Patriots Player Departure Gibby to the Cards

ctpatsfan77 · Mar 17, 2026

Hugepatsfan said:
Not sad to see him go, a little confused on timing. They could have made him a $3.5M RFA tender which was non guaranteed. Would only cost $2.4M of cap space after factoring in that he takes someone's place in the top 51. They cut Anfernee Jennings to save about $2.8M after factoring in the top 51 rule. They cut Tavai to save $1.7M which is only like $600K after top 51 rule. They cut Antonio Gibson to save $3M I believe, which would only be about $1.9M after the top 51 rule.

Right now they have no proven 3rd RB, no proven LB depth and no proven DE backup. None of those guys would have had any guaranteed salary. A little surprising to me that for about $8M of cap space combined they didn't just bring those guys to camp and at least let the competition play out. I certainly would have been hoping for all 4 to get beat out though.

Plus they gave DeVito $2M guaranteed, and he might well still be QB3.

Patsfan1645 · Mar 17, 2026

RobertWeathers said:
It's March 17th.

You opened the door........

RobertWeathers · Mar 17, 2026

ctpatsfan77 said:
Plus they gave DeVito $2M guaranteed, and he might well still be QB3.

Yep. They'll either cut Dobbs or draft a kid who wins QB2 in camp.

Patsfan1645 · Mar 17, 2026

RobertWeathers said:
Yep. They'll either cut Dobbs or draft a kid who wins QB2 in camp.

I thought Devito looked solid in his preseason games with the giants, he is certainly better than Dobbs.

RobertWeathers · Mar 17, 2026

Patsfan1645 said:
I thought Devito looked solid in his preseason games with the giants, he is certainly better than Dobbs.

I agree.

Ring 6 · Mar 17, 2026

Ross12 said:
At the moment - either KJ Britt, Chad Muma or Marte Mapu. The roster may change between now and September, however.

It going to have to.

Ring 6 · Mar 17, 2026

Ross12 said:
I agree with you, but I think they feel like they have enough vets in the room and would rather use their huge # of draft picks on lots of young talent to try to replace many of them with rookies instead. A depth edge, 3rd/4th RB shouldn't be hard to find in the draft. Tavai is more iffy since he played meaningful snaps but he was also not part of long term planning anyway. Realistically he is probably replaced by Christian Elliss short-term and then by a more highly-drafted player long-term.

Gibbens played a lot more meaningful snaps than Tavai.

Ring 6 · Mar 17, 2026

RobertWeathers said:
It's March 17th.

Yes but the cupboard is very bare.

RobertWeathers · Mar 17, 2026

Ring 6 said:
Yes but the cupboard is very bare.

The starters are in place. There are 5-6 months and more to figure it out

ViperGTS · Mar 17, 2026

RobertWeathers said:
The starters are in place. There are 5-6 months and more to figure it out

LB corp is thin as absolute baby poo.

DaBruinz · Mar 17, 2026

RobertWeathers said:
The starters are in place. There are 5-6 months and more to figure it out

HUH?? Who is the starter next to Spillane? You think Elliss is?? I don't. Elliss was mediocre for most of the season. He kept hitting the wrong holes in the run game and was slow to react on passing plays except when blitzing. Having 19 hurries on 80 Pass rush plays is good., but that's really all he was good for. The rest of the time he was mediocre.

Elliss had 1 fewer missed tackle than Spillane while playing 31% fewer snaps. He'll be a liability unless he improves that big time.

DaBruinz · Mar 17, 2026

Ross12 said:
Hm. A little surprised. Athletically, he is just a JAG or worse, but he is smart and he knew Vrabel's system well. They also let Tavai go, so they just have Spillane and Elliss in the room now pretty much as far as guys that are capable of playing a lot of snaps.

Other guys in the room:
- Marte Mapu
- New signing KJ Britt
- Chad Muma

Mapu is still trying to catch up to the speed of the game. For whatever reason, he's still questioning his instincts before he acts.

Britt and Muma are basically special teams guys.. And Muma may not even make the 53-man roster depending on if they add a Draft pick early.

RobertWeathers · Mar 17, 2026

ViperGTS said:
LB corp is thin as absolute baby poo.

...and its March 17th.

DaBruinz said:
HUH?? Who is the starter next to Spillane? You think Elliss is?? I don't. Elliss was mediocre for most of the season. He kept hitting the wrong holes in the run game and was slow to react on passing plays except when blitzing. Having 19 hurries on 80 Pass rush plays is good., but that's really all he was good for. The rest of the time he was mediocre.

Elliss had 1 fewer missed tackle than Spillane while playing 31% fewer snaps. He'll be a liability unless he improves that big time.

HUH?? Ellis is fine. If someone better comes along then great.

Brick27 · Mar 17, 2026

Was hoping like most they’d blow it up a bit at LB, but would have liked a better add in free agency at this point vs. what they have. Suppose if add a stud in early rounds will be alright, but there’s no predictability there

DaBruinz · Mar 17, 2026

RobertWeathers said:
...and its March 17th.

HUH?? Ellis is fine. If someone better comes along then great.

No. Elliss isn't fine. Elliss goes to the wrong hole far too often in the run game. He's a liability against the pass unless he's rushing the passer. He misses far too many tackle and you want to make him a "starter" and give him another 300+ snaps? I'm guessing you were OK with the run defense in the SB. I wasn't.

ViperGTS · Mar 17, 2026

DaBruinz said:
No. Elliss isn't fine. Elliss goes to the wrong hole far too often in the run game. He's a liability against the pass unless he's rushing the passer. He misses far too many tackle and you want to make him a "starter" and give him another 300+ snaps? I'm guessing you were OK with the run defense in the SB. I wasn't.

Yep, which is why all the "experts" never list LB as a need. It's a major need.

Ring 6 · Mar 17, 2026

RobertWeathers said:
The starters are in place. There are 5-6 months and more to figure it out

Not really. Are you counting on Elliss to start? Gibbens took away a lot of his time last year.
I get that there is time but for off the ball LB we have 1 starter one shooter starter and a special teamer. At OLB we have 1 starter and one needing surgery and really nothing else.
Thats a lot to do add after the meat of free agency is over
We chose to let the off the ball guy who was half a starter walk when we could have RFAd him, and cut the #2/#3 as of today OLB for no apparent reason.
There is a lot of reason to be concerned they are dropping the ball here.

TommyD4207 · Mar 17, 2026

patfanken said:
Cards sign Gibbons today to a 2 year contract. He was a VERY good rotational player who started 6 games and had over 80 tackles, 8 for a loss, a sack, and 4 pass break ups. He was a solid depth piece, and I can only guess they think the LB we got from Miami will be better, though his claim to fame is his ST work. No money was mentioned

So is Gibbens.
If Gibbens is one of your starting linebackers, you need more linebackers.

TommyD4207 · Mar 17, 2026

ViperGTS said:
Yep, which is why all the "experts" never list LB as a need. It's a major need.

This is why I'm starting to think pick 31 is an off-ball linebacker.

And boy, will it piss people off. To me, though, it's by far the biggest hole on the team. We talked about it all year. If Spillane is your best linebacker, you need more linebackers. If Gibbens and Elliss are starting linebackers for your team, you need more linebackers.

Spillane is barely above replacement-level in reality, and the other two shouldn't be doing anything but playing special teams.

Wozzy · Mar 17, 2026

DaBruinz said:
No. Elliss isn't fine. Elliss goes to the wrong hole far too often in the run game. He's a liability against the pass unless he's rushing the passer. He misses far too many tackle and you want to make him a "starter" and give him another 300+ snaps? I'm guessing you were OK with the run defense in the SB. I wasn't.

Just a terrible take…

Ellis was 2nd on the team in snaps at ILB after Spillane. Ellis was a starter, he started almost every game..

Prior to Milton Williams, Tonga, Spillane, Farmer and Landry missing time at the end of the season the Patriots had one of the best run defenses in the entire league. Just silly…

The Patriots D also held the best team in the entire NFL Seahawks without a TD for three quarters in the Super Bowl while our offense stunk up the joint and turned it over. Do you even watch these games?

Spillane was the Sam, Ellis was the Will… with everyone healthy this was a top five defense. You’re talking like this defense and LB group was bad. Come back to Earth, they had the best overall record in the NFL and played in a Super Bowl.

137	7K

320	20K

Patriots Player Departure Gibby to the Cards

PatsFans.com Supporter

PatsFans.com Supporter

Member of the Seattle 7 & Roadie for Metallica

PatsFans.com Supporter

Member of the Seattle 7 & Roadie for Metallica

PatsFans.com Supporter

PatsFans.com Supporter

PatsFans.com Supporter

Member of the Seattle 7 & Roadie for Metallica

Pro Bowl Player

Pats, B's, Sox

Pats, B's, Sox

Member of the Seattle 7 & Roadie for Metallica

Third String And Strumming His Thing

Pats, B's, Sox

Pro Bowl Player

PatsFans.com Supporter

Pro Bowl Player

Pro Bowl Player

Pro Bowl Player

Similar threads

📅 This Week in Patriots History: