Im still going thoroughly through positions in GM LOUNGE so i dont have the full depth picture yet.
I feel pretty certain they would like to bring back Andrews and expect/hope for some sort of Hightower scenario. Since they couldn't agree on extension my guess is they are keeping the communication open and Pats will try to match his market price. Projections vary from 6-8M apy and i wonder how far BB will go. If it settles around 3y/18M (c. 4M cap hit) like PFF is suggesting (lowest estimation out there) im confident he stays in NE. Miguel suggested 3y/22.5M with 5.5M salary cap # in 2021 which would take away c. 4.7M cap (TOP 51 rule). This might be on he high side for BB although lesser C have 10M apy existing contracts.
Also feel they would like to bring back Guy and that should be no prob. around 4M apy taking some 2.5M of cap in 2021.
I fully expect they bring back JC Jackson 1st or 2nd* round RFA tender. 1st rd tender = 4.8M = 4M cap hit in 2021
& Jakob Johnson - ERFA tender (close to 0 cap hit)
For the rest much depends on how market goes and what overall strategy BB takes. At first i didn't think this year BB will go for comp picks but am not so sure anymore. Besides Thuney who i believe will sign elsewhere for top contract there are a few more NE FAs that could qualify for FA lost in comp pick calculation: Wise, Butler, White, Newton, Byrd, maybe some more. So if they get good offers id guess BB will let them go. Newton is a wild card, they might want to bring him back if other options dont work out.
From the players that are unlikely to qualify for FA lost id guess they will bring back at least one of the two ST aces - Bethel and C.Davis - although some top ST players in the league are hitting the market as well. They would take about 1M cap each, maybe even less this yr.
Burkhead and Eluemunor are nice depth pieces to bring back if they get forgotten in first part of FA. Id guess about 1.5M cap hit each, possibly less. Jason McCourty could be a later vet option if he decides to continue for low $. Maybe Moncrief as well. But this is close to vet minimum territory.
They could bring back some guys for TC like Calhoun, DT Davis, Ferentz.. vet min.
If not signed elsewhere Folk might be there in the “shadow“ roster if the two young kickers both fail to satisfy in June/August.
So around 15M in this scenario.
If they bring back some of the mid tier FAs from the potential “FA lost“ group add c. 4M (2021 cap hit w TOP 51 rule) on avg per player (some will take a bit more and some less)
p.s.
2rd tender (3.4M) for JC Jackson is considered as trap option: to get teams tempted to make him an offer and then match that offer to get him on better long term contract..
www.pff.com
