Building For The Future With Free Agents - NOT

[mgteich]

We have re-signed several of our own to contract for more than a year.

We have signed draftees and UDFA's
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We have signed UFA free agents from other teams, but 10 of the 12 are on one-year contracts. Gibson is a 3-year addition. Takitaki is a 2 year addition. That's not exactly building for our future playoff runs.

 

[hornetfb85]

Just my personal opinion here, but I think they went into free agency with the intent on bringing in the bigger names. They saw early the lack of interest in playing in New England so pivoted to 1 year deals. Need to show growth as an entire franchise, not just on the field, to take advantage in future years.

 

[BTTA]

Just my personal opinion here, but I think they went into free agency with the intent on bringing in the bigger names. They saw early the lack of interest in playing in New England so pivoted to 1 year deals. Need to show growth as an entire franchise, not just on the field, to take advantage in future years.

That's probably part of it. And why not bet on yourself to establish something that player's want to be part of? They had that advantage for a number of years and know the benefits.

 

[patfanken]

Signing FAs comes for 2 reasons. First is to add experienced depth in areas of need, much like BB did in 2000 and 2001. Not big names, but good players who know what they are doing.

The second are the first day or two kind of guys. These are the the the kind of guys that take you from a team just trying to make the playoffs to a team that is looking at winning multiple playoff games . Just one or 2 key guys.

You don't take first week FAs until you are comfortable that Maye is showing enough progress that he will be good enough to be the starter. Hopefully that will be next year or sometime this year

 

[jmt57]

The fact that a lot of players are on one-year contracts is no big deal.

Exclude players still on their rookie deals that have yet to hit free agency, and by far the most common length of a contract is one year.

I don't consider that to be a sign that a team is or is not building for a future playoff run.

Case in point: the Chiefs have only 25 player signed through 2025, and 12 through 2026 - and that number includes rookies, practice squad players, and other bottom of the roster personnel.

 

[gobesmug]

Just my personal opinion here, but I think they went into free agency with the intent on bringing in the bigger names. They saw early the lack of interest in playing in New England so pivoted to 1 year deals. Need to show growth as an entire franchise, not just on the field, to take advantage in future years.

It wasn't a great FA in terms of talent the Pats needed. The only real big name we needed was Ridley and the Pats made a real strong offer.

Had the Jags not FA tagged Josh Allen, it would have been interesting to see if they would have made a big run at him.

 

[Headcase]

I think people that get excited about FA are going to be in for a world of disappointment if Wolf gets the GM job.

 

[mgteich]

The fact that a lot of players are on one-year contracts is no big deal.

Exclude players still on their rookie deals that have yet to hit free agency, and by far the most common length of a contract is one year.

I don't consider that to be a sign that a team is or is not building for a future playoff run.

Case in point: the Chiefs have only 25 player signed through 2025, and 12 through 2026 - and that number includes rookies, practice squad players, and other bottom of the roster personnel.

The Chiefs have a different cap structure. The pay a lot to the top of their roster and bring in scrubs that they hope work out.
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The patriots have always gone out and signed midlevel older and younger player for 2-3 year contracts, expecting that some would work out and some would be gone soon.

Actually, Gibson and Takitaki are examples of that approach, replacing Elliot and Wilson, also good examples.
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My question is why more of the following weren't signed to 2 or 3 year contracts.
Hooper
Watts
Leverett
Osborne
Hawkins
Ximinez
Wilcox
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I understand why Brisette, Okorafor and Sly were signed for only one year.

But, for me, I would rather have paid the bit of extra signing bonus to sign at least a couple of the seven to longer contracts.

 

[jmt57]

The Chiefs have a different cap structure. The pay a lot to the top of their roster and bring in scrubs that they hope work out.
==============

Valid point, the Chiefs were not the best comparison.

The patriots have always gone out and signed midlevel older and younger player for 2-3 year contracts, expecting that some would work out and some would be gone soon.

Actually, Gibson and Takitaki are examples of that approach, replacing Elliot and Wilson, also good examples.
=================

Agree on Gibson and Takitaki, hopefully those were good decisions.

A little concerned on how Gibson's playing time has regressed.
Takitaki's signing allowed the team to not feel compelled to draft an OLB; good depth.

My question is why more of the following weren't signed to 2 or 3 year contracts.
Hooper
Watts
Leverett
Osborne
Hawkins
Ximinez
Wilcox
========
I understand why Brisette, Okorafor and Sly were signed for only one year.

But, for me, I would rather have paid the bit of extra signing bonus to sign at least a couple of the seven to longer contracts.

Hooper: Going into the draft I preferred that the Pats had selected one of the many TEs selected in the 4th round.
He's on his 4th team in 4 years; 25 catches for 234 yards and 0 TD in '23; turns 30 this season. One-year deal seems right.

Leverett: a healthy scratch for 14 games last year, logging all of 4 snaps in '23 - all on ST. One year deal seems right.

Osborn: I really liked this signing a whole lot. But the reality is that he may end up ranked sixth in number of receptions on the Pats in 2024, behind Henry, Baker, Bourne, Polk and Gibson. If he plays well, extend him mid-season.

Hawkins: has had very limited playing time. Let's see him earn a roster spot before handing out multi-year deals.

Ximines: was a practice squad player in 2023; needs to make the roster first.

Wilcox: competing for a roster spot at TE; again, needs to make the roster first.

 

[mgteich]

Valid point, the Chiefs were not the best comparison.


Agree on Gibson and Takitaki, hopefully those were good decisions.

A little concerned on how Gibson's playing time has regressed.
Takitaki's signing allowed the team to not feel compelled to draft an OLB; good depth.


Hooper: Going into the draft I preferred that the Pats had selected one of the many TEs selected in the 4th round.
He's on his 4th team in 4 years; 25 catches for 234 yards and 0 TD in '23; turns 30 this season. One-year deal seems right.

Leverett: a healthy scratch for 14 games last year, logging all of 4 snaps in '23 - all on ST. One year deal seems right.

Osborn: I really liked this signing a whole lot. But the reality is that he may end up ranked sixth in number of receptions on the Pats in 2024, behind Henry, Baker, Bourne, Polk and Osborn. If he plays well, extend him mid-season.

Hawkins: has had very limited playing time. Let's see him earn a roster spot before handing out multi-year deals.

Ximines: was a practice squad player in 2023; needs to make the roster first.

Wilcox: competing for a roster spot at TE; again, needs to make the roster first.

Thamk you for your evaluations. BTW, what about Watts?

Why do you think that we were unable to find more players to sign who were worthy of a 2 or 3 year contract. Clearly, we had the holes in the roster.

 

[jmt57]

Thank you for your evaluations. BTW, what about Watts?

Sorry about that, missed Watts.

I think he's going to be good with the Patriots. But he is on his fourth team in four seasons, and didn't get much playing time with Pittsburgh (28% of their defensive snaps). Maybe it was just a numbers thing and he was buried on their depth chart, rarely getting a chance? Regardless, one-year seems right considering everything; if he's highly productive then extend him midseason.

Why do you think that we were unable to find more players to sign who were worthy of a 2 or 3 year contract. Clearly, we had the holes in the roster.

I think that what may have happened had to do with the salary cap increasing more than expected.

We saw how that affected high end players at certain positions, such as WR. Teams that were expected to be in difficult cap positions suddenly were not. That allowed the good-teams/teams-in-bad-cap-situations to extend their own quality players. Those were players that normally would have been available to teams in a good-cap-space/need-upgrades situation like the Patriots.

A higher salary cap for all 32 teams is good news for good teams, bad news for bad teams. It equated to a smaller pool of good free agents; that resulted in fewer players worthy of multi-year contracts.

I could be mistaken, but that's the way I saw 2024 NFL free agency play out.

 

[Simpelton]

We have re-signed several of our own to contract for more than a year.

We have signed draftees and UDFA's
==========
We have signed UFA free agents from other teams, but 10 of the 12 are on one-year contracts. Gibson is a 3-year addition. Takitaki is a 2 year addition. That's not exactly building for our future playoff runs.

Why would any UFA come to a 4-13 team with no identity on the tail end of a failed rebuild before things have really started to turn around?

It's time to face the truth. We're the Broncos. We're the Jets. We're the team no one wants to play for unless they get overpaid. And until we turn that around on the field, we can just get used to the new normal.

 

[n1997y]

….
Osborn: I really liked this signing a whole lot. But the reality is that he may end up ranked sixth in number of receptions on the Pats in 2024, behind Henry, Baker, Bourne, Polk and Osborn. If he plays well, extend him mid-season.

Ranked sixth behind himself will be quite a trick….

Sorry, couldn’t resist…

And how did you leave Pop out of that list? Or was it supposed to be Osborn sixth behind Henry, Baker, Bourne, Polk and Pop?

 

[n1997y]

I think people that get excited about FA are going to be in for a world of disappointment if Wolf gets the GM job.

Yeah, my first thought when I saw this thread was that Wolf is all about homegrown talent. We’ve already seen more emphasis on retaining players, spending more to keep our free agents and less on signing other teams’ free agents seems to reflect his style, from what I can see. Now if the draft process can generate more players worth signing to a second contract that would be great.

 

[Clonamery]

Yeah, my first thought when I saw this thread was that Wolf is all about homegrown talent. We’ve already seen more emphasis on retaining players, spending more to keep our free agents and less on signing other teams’ free agents seems to reflect his style, from what I can see. Now if the draft process can generate more players worth signing to a second contract that would be great.

If what you say is true, then maybe just maybe, you might just have something here that you could see, yes, yes, you might just possibly see transpire in a mostly positive way, although there are variables and the logic has to support the data. But you know what I mean.

 

[farn]

I’m not panicking about FA during the first year of the new regime. They resigned many of the players they had worked with & knew they wanted to keep. That so many players - while flawed - wanted to return might be a sign that Mayo is indeed able to encourage a workplace that people enjoy to be a part of…

If that trend continues, the players will talk to others. Competitive money + a good workplace will bring in the talent. But a key component is the draft. 2024-25 are important as we need to get some building blocks in place to start winning and really become a destination again.

Until then, I echo posters who state that NE - if unable to quickly turn around fortunes - will need to outbid to acquire FAs.

 

[PScottman]

Case in point: the Chiefs have only 25 player signed through 2025, and 12 through 2026 - and that number includes rookies, practice squad players, and other bottom of the roster personnel.

I think that's going to be a more common occurrence moving forward because the team "core" costs so much cap room now. Between the top QB, WR/pass catcher and CB (or Edge in some cases) that tends to be a significant amount of team cap space.

Means better be a good talent evaluator as you'll have to hit on more drafted and undrafted players that you can control long term at lower price points than free agents.

 

[Clonamery]

Until then, I echo posters who state that NE - if unable to quickly turn around fortunes - will need to outbid to acquire FAs.

This is weird/is this something new? Did we never not outbid for FA's? Did we outbid for FA's and/or just find alternatives? A lot of people here seem to have a victim's mentality. The only thing that matters is the QB they picked at #3....he either show signs of improvement in practice/gameplay that will be reinforced by another training camp next year or they have some serious dancing to do come next February/March 2025. The rest is just working long hours & breathing through your nose.

 

[Real fan 02]

We have re-signed several of our own to contract for more than a year.

We have signed draftees and UDFA's
==========
We have signed UFA free agents from other teams, but 10 of the 12 are on one-year contracts. Gibson is a 3-year addition. Takitaki is a 2 year addition. That's not exactly building for our future playoff runs.

Gibson will turn out to be one of the best FA signings. Mark my post.

 

[jmt57]

Ranked sixth behind himself will be quite a trick….

Sorry, couldn’t resist…

And how did you leave Pop out of that list? Or was it supposed to be Osborn sixth behind Henry, Baker, Bourne, Polk and Pop?

Lol, good catch.

No, I was thinking Gibson.

3 WRs, 1 TE and 1 RB with more receptions.