You weren’t exactly clear on the Montgomery comment. After rereading it based on your response, I see you were trying to say he’s not a punt returner. My bad.
The Pats could have given Gunner the right of first refusal tender, which was $2.433m. Only 300k more than this deal. They chose not to. you’re right that maybe Gunner thought the Pats gave up on him, or maybe they did try to match and Gunner said no. I’m just saying that the dollar amounts aren’t too different, and if they wanted to they at least could have had the option.
Anyway, we’ll see if any stories come out on this in the future. I’m very curious to see what the team thought.