Free Agent Targets 2019

[Snooky97]

Just saw a post on twitter about the potential free agents for this year coming up. One guy who I took interest in and who we will be playing against this Sunday is Anthony Barr

 

[Love The Drake]

Just saw a post on twitter about the potential free agents for this year coming up. One guy who I took interest in and who we will be playing against this Sunday is Anthony Barr

We wont have much cap to compete in free agency.
We need to nail the draft class

 

[Snooky97]

We wont have much cap to compete in free agency.
We need to nail the draft class

Oh yeah completely agree, this years class is deep with talent defensively

 

[jah]

Just saw a post on twitter about the potential free agents for this year coming up. One guy who I took interest in and who we will be playing against this Sunday is Anthony Barr

I thought he was an up and coming player but Vikings fans have seemed down on him lately.

 

[203Pat]

We wont have much cap to compete in free agency.
We need to nail the draft class

We’re screwed.

 

[TheRainMaker]

We wont have much cap to compete in free agency.
We need to nail the draft class

If that’s the case, I don’t think the Pats could even Franchise Flowers. I think he’s gone after this year.

 

[jah]

We wont have much cap to compete in free agency.
We need to nail the draft class

We will have cap space, or at least the ability to create some. If BB wants to make a Gilmore-esque splash he absolutely can.

 

[luuked]

If that’s the case, I don’t think the Pats could even Franchise Flowers. I think he’s gone after this year.

Given that the tag for DE was 17M last year the franchise tag for Flowers was never in play to begin with completely independent of cap space.

That being said we will have enough cap space this offseason because there are a handful of contracts that will definitely either be reworked or cut. And that is before we see how the front office addresses the Brady situation.

 

[Joey007]

This will be the first offseason in a long time where it feels like anything could happen. The future could go any direction at this point.

 

[luuked]

This will be the first offseason in a long time where it feels like anything could happen. The future could go any direction at this point.

If not this than a year later for sure.

 

[VrabelMayeWin]

We wont have much cap to compete in free agency.

Depends what we do with Allen, Hightower, Gronk, etc, we could have a ton of cap space .

 

[doesntmatter1]

We will probably lose Tre but I'm not really concerned about him. I'm concerned about upgrading our defensive tackles. Shelton and Brown are probably gone after this season and I am excited for their replacements. I'm thinking maybe we get Datone Jones or Grady Jarrett at a reasonable price.

I have zero idea what we will do with our receivers. None of our guys are having breakout years so they could probably be resigned for pennies.

 

[supafly]

We will probably lose Tre but I'm not really concerned about him. I'm concerned about upgrading our defensive tackles. Shelton and Brown are probably gone after this season and I am excited for their replacements. I'm thinking maybe we get Datone Jones or Grady Jarrett at a reasonable price.

I have zero idea what we will do with our receivers. None of our guys are having breakout years so they could probably be resigned for pennies.

There is no way that we don’t add a free agent or two at DT, not to mention having 6/100 first picks in the draft. I agree with you that Belichick isn’t going to ignore the lack of talent at such an important position.

 

[TinhWoodhead]

This will be the first offseason in a long time where it feels like anything could happen. The future could go any direction at this point.

Any given offseason

 

[Ras-IR Dowling]

I know he’s been injured this season but depending on Gronk what about dealing a late pick for Adam shaheen? Liked him a lot coming into the draft 2 years ago. Not sure if he’s a fit for Nagys offense. I wouldn’t deal anything higher than a 6th but who knows with a offseason to heal up could be decent next year.

 

[maineman209]

Any given offseason

IDK. There have been a lot of offseasons in which I felt fairly confident about most of the players who would be re-signed and which would be allowed to walk, and which players would have their contracts re-structured or extended. And then something completely different happens.

For the upcoming offseason, I have no effing clue. Brady, Gronk, HT and the McCourty twins all retiring, and Etling being named the 2019 starting Pats QB seems just as possible as any other scenario.

 

[mcmurtry86]

Pats need to retool. Guys like Gronk, Hightower, Clayborn, Allen and D.McCourty need to go or be restructed. Impossible to argue that Gronk is going to be worth 12M next year, or McCourty 11M. Clayborn and Allen could easily be replaced by cheap talent and might be addition by subtraction. Hightower, like Gronk, is too old/beat up to warrant big bucks.

Without addressing the fact that the majority of the big cap guys are low production in 2018 guys, I don't see how this team competes for a Super Bowl next year. They have 44 guys under contract and arguably 2 of their top 5 players this year (Flowers, T.Brown) are free agents and need big contracts.

The whiffs and bad injury luck with the past 3-4 drafts have really boxed the team in. They need two brand new defensive tackles (can't imagine M.Brown or Shelton being retained given they're both pretty bad). They need significant work at WR and TE. The OL could potentially need a brand new LT (can't rely on an unknown young player like Wynn coming off a major injury). The RB situation needs to be addressed. The DE and LB depth needs to be bolstered (probably with mid tier vets and rookies)

There's a lot to do and not much money to do it. The draft can only help so much. Typically, rookies don't contribute much. If they draft 10 guys, maybe 3-4 will be active on game days and only 1-2 will be guys who contribute regularly (based on Belichick's near 20 year history).

I think they need an aggressive, active offseason. It might mean wasting the last year of Brady but this team is very poorly set up for the future. They only have good young players at RB (and Michel seems likely to be a one contract guy). Mason is solid at RG and isn't going anywhere. Pretty much every other position is old/declining/chronically inured (safeties, TE, WR, RT), mediocre (every CB outside of Gilmore, LG/C, ILB) or outright not good enough/unknown due to unsigned guys (DT,DE,LT)

Obviously, no team is going to be great at every position. But the talent level on this team is much worse than most Brady rosters. If guys were healthy or playing at their prime level, it would be another story. But there's no reason to think Gronk, Cannon, Hightower, Chung, Edelman, D.McCourty are going to find the fountain or health and youth. That's a lot of premium talent to replace with no obvious in house replacements. The safeties and Edelman will likely stick around for another year or two of continued decline which means other positions need to improve to offset the downgrade at those spots.

Their roster is old, thin and in decline. They only have $20M to play with and it's going to be very difficult to balance spending that cap to address the holes in the current roster (and hedge against or replace declining vets) while also retaining or replacing T.Brown and Flowers.

 

[Clonamery]

IDK. There have been a lot of offseasons in which I felt fairly confident about most of the players who would be re-signed and which would be allowed to walk, and which players would have their contracts re-structured or extended. And then something completely different happens.

For the upcoming offseason, I have no effing clue. Brady, Gronk, HT and the McCourty twins all retiring, and Etling being named the 2019 starting Pats QB seems just as possible as any other scenario.

Oh, great. So really it's just your perception that is different...which means I'll have one less intelligent, informed opinion to seek out which means I'll be less informed which means I'll feel even more inadequate while posting here which means I'll be more defensive which means I'll be even more snarky with a hair across my ass which means I could find myself banned from an even more asinine post than usual which means I shouldn't even bother showing up here.

 

[luuked]

IDK. There have been a lot of offseasons in which I felt fairly confident about most of the players who would be re-signed and which would be allowed to walk, and which players would have their contracts re-structured or extended. And then something completely different happens.

For the upcoming offseason, I have no effing clue. Brady, Gronk, HT and the McCourty twins all retiring, and Etling being named the 2019 starting Pats QB seems just as possible as any other scenario.

I agree that 2018 (or maybe 2019 if they bring most of the core back for a final run) will be the end of the Pats 2.0 (or even the end of the Brady Pats). I don't think we have ever gone with so much uncertainty into an offseason in almost 2 decades.

 

[mgteich]

not since last year

The issue was, is, and will be, how long Brady can be effective.

The rest is almost the same each year. Go back and see where we were last year going into the offseason. We had key free agents, questions about vets and needs. This is always the case.

We are very well set with draft picks. We should add at one DT and one DE/OLB in the first two rounds. We have enough cap money; with a 2-3 restructures being available as always.

I agree that 2018 (or maybe 2019 if they bring most of the core back for a final run) will be the end of the Pats 2.0 (or even the end of the Brady Pats). I don't think we have ever gone with so much uncertainty into an offseason in almost 2 decades.