Patriots trade for TE Martellus Bennett!

supafly said:

I didn't mean to suggest that he'd be a blocking TE, just that he may have some additional blocking responsibilities than he's been used to lately. Hard to imagine not seeing more 2 TE sets, but that's just my own personal opinion.

At any rate, you're probably right that Belichick will try and feed him the ball when possible. I'm just voicing some minor concerns that I have.

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As you should, man. That's what this place is all about.

Deus Irae said:

As you should, man. That's what this place is all about.

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Well, if that's the case, let me go out on a limb and state that I'm expecting one of McClellin/Brown to get cut during training camp, and the other to play a fairly minor rotational role.

supafly said:

I didn't mean to suggest that he'd be a blocking TE, just that he may have some additional blocking responsibilities than he's been used to lately.

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If this is the case, and his pre-injury 2015 tape is any indication, Bennett-Gronk-Williams will be the best run blocking trio of TE's in the NFL.

sevengables_2207 said:

If this is the case, and his pre-injury 2015 tape is any indication, Bennett-Gronk-Williams will be the best run blocking trio of TE's in the NFL.

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Agreed. There are plenty of reasons to be very excited about this move, and it's obvious that Bennett has tons of talent.

0:06-0:23 Bennett on Minitron
2:16-2:42 Bennett on Brady

Guy seems pretty goofy. Him & Gronk will be BFFs.

PatriotsPimp136 said:

What makes this a great deal? He had over 900 yards two years ago. He could be on the decline.

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Had an injury last year, Cutler was injured for a while too, and the Bears were phasing him out on offense

JMC00 said:

Wait. You don't want Foster because he has durability issues but you'll stick with Lewis (who is coming back from injury and has a bit of an injury history) and a guy that hasn't taken one snap in two years because of injury in Gaffney?

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LOL. Ok you got me there. Alright let me put it this way Foster will probably be expensive 3-4 million per year and Lewis, Gaffney, Blount and draft picks/udfas will probably equal Foster's salary and be able to get comparable numbers

FCB02062 said:

We said much of the same stuff about Scott Chandler.....

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Scott has always been less than half the player MB is, don't eve compare. Yes, we vastly overrated Scott on a whole, but Martellus has the success behind him that we THOUGHT Scott could POTENTIALLY have. MB Is far more than Scott was ever destined for.

Awesome awesome awesome, finally an actual threat at the TE position behind Gronk, most impactful move of free agency so far.

Emma: Move Of Martellus Bennett Became Necessary For Bears

Take from what I presume is a Chicago writer, Chris Emma -- Bennett is a good guy who behaved badly.

Bennett is a heck of TE. He could be a great #1 TE anywhere else. Pairing him up with Gronk gives me a manly boner.

BUT, he was a locker room cancer and one of the reason was that, in his opinion, he was not given the proper attention by the FO and the team. How will he react, by being not being the main man in the TE position during his contract year (And maybe his last chance to get a big contract in FA)?

I am thrilled about this, nevertheless. Even if he does go rogue (à lá Adalius Thomas), we only "lost" 50 positions in the draft.

This was a major surprise to me and a couple of days ago I was sorta missing Hooman for his blocking ability. Bennett is a good blocking TE and a top 5 or so receiving TE...... How sweeeeet it is!!

supafly said:

I didn't mean to suggest that he'd be a blocking TE, just that he may have some additional blocking responsibilities than he's been used to lately. Hard to imagine not seeing more 2 TE sets, but that's just my own personal opinion.

At any rate, you're probably right that Belichick will try and feed him the ball when possible. I'm just voicing some minor concerns that I have.

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I don't understand this thinking. He played TE in Chicago and blocked on running plays. He will block in running plays here. Why is that anything different? We probably run less than the Bears.
There is nothing to indicate he thinks he is too good to block.
The history of this offense shows that if he gets open he will get his share of passes.
The guy was unhappy that his role was reduced by a new coaching staff after having a monster season. There is nothing to see here.

Is Bennett known to cause locker room problems? Sounds like it from Florio's tweets.

AndyJohnson said:

I don't understand this thinking. He played TE in Chicago and blocked on running plays. He will block in running plays here. Why is that anything different? We probably run less than the Bears.
There is nothing to indicate he thinks he is too good to block.
The history of this offense shows that if he gets open he will get his share of passes.
The guy was unhappy that his role was reduced by a new coaching staff after having a monster season. There is nothing to see here.

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Let's not act as I've reached into some unknown dimension and pulled out some odd concerns about attitude, work ethic, and the fact that he's been quoted as saying that he's proud of the fact that he doesn't have any friends, etc. Many describe him as "quirky, or odd." Some describe him as a major pain in the ass. We will see. I'm guessing that it's somewhere in the middle. The concern that he'll need to accept a lesser role as the 4th/5th option and likely be expected to do some different things in practice, off the field, etc, isn't exactly my own invention...c'mon, now.

Coming into yesterday, I would've pegged him for the ultimate "anti-Patriot." Apparently, Belichick disagrees, at least enough to swap 4th/6th rounds picks in order to give him a chance here. It's a fairly low risk shot like we've seen with Haynesworth or Chad Johnson. He obviously has talent. Let's hope he makes the best of this chance. In the meantime, I may think twice about purchasing a jersey until next spring, that's all. Even a semi-productive season may not keep him here past one year.

Coming into yesterday, I would've pegged him for the ultimate "anti-Patriot"

Hyperbole-fly...

Winning cures a lot of that locker room cancer stuff. Plus Chicago,doesn't really have team leaders, nobody is walking into the Pat's locker room and dropping a turd, Brady, Slater et al wouldn't stand for it.

Froob said:

Is Bennett known to cause locker room problems? Sounds like it from Florio's tweets.

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He's been one of the bigger head cases in the entire NFL. We've already hashed the concerns out in past threads, so there's nothing to do but assume that Belichick did his usual due diligence and that he believes that he can contribute here for at least his last contract year.

He's obviously very talented on the field, so that's enough to make me excited for 2016.

JayNM said:

Even if he does go rogue (à lá Adalius Thomas), we only "lost" 50 positions in the draft.

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Adalius Thomas, while never living up to his contract, was a good player here for two years. Had 6.5 sacks his first year here (plus two in SBXLII) and led the team in sacks in 2008 when he went down for the season. If Bennett manages similar production as Thomas in 2007 we'll be fine.

PlainOldEd said:

For the same length of years and 1/2 the money? Please point me to an example of that. It doesn't happen, ever. They might have a chance of reducing his cap hit of they offer something longer term with some guaranteed money equaling at least the 5m he will make this year as long as he stays healthy and on the roster. Maybe 3yrs, $11m $6m guaranteed? He probably wouldn't even do that. But no way he does what you're suggesting.

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They just did it with Brady.

Essentially they converted the next ~2.5 years of his previous deal's salary into a signing bonus and extended the life of the deal for the next two years. There are other examples of this happening. Team benefits from lowering cap number and player benefits having money guaranteed up-front.

We aren't going to agree here but I'm pretty sure the Pats had a chat with Bennett before this went down and asked him A) Will you want to play here and B) Will you be willing to restructure your deal. They may try to make him whole and get him to around $5m this year but it wont all be guaranteed.