We gotta go get him (Tee Higgins)

[dliverey44]

I think they can do it all. There really aren’t that many blue chip talents in free agency. So a lot of the hole plugging is going to be a lot cheaper than whatever Tee gets.

If Alaric Jackson or Ronnie Stanley make it to FA, they could definitely afford a 30M Tee Higgins and a up to 25M LT.

 

[imahobgoblin]

Bourne had Mac Jones throwing to him. Higgins had Joe Burrow. Apples/oranges…

I don’t see why you’re confused. Is Higgins worth 30 million per season… I say no. That would be money better spent at offensive tackle or defensive line.

Lol. You are operating under an assumption that the Pats have to chose between Higgins and an offensive tackle and defensive lineman. We have $120+ million. If Higgins takes $30 million, do you seriously think an OT and DL will cost $90 million? There are no OL free agents that will require a massive contract. If Baltimore let Ronnie Stanley go, that might be $20 million per year, but that contract would be with heavy health incentives. Cam Robinson is coming off a 3 yr $54 million deal and he is not worth $20 million. It all goes down from Cam. Osa Odighizuwa is probably the best DL available, and he will try for $25 million a year. That is ridiculous for us as this draft is a d-line deep draft with starters ready to go. We have to spend 90% of our cap space. Money is not the issue this year. It is best spent providing depth and filling roster holes, but they can easily afford Higgins and still do that.

 

[signbabybrady]

Lol. You are operating under an assumption that the Pats have to chose between Higgins and an offensive tackle and defensive lineman. We have $120+ million. If Higgins takes $30 million, do you seriously think an OT and DL will cost $90 million? There are no OL free agents that will require a massive contract. If Baltimore let Ronnie Stanley go, that might be $20 million per year, but that contract would be with heavy health incentives. Cam Robinson is coming off a 3 yr $54 million deal and he is not worth $20 million. It all goes down from Cam. Osa Odighizuwa is probably the best DL available, and he will try for $25 million a year. That is ridiculous for us as this draft is a d-line deep draft with starters ready to go. We have to spend 90% of our cap space. Money is not the issue this year. It is best spent providing depth and filling roster holes, but they can easily afford Higgins and still do that.

Don't forget teams typically back load things so these deals won't cost that much on this year's cap. We can afford way more than people realize.

The problem won't be available dollars but might be available talent. I really think we are going to need a trade or two if we are going to spend as much money as we have.

 

[dliverey44]

Lol. You are operating under an assumption that the Pats have to chose between Higgins and an offensive tackle and defensive lineman. We have $120+ million. If Higgins takes $30 million, do you seriously think an OT and DL will cost $90 million? There are no OL free agents that will require a massive contract. If Baltimore let Ronnie Stanley go, that might be $20 million per year, but that contract would be with heavy health incentives. Cam Robinson is coming off a 3 yr $54 million deal and he is not worth $20 million. It all goes down from Cam. Osa Odighizuwa is probably the best DL available, and he will try for $25 million a year. That is ridiculous for us as this draft is a d-line deep draft with starters ready to go. We have to spend 90% of our cap space. Money is not the issue this year. It is best spent providing depth and filling roster holes, but they can easily afford Higgins and still do that.

Alaric Jackson will get a hefty paycheck if he makes it to FA. He is 26 years old and is ranked 18 of 141 OTs by PFF. I know grain of salt, he is also one of 13 OTs to have over a 75 grade in run and pass blocking. I bet dude gets 23M-25M and I would absolutely be for our front office to be the ones that give it to him. I know everyone wants to improve pass blocking but run blocking is equally important and if someone is highly competent at both then that needs to be our guy.

 

[Drunken Cicerone]

Damaged goods. 3 significant injuries in 4 years..

And probably a 2 year commitment: Not meant to get the team over the hump into the superbowl but something to help the guy you hope wil be the future of your franchise develop

 

[VJCPatriot]

30M is the going price now for a top free agent WR. I would definitely offer that. 4/120m should get it done?

 

[PowerRunRevival]

my two biggest arguments for Higgins that I don’t expect much disagreement on. 1. He would be a big upgrade at receiver for the Pats. 2. The Pats are not a free agent destination.

It seems like there are a number of people on here who are afraid of paying Ted big money because they believe the money can be better spent elsewhere. That idea seems ridiculous to me, since with Brady and Belichick are gone the only competitive advantage the pats have in free agency is the ability to pay more than anyone else due to their cap space. If Higgins decides to take top dollar from the Pats we should be happy, and the assumption that they could do better than him at any price doesn’t jibe with the reality of what the team has been able to accomplish in free agency especially after the dynasty years and the quality of this (and most free agent classes). In the nfl most teams lock up good players before they get to free agency. With a limited talent pool and the most free agent money the idea that we don’t want to sign the best free agent at his position because he’s too expensive doesn’t make sense to me.

I saw someone post that overpaying for players is the best way to mediocrity. Well we have been one of the worst teams in the nfl two years a row, becoming a mediocre would be a huge step up and a huge show of improvement for this team.

During the dynasty Belichick made a killing with signing value contracts. Then as the team started to decline under him, the Pats letting expensive players like Joe Thuney it was assumed they could do better with value contracts was a big culprit in that fall.

I’ve seen Slayton mentioned as an alternative, who can come at a quarter of the price with half the production. Well the difference between Higgins production and half that is the difference between wins and losses. Approaching free agency like the Pats are smarter than the market and improve with value contracts rather than targeting bonafide dogs will lead to the team being terrible again.

One last thing, the effect of the perpetually rising cap has to be taken into account. A contracting at 35mm a year with deferred bonus money is going to look a lot more expensive this year than it will at the end of the deal.

I know a lot of people harken back to Belichick’s team building strategy as the best model because it’s what they have personally seen be the most effective. Let’s not ignore how spectacularly that team building model failed to end his tenure here and advocate for the team making the same mistakes again.

 

[Real fan 02]

And probably a 2 year commitment: Not meant to get the team over the hump into the superbowl but something to help the guy you hope wil be the future of your franchise develop

If he is healthy and still can play sure take a look at him definitely. It's just with WRs those knee and ankle injuries are career killers.

 

[Wozzy]

@Wozzy: You seem to forgot that Cincinnati had a very Good #3 WR Tyler Boyd who left in FA last year. Add all purpose RB Joe Mixon who left in FA24 too: I hope this clears it up for the naysayers. Now that I think about it Tee Higgins have a #1 Ceiling.

Tyler Boyd went to Tennessee and caught 39 passes for 390 yards, after 8 years of averaging 800-1000 yards receiving with Joe Burrow throwing to him.

Thanks, you just proved my point. Blocking and QB play have a lot to do with whether a receiver is successful or not.

 

[Wozzy]

Lol. You are operating under an assumption that the Pats have to chose between Higgins and an offensive tackle and defensive lineman. We have $120+ million. If Higgins takes $30 million, do you seriously think an OT and DL will cost $90 million? There are no OL free agents that will require a massive contract. If Baltimore let Ronnie Stanley go, that might be $20 million per year, but that contract would be with heavy health incentives. Cam Robinson is coming off a 3 yr $54 million deal and he is not worth $20 million. It all goes down from Cam. Osa Odighizuwa is probably the best DL available, and he will try for $25 million a year. That is ridiculous for us as this draft is a d-line deep draft with starters ready to go. We have to spend 90% of our cap space. Money is not the issue this year. It is best spent providing depth and filling roster holes, but they can easily afford Higgins and still do that.

Money dries up fast once you start paying top of the market players. Higgins isn’t getting 30 million, he’s presumably getting that per season with a large signing bonus. Lamb signed for 136 million, Jefferson for 140 million.

It’s also not about the money alone, it’s about whether Higgins is worth that ^ kind of money. Also about your confidence in this front office and their ability to find WR talent in the draft. Draft a few stud WR’s and pay them like rookies, 1-5 million per, instead of paying one overrated vet 30 million per.

 

[VJCPatriot]

Also about your confidence in this front office and their ability to find WR talent in the draft. Draft a few stud WR’s and pay them like rookies, 1-5 million per, instead of paying one overrated vet 30 million per.

That confidence would be a big fat ZERO right now.

Not only has the Patriots WR draft luck been dryer than a dead river in the desert the past 20 years but their recent WORST picks: N"keal Harry, Tyquan Thornton, and Ja'Lynn Polk indicate a CRITICAL WEAKNESS in our entire scouting department for picking WRs and all those guys were taken when WOLF was here and involved in our personnel decisions, he joined the Patriots in 2020. And Guess what, he's STILL here now!

 

[Huckleberry1]

That confidence would be a big fat ZERO right now.

Not only has the Patriots WR draft luck been dryer than a dead river in the desert the past 20 years but their recent WORST picks: N"keal Harry, Tyquan Thornton, and Ja'Lynn Polk indicate a CRITICAL WEAKNESS in our entire scouting department for picking WRs and all those guys were taken when WOLF was here and involved in our personnel decisions, he joined the Patriots in 2020. And Guess what, he's STILL here now!

And guess what, Vrabel wants to work with him and he’s not going anywhere. Blaming Wolf for Belichick’s draft picks is as stupid as stupid gets. If Polk doesn’t pan out that will be on Wolf, but the others were Belichick, period. And his decision to stay out of last years ****ty free agent market is going to pay off big time now, and all the crying will have been for naught.

 

[PowerRunRevival]

Money dries up fast once you start paying top of the market players. Higgins isn’t getting 30 million, he’s presumably getting that per season with a large signing bonus. Lamb signed for 136 million, Jefferson for 140 million.

It’s also not about the money alone, it’s about whether Higgins is worth that ^ kind of money. Also about your confidence in this front office and their ability to find WR talent in the draft. Draft a few stud WR’s and pay them like rookies, 1-5 million per, instead of paying one overrated vet 30 million per.

Can you give me an example of money drying up real fast by signing top of the market players? I guarantee any examples you give are from teams that are a lot more desirable as free agent destinations. As a Pats fan not being able to spend the money has been a much bigger issue than the money drying up too fast.

Pay Higgins whatever it takes, if you need more money in the future rework the contracts and convert salary into bonus years. The salary cap is going to keep going up until the nfls popularity decreases which doesn’t sound lucky.

Lets stop pretending that our front office is smarter than others and suggesting we can do better by paying non top of the market contracts in free agency. Being fiscally conservative with a team that needs to spend a lot of money over the next two years doesn’t make sense to me.

 

[signbabybrady]

That confidence would be a big fat ZERO right now.

Not only has the Patriots WR draft luck been dryer than a dead river in the desert the past 20 years but their recent WORST picks: N"keal Harry, Tyquan Thornton, and Ja'Lynn Polk indicate a CRITICAL WEAKNESS in our entire scouting department for picking WRs and all those guys were taken when WOLF was here and involved in our personnel decisions, he joined the Patriots in 2020. And Guess what, he's STILL here now!

Wasn't Groh director of college scouting and Wolf director of pro scouting?

 

[VJCPatriot]

And guess what, Vrabel wants to work with him and he’s not going anywhere. Blaming Wolf for Belichick’s draft picks is as stupid as stupid gets. If Polk doesn’t pan out that will be on Wolf, but the others were Belichick, period. And his decision to stay out of last years ****ty free agent market is going to pay off big time now, and all the crying will have been for naught.

Never said he was going anywhere anytime soon. Just pointing out the fact that Wolf is unproven and that he's been here for all the worst most recent Patriots WR draft failures. Ok maybe BB overrided Wolf on the Harry pick for the infamous 'good interview' but Tyquan Thornton and Ja'Lynn Polk are also bad looks, especially considering we could have taken better WRs such as Pickens and McConkey instead of those DUDS.

 

[Huckleberry1]

Never said he was going anywhere anytime soon. Just pointing out the fact that Wolf is unproven and that he's been here for all the worst most recent Patriots WR draft failures. Ok maybe BB overrided Wolf on the Harry pick for the infamous 'good interview' but Tyquan Thornton and Ja'Lynn Polk are also bad looks, especially considering we could have taken better WRs such as Pickens and McConkey instead of those DUDS.

Once again, those were Belichick’s picks, and if anything the fact that Kraft kept Wolf and Groh when he fired Belichick would indicate they were giving him good advice on players and he was ignoring them. However no one actually knows who said what to whom about who. Polk had a horrible season, no question about it, and McConkey played really well, so to this point there’s no question that Wolf would have been better off drafting McConkey.

Vrabel just came from the Browns organization, and they know Wolf very well. And Bruschi’s comments seem to say that Wolf got hosed last year. Kraft just gave Vrabel everything he wanted, and all Vrabel had to do was say the word and Wolf either would have been gone or seriously demoted to a point where would leave of his own accord. Instead Vrabel said he was looking forward to working with Wolf, and his own guy, Cowden, is working below, or more likely hand in hand with Wolf. Imo that’s the way it should be, Vrabel knows what he wants to build, and they will give him their views on who is available, and Vrabel will make the final call.

Wolf could have gone into last years free agency looking to make himself look good and Patriots fans happy by blowing big money on mediocre players. Instead he held off, signed depth and their own guys, and took major **** for not spending the $$$$$$. Now they don’t have any significant free agents of their own to sign, have at least 135 million to spend, and a franchise QB. IMO he’s done a great job, and they sitting in a great place because of it.

 

[imahobgoblin]

Money dries up fast once you start paying top of the market players. Higgins isn’t getting 30 million, he’s presumably getting that per season with a large signing bonus. Lamb signed for 136 million, Jefferson for 140 million.

It’s also not about the money alone, it’s about whether Higgins is worth that ^ kind of money. Also about your confidence in this front office and their ability to find WR talent in the draft. Draft a few stud WR’s and pay them like rookies, 1-5 million per, instead of paying one overrated vet 30 million per.

Higgins is getting $30+ million.

Tee Higgins Rumors: NFL Personnel Expect Bengals Free Agent to Land $30M AAV Contract

Tee Higgins could be due for a massive contract this offseason. Per ESPN's Jeremy Fowler, the Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver's market is expected to be…

bleacherreport.com

The Pats were allegedly the highest bidder on Calvin Ridley, who is trash compared to Higgins. The Pats allegedly offered Ayuke $32.4 and were willing to send SF a 2025 second-round pick, a 2026 fourth-round pick and Kendrick Bourne.

I never claimed to have any confidence in the front office. They have earned nothing to this point. I like how you just think we can wave a magic wand and draft stud WRs. Hahahahaha. Keep dreaming.

Higgins is still getting +$30 million.

 

[VJCPatriot]

Once again, those were Belichick’s picks, and if anything the fact that Kraft kept Wolf and Groh when he fired Belichick would indicate they were giving him good advice on players and he was ignoring them. However no one actually knows who said what to whom about who. Polk had a horrible season, no question about it, and McConkey played really well, so to this point there’s no question that Wolf would have been better off drafting McConkey.

Polk is NOT a Belichick pick. He was taken during the Mayo regime. Furthermore this doesn't change the fact that Wolf and the current SAME outfit of scouts prepared the reports that somehow suggested the guys we ended up taking would be good choices. They have been absolute DUDS.

There's something fundamentally wrong with the Patriots scouting department when it comes to wide receivers and you've said nothing to disprove this assertion which is based on recent evidence and the track record of 20 years of failure. Wolf didn't change that, in fact he has been part of it since 2020.

I'm still waiting to hear about our scouting department getting revamped since Vrabel took over and haven't heard anything yet.

 

[Huckleberry1]

Polk is NOT a Belichick pick. He was taken during the Mayo regime. Furthermore this doesn't change the fact that Wolf and the current SAME outfit of scouts prepared the reports that somehow suggested the guys we ended up taking would be good choices. They have been absolute DUDS.

There's something fundamentally wrong with the Patriots scouting department when it comes to wide receivers and you've said nothing to disprove this assertion which is based on recent evidence and the track record of 20 years of failure. Wolf didn't change that, in fact he has been part of it since 2020.

I'm still waiting to hear about our scouting department getting revamped since Vrabel took over and haven't heard anything yet.

I said that Wolf picked Polk, read it again.

 

[Huckleberry1]

Polk is NOT a Belichick pick. He was taken during the Mayo regime. Furthermore this doesn't change the fact that Wolf and the current SAME outfit of scouts prepared the reports that somehow suggested the guys we ended up taking would be good choices. They have been absolute DUDS.

There's something fundamentally wrong with the Patriots scouting department when it comes to wide receivers and you've said nothing to disprove this assertion which is based on recent evidence and the track record of 20 years of failure. Wolf didn't change that, in fact he has been part of it since 2020.

I'm still waiting to hear about our scouting department getting revamped since Vrabel took over and haven't heard anything yet.

The person in charge makes the picks, you have absolutely no idea what Wolf’s counsel was on any of them, you’re just trying to blame him for all of Belichick’s drafting failures despite having no evidence whatsoever to tag him with. It’s all just conjecture, o otherwise known as ********.. Vrabel, on the other hand, apparently has a much higher opinion of him and his abilities. So I guess you are **** out of luck.