the market. This particular case is an understandable one from Buffalo's perspective - Gilleslee is so far down Buffalo's depth chart, so they don't even think the extra protection a 2nd round tender provides is worth the cap space. Whereas he'll be at the top of the depth chart for the Pats so he's quite easily worth a 5th rounder. This type of arbitrage usually doesn't exist in the RFA market as noted above; there's usually less than a handful a year.

Hogan, on the other hand, was a case of Buffalo just not understanding the talent they had.....

 

[patfanken]

I don't think cap space is an issue for the Pats on Gillie. Essentially they just gave him the money they got back from DA. When Miguel gets around to putting all these latest figures together, the Pats will still have just below $20MM left in cap space, even when you figure the $4MM he's going to get this year.

As for the Bills, I thought at first they'd have to match if only as a PR move. But the more I think on it, it really doesn't make sense to pay that much to your backup RB, especially when you have a decent prospect like Williams. If I were them, I'd grab the 5th rounder and move on.

More and more it seems to me that the Pats aren't looking at this draft as likely finding any impact players. If this goes through, it will likely mean they'll have 6 picks starting at #72, and will wind up with some prospects they hope can develop into one or 2 starters down the road, but no one who is going to make much of a contribution (baring injury) this season. Kind of lining up like that washout draft class in 2007, where we had a bunch of very low picks plus Merriweather added to a stacked team. Hopefully we end up doing a bit better.

 

[ViperGTS]

It baffles me as to why the Pats are the only team doing this. Has any other team tried to sign an RFA? We tried with Emmanuel Sanders, which was worth a shot. Why wouldn't the Jets or Browns try to do this when he seems undervalued? He could help a team for three years.

Quite frankly...it's poor form in a lot of ways. Most other teams are worried about the same being fine to them. Difference is, the Pats will ensure their players are tagged appropriately to their value and would have the flexibility to match if they want.

 

[patsbrasilpatriotas]

No, they don't "need" picks. Despite having no 1st or 2nd rounder, the Pats still have 8 draft picks. They also have 20+M in free cap space and plenty of roster room to sign UDFAs..

If Gillislee's offer sheet isn't matched, then he'd also be signed past this year.

You're the second person who has said that this year's RB draft class is deep. I respectfully disagree. There are 5 RB prospects who have rated out in the 1st 3 rounds. One of them is Joe Mixon, who is not likely on the Pats board due to his arrest of hitting a woman. The other 3 will be off the board before the Pats draft unless they pick up a 1st or early 2nd rounder. And, even then, I'm not sold they'd pick a RB because their proven strategy is to pick from Lines or LBs early on.

I love all the moves but they have for now a lot of 1 yr rentals - Ealy, Burk, Cooks - I know he has the 5th yar option - So they really need better picks IMO. How many 6th round picks are still there ( don't use Brady please)?