ESPN writer predicts Godwin and Watkins to NE

[RobertWeathers]

No way Bill signs Wimpy Watkins. Between him and Jimmy G NEP health care plan premiums go up 20%

 

[PatsDeb]

I (and Watkins and Godwin) will believe it when I see it (a decent QB, that is).

 

[slifersd]

It actually makes sense. One top flight WR and a much lower cost veteran option is probably the best plan for us. We would still have plenty of money and draft capital left for a QB. I don't get the "we have to get an all world QB before we add anything else" mentality. What QB would sign with us to throw to Jakobi Meyers and Ryan Izzo? We have to get what we can and go from there.

 

[venecol]

60 million isn't going far when you look at their FA's and their needs.......

I'm not a cap expert but isn't some of the $60M needed to re-sign some of our own UFA? There's some Jags that we'll just let go but either way, all these guys need to be re-signed or replaced.

Cam Newton
Brian Hoyer
James White
Rex Buckhead
Damyere Bird
Joe Thuney
David Andrews
Jermaine Eluemunor
James Ferentz
Lawrence Guy
Adam Butler
John Simon
Carl Davis
Deatrich Wise
Shilique Calhoun
Brandon Copeland
Jason McCourty
Justin Bethel
Terrence Brooks
Cody Davis
Nick Folk

 

[yukon cornelius]

I'm not a cap expert but isn't some of the $60M needed to re-sign some of our own UFA? There's some Jags that we'll just let go but either way, all these guys need to be re-signed or replaced.

Cam Newton
Brian Hoyer
James White
Rex Buckhead
Damyere Bird
Joe Thuney
David Andrews
Jermaine Eluemunor
James Ferentz
Lawrence Guy
Adam Butler
John Simon
Carl Davis
Deatrich Wise
Shilique Calhoun
Brandon Copeland
Jason McCourty
Justin Bethel
Terrence Brooks
Cody Davis
Nick Folk

exactly.....and while they can lessen the cap hits in the first year, at some point they don't want to find themselves in the position of being in cap hell.....if this really is a multi-year build, they must plan for a multi-year build......and going all in this year isn't the play

 

[yukon cornelius]

and yes, the cap will go up......but there's a long play here that needs to be made......long play in the NFL being what, a 3-4 year window?

BB is 68......chances are this will be his last run, whether it is 3 years or 5 years.......will he care if they are in cap hell 6 or 7 years out? maybe not, depends on who he's leaving the reins to when that time comes.......but i don't expect him to go all in for 2021, nor are they in position to......there will be FA signings, but i don't expect a $20 mil a year receiver to be one of those signings......but i've been wrong before

 

[DaBruinz]

Cutting Edelman to save $4 million and then paying Watkins $4.25 million is just offensive.

The Pats have close to $60M in free cap space.. Why would you need to cut Edelman for the 4M in savings?

 

[DaBruinz]

Sod this, I'd prefer to trade #15 to the steelers for its draft reports on WRs and use rest of the picks on them WRs lol

That's because you don't understand that the Steelers don't actually have more luck at drafting WRs than other teams.. I did up the comparison of them to the Pats and found that they actually spend over TWICE the draft capitol that the Pats do to get their results.

 

[DropKickFlutie]

I'm not a cap expert but isn't some of the $60M needed to re-sign some of our own UFA? There's some Jags that we'll just let go but either way, all these guys need to be re-signed or replaced.

Cam Newton
Brian Hoyer
James White
Rex Buckhead
Damyere Bird
Joe Thuney
David Andrews
Jermaine Eluemunor
James Ferentz
Lawrence Guy
Adam Butler
John Simon
Carl Davis
Deatrich Wise
Shilique Calhoun
Brandon Copeland
Jason McCourty
Justin Bethel
Terrence Brooks
Cody Davis
Nick Folk

Keep White, Andrews, Guy, Butler, Wise, Folk. That takes up between 25-30M. Everyone else, bye bye. So I think $30m left. Save $5m for rookies. $25m in free agency if you spread it around could be a half dozen or slightly more free agents. We can't break the bank for a star who might not pan out (Colvin and Adalius Thomas bust signings).

.

 

[DaBruinz]

I dont see bb splurging on wr. The only times ive really seen him splurge on fa was colvin, adalius, and Gilmore. Ab was the closest at wr, but that was a 1 year deal. Its too risky in this system especially without brady now.

I don’t see many big contracts this march here but probably alot of mid level fa’s to fill more holes.

BB splurged on Chad Johnson at 5.5M..

And BB did give Randy Moss a damn good deal though Moss forced them to move on..

 

[DaBruinz]

The Patriots also have $170M or so in 2022 cap space to play with. If they get creative, they can do a heck of a lot this year.

The cap isn't going to jump from $175M to $225M in 2022. That's a $50M jump. That would be a 22% jump. The league typically goes up 5-7% yearly. I can't see them tripling that. Yes, I understand that OTC has it currently at $225M, but that was the projected level prior to COVID. I don't believe they've updated the numbers beyond 2021..

 

[DaBruinz]

I'm not a cap expert but isn't some of the $60M needed to re-sign some of our own UFA? There's some Jags that we'll just let go but either way, all these guys need to be re-signed or replaced.

Cam Newton
Brian Hoyer
James White
Rex Buckhead
Damyere Bird
Joe Thuney
David Andrews
Jermaine Eluemunor
James Ferentz
Lawrence Guy
Adam Butler
John Simon
Carl Davis
Deatrich Wise
Shilique Calhoun
Brandon Copeland
Jason McCourty
Justin Bethel
Terrence Brooks
Cody Davis
Nick Folk

Out of that list, the ones who are likely to be re-signed are Thuney, Andrews, Guy, Butler, Cody Davis, Byrd, Bethel and Folk. They don't need $60M to sign those guys.. You'll note that GUY is the only full time player over 30 that I expect the Pats to bring back. Bethel and Folk are Special Teams. Folk would be goinig against Aguayo and Rohrwasser for the Kicking job.

Burkhead won't be ready for the season. He's also going to be 31.
John Simon will also be 31.
Ferentz will be 32.

 

[Steve102]

Eff ESPN.

 

[DaBruinz]

If the Patriots were to add Fitzpatrick or Carr as the Bridge QB and then focusing on QB next year since outside of the Lawrence, there seems to be a lot of questions (kinda reminds me of 2000 in terms of the QBs available in the draft), I could see the Patriots "making a splash" at WR.

Look at the talent available:
Smith-Schuster
Godwin
Curtis Samuel
Corey Davis
Allen Robinson
Will Fuller
Rashad Higgins
Keelan Cole
Kenny Golloday

I think that the Patriots are going to focus on the O-line first (Thuney) and then a QB.

 

[PATSYLICIOUS]

BB splurged on Chad Johnson at 5.5M..

And BB did give Randy Moss a damn good deal though Moss forced them to move on..

i dont think id call 5.5 a splurge. A lot for next to no contributions yeah and we ate a loss there but it wasn’t like a huge multi year deal that could really backfire in a big way. Moss’s deal was after he proved himself, his first year he didn’t make that much.

 

[Ice_Ice_Brady]

Sammy Watkins is an investment scam.

 

[Jovak]

Sod this, I'd prefer to trade #15 to the steelers for its draft reports on WRs and use rest of the picks on them WRs lol

The Steelers have spent a lot more draft capital on WRs than the Pats have.

2015 3rd rd Sammie Coates
2017 2nd rd JuJu
2018 2nd rd James Washington
2019 2nd rd Diontae Johnson
2020 2nd rd Chase Claypool

In that time the Pats have only drafted Harry in the 1st round of the 2019 draft.

With how bad the Steeler run game was this year, I think they spent too many draft picks on WRs and ignored the OL. I'll bet on some Steeler message boards there are complaints about why can't the Steelers draft offensive linemen as good the Pats can, like Thuney, Owenu, Mason, etc.

 

[DaBruinz]

i dont think id call 5.5 a splurge. A lot for next to no contributions yeah and we ate a loss there but it wasn’t like a huge multi year deal that could really backfire in a big way. Moss’s deal was after he proved himself, his first year he didn’t make that much.

It was a splurge considering it was so much more than other guys on the team. It was also pretty HIGH for receivers around the league at the time. Particularly for a guy who didn't do much at all.

 

[Bourne Again Christian]

They won’t set the market for Thuney I don’t see it happening.
Thuney isn’t going to take a discounted deal he’s going full price.

 

[Uptown]

They won’t set the market for Thuney I don’t see it happening.
Thuney isn’t going to take a discounted deal he’s going full price.

Bengals