Martellus Bennett Questions

[Ice_Ice_Brady]

1. Let's suppose that Bennett continues to have a positive attitude throughout the season, stays healthy, and remains at this level of production. What do you think the market would be for him in the offseason? Something pretty crazy?

2. Let's say that Bennett gets a mega-deal elsewhere. In that case, do you think the Patriots would adjust Gronkowski's contract or extend him for a lot of money?

3. The what-if game question. Suppose that Gronkowski was drafted by the Jaguars and had garbage QBs throughout his career with Jay Cutler being the best one; on the other hand, let's suppose the Patriots drafted Martellus Bennett. What do you think their career numbers would look like, assuming their injuries would stay the same? Or in other words, do you think Bennett would be considered the best tight end in the NFL, while Gronkowski would be considered a great talent but not Hall of Fame caliber?

 

[Froob]

Gronk would be a hall of fame anywhere. Maybe he wouldn't be the undisputed GOAT though.

 

[ctpatsfan77]

1. Let's suppose that Bennett continues to have a positive attitude throughout the season, stays healthy, and remains at this level of production. What do you think the market would be for him in the offseason? Something pretty crazy?

For the record, the Pats don't have to wait if they don't want to. If he plays like this the rest of the season, I'd have no problem paying him like the top-1o TE he is.

 

[Ice_Ice_Brady]

For the record, the Pats don't have to wait if they don't want to. If he plays like this the rest of the season, I'd have no problem paying him like the top-1o TE he is.

They would have to also bump Gronkowski's pay, I think. One thing they've always tried to do is be consistent in position evaluations. Even though Gronk0wski is under contract and signed a very long-term deal years ago, I would think that it would cause problems having your #2 TE making far more than your #1 TE.

 

[The Gr8est]

For the record, the Pats don't have to wait if they don't want to. If he plays like this the rest of the season, I'd have no problem paying him like the top-1o TE he is.

Agree.

Sign the beast, and do it now.

 

[Froob]

I think Gronk is the best skill position player in the league. He outta make more than the top wide out.

 

[chasa]

whatever they do with bennett they need to pony up more for gronk.

the question becomes does the player want to make a ton of money and win, or does he want to make the most money, and play someplace else.

 

[stelfans]

Its up to Bennett really.
Lets suppose he gets a ring(even if he doesnt, he is experiencing winning like he never did before), now he knows what it's like to lose and what is like to win. He's not young anymore, does he want to keep winning while he can or does he want to be the old, sad, bennett he was before coming here?

One thing im sure of is:Bill is not gonna lose his mind over anyone. He'll pay whatever he thinks is fair for the player while not hurting the team. And players have to deal with it if they want to win.

Im ok with paying him because he is good but Gronk is Gronk, he was the GOAT before Bennett and he will continue to be.

 

[SEA_Pat]

I think you're dreaming if you think he'll accept "Top Ten" TE pay. He'll be looking at Top 5 minimum, Top 3 more than likely.

 

[Ice_Ice_Brady]

I think you're dreaming if you think he'll accept "Top Ten" TE pay. He'll be looking at Top 5 minimum, Top 3 more than likely.

This is spot on. Free agency is a golden opportunity for players. Would not surprise me if Bennett got the top tight end contract in the league if he keeps this up. Is Malik Jackson the best defensive lineman in the NFL? Being the best available FA in the 2015 class made him the top paid. This is why free agency is something the Patriots almost always avoid.

 

[patsbrasilpatriotas]

Bennett without the Patriots: 8 years / 43.5 rec avg per year / 448 yards per / 2.78 TD per year / + 20 yards plays : 5.4 per year

How much would you pay for that? I think they will give him the AH81 money 7m per, they were happy giving him that kind of money and Bennett is 30 years.

 

[patsbrasilpatriotas]

This is spot on. Free agency is a golden opportunity for players. Would not surprise me if Bennett got the top tight end contract in the league if he keeps this up. Is Malik Jackson the best defensive lineman in the NFL? Being the best available FA in the 2015 class made him the top paid. This is why free agency is something the Patriots almost always avoid.

Malik Jackson was 25. Bennett will be 29/30.

 

[The Gr8est]

It may not be the primary motivation, but you wonder if teams bidding for Bennett will do so, in part, to get him away from the Pats.

This is an easier, and surprisingly scrupulous, way to weaken the Pats, and they don't even need to worry about creating a Pats violation, or having to keep their stories straight.

 

[fair catch fryar]

I would love to see the Pats sign Bennet to a contract and Gronk to an extension, but let's be real. Unless Bennet is willing to not break the bank and values winning, he will demand top dollar and the Pats won't give him that.

 

[SEA_Pat]

Bennett without the Patriots: 8 years / 43.5 rec avg per year / 448 yards per / 2.78 TD per year / + 20 yards plays : 5.4 per year

How much would you pay for that? I think they will give him the AH81 money 7m per, they were happy giving him that kind of money and Bennett is 30 years.

A quick salary review puts the $7m per year contract at between TEs #13 (Coby Fleener) and #14 (Delanie Walker). TE #3 is Jordan Reed at $9.35M, Gronk, incidentally, is #5 at an even $9M. So we're going to have to upgrade Gronkenstein AND sign Bennett to a similar contract in the $10M per year range. Sorry, but there's just no possible way he accepts that.

 

[patchick]

Malik Jackson was 25. Bennett will be 29/30.

Plus he's already on his fourth team for a reason. Bennett's outspoken and unconventional personality seems to be working great with the Patriots, but teams might well worry that he won't be as happy -- and successful -- elsewhere.

 

[bbobbo]

i tried searching for old stories about bennett's holdout a couple of years ago during the bears minicamp to see what his mindset was about getting paid. i couldn't find too much about it, but i did run across this in-depth story in chicago magazine from september 2015 about him.

The Wonderfully Weird World of Martellus Bennett

some notable excerpts:

Bennett’s combination of size, strength, and quickness made him a prototypical tight end with a huge upside. But after the Dallas Cowboys drafted him late in the second round in 2008, Bennett found himself playing behind the legendarily tough Jason Witten. “One game, he’s got, like, two broken ankles and a broken finger and his spleen is, like, hanging out,” says Bennett. “And I’m thinking, Yeah, I’m finally gonna start. But sure enough, at game time he runs out of the tunnel.” Worse, Bennett got pegged his rookie season as unmotivated and arrogant after HBO’s Hard Knocks caught him rolling his eyes at a coach and mugging for the camera.

By 2012, after four seasons in Dallas, Bennett knew he had to get out. So he opted to sign a one-year contract with the New York Giants, where he believed he could better showcase his skills. He was right. In addition to catching 55 passes that season, he charmed the New York media with endless sound bites and memorable moments. After one game, he caught a fan who’d fallen over the front railing, and he immortalized the moment in a surreal and hilarious animated video for the website Vice Sports. Everyone started calling him the Black Unicorn after he used the term to describe how he felt while running down the field. And he and his wife, drawn to the cosmopolitan weirdness of Manhattan, became regulars at art shows and galleries.

Still, when the Bears offered Bennett a lucrative four-year deal in 2013, he jumped. Though Chicago went 8–8 that season under new head coach Marc Trestman and missed the playoffs for the third straight year, Bennett repaid the team’s faith with 65 receptions, 759 yards, and five touchdowns—all career highs at the time. He and Siggi found a house they loved in the forests of northwest suburban Long Grove and had Jett in March 2014. Bennett began really enjoying life again, and not in a strippers-and-shots kind of way, but in an I-only-sleep-five-hours-a-night-and-jump-out-of-bed-excited-every-morning way. “New York was great, but I don’t think it would’ve been the best fit for the long run,” Siggi says. “Chicago is more of a happy medium between our personalities: lots of culture and a great city, but a more manageable pace for Marty.”

i think boston fits that bill--lots of culture, history, but not as hectic as NYC. so hopefully a positive.

“The biggest misconception is that he doesn’t take football seriously,” says Bears safety Ryan Mundy. “Sure, he’s got things he’s interested in outside the game, but when it’s football season, he’s all about football, just like anyone else.”

very similar to gronk. lots of people think gronk's a goofy, partying frat dude, but when it comes to football he works hard at it.

But in the NFL, training camp is a funny thing. Some rules get enforced, others don’t. Bears players were told not to tackle each other on the practice field in Bourbonnais, 60 miles south of Chicago, but for two days Bennett got hit over and over. “I felt like guys were taking shots at me,” he says. Toward the end of the second day, after rookie cornerback Kyle Fuller pulled Bennett to the ground, the tight end jumped up and body-slammed him. Bennett was suspended and fined an undisclosed amount, which he called “a ridiculous overreaction.” No one came to his defense—but no one would question his motivation and competitiveness again, either. “It wasn’t Fuller I was mad at,” Bennett says. “He just happened to be the last guy that day that did something. I told him, ‘Man, I could be punching you in the face right now, but I’m not.’?”

The Bears did not carry that kind of passion into the season, of course, and went 5–11, including two historically bad back-to-back blowout losses midyear. “We had lots of mellow guys,” says Bennett, who nonetheless set new career highs in receptions (90), yards (916), and touchdowns (six). “You didn’t see a lot of guys running to the pile, helping their teammates up, or having each other’s back. We weren’t a bad team. A bad team is a team that doesn’t have the talent to win. We did. We just sucked. Everybody sucked. Coaches, players, everybody.”

When the Bears fired Trestman and general manager Phil Emery, Bennett understood the moves. “Trestman was a cool dude, but he lost the guys,” says Bennett. “He tried to play both sides of the fence. Other people did a lot of ****, and I was the only one who got disciplined all year.”

like in the e:60 piece, this is only his point of view, but if true (i can believe it), then trestman really didn't have control of the situation. and note that this is before his final season under john fox, when things really got bad between him and the bears.

and the whole burfict incident shows bennett that his patriots teammates have his back. a positive.

Right now, if any tight end in the league is an iPhone 7, it’s Rob Gronkowski of the New England Patriots. Bennett is more of a Samsung Galaxy. When Gronkowski racked up 149 yards and three touchdowns against the Bears in a game last season, Bennett took it as a personal affront. How am I going to outplay this maniac? He’s rarely mentioned alongside Gronk or even Jimmy Graham, the new Seahawks tight end, a fact that obviously rankles him. Behind the goofy swagger, Bennett desperately wants to be acknowledged for his talents on the field. “They always talk about these other guys all around the league, so it’s kind of like a chip on my shoulder when I go out there and play because they never really mention me,” he told ESPN’s Web site last September after scoring two touchdowns in a 27–19 win over the New York Jets. “But that’s how it is sometimes. A lot of people who are geniuses, they really didn’t realize it until they were dead.”

he's getting acknowledged now with the patriots. another positive.

Bennett’s plan is to play three to five more years, then retire with enough money and connections to make animated films for the rest of his life. That’s the dream. He sees Pixar as his rival as much as he does Gronkowski. But he’s still trying to break in. “He has all the ingredients to be successful in this business,” says Minshew of Powerhouse Animation. “He has attacked these endeavors with the same drive and ferocity that you would expect a football player to use on the field.”

if he's still on this timeline, then after this year he has 3 years left. 3-years, $24m, $15m guaranteed? if the patriots extend his current contract, then they can spread the cap hit over more years.

 

[patsbrasilpatriotas]

A quick salary review puts the $7m per year contract at between TEs #13 (Coby Fleener) and #14 (Delanie Walker). TE #3 is Jordan Reed at $9.35M, Gronk, incidentally, is #5 at an even $9M. So we're going to have to upgrade Gronkenstein AND sign Bennett to a similar contract in the $10M per year range. Sorry, but there's just no possible way he accepts that.

Reed is 4 years younger and have similar or better stats with a bunch of scrubs .. Im sorry but if he wants 10m+ im fine with him leaving...

Greg Olsen is a good guy to compare (2 years older): 148G / 581 rec / 6.902 yars / 11.9 avg /46.6 yards per game / 51 TD / 7 FUM ( 7.5 m per extension signed when he was 29 years)

Bennett: 125G / 374 rec / 3.948 yars / 10.6 avg /31.6 yards per game / 27 TD / 4 FUM

Why would you pay Bennett more than that?

 

[patsbrasilpatriotas]

It may not be the primary motivation, but you wonder if teams bidding for Bennett will do so, in part, to get him away from the Pats.

This is an easier, and surprisingly scrupulous, way to weaken the Pats, and they don't even need to worry about creating a Pats violation, or having to keep their stories straight.

The Pats always find a replacement. Tim Wright had 6 TD there....

 

[SEA_Pat]

Reed is 4 years younger and have similar or better stats with a bunch of scrubs .. Im sorry but if he wants 10m+ im fine with him leaving...

Greg Olsen is a good guy to compare (2 years older): 148G / 581 rec / 6.902 yars / 11.9 avg /46.6 yards per game / 51 TD / 7 FUM ( 7.5 m per extension signed when he was 29 years)

Bennett: 125G / 374 rec / 3.948 yars / 10.6 avg /31.6 yards per game / 27 TD / 4 FUM

Why would you pay Bennett more than that?

Because he'll be coming off a season in which he demonstrated that he's far better than that. And it's not just us who are/will be aware of it. And it provides an opportunity for a Patriot AFC opponent to weaken us while strengthening their own team, a genuine two-for-one. And the cap is rising. And TE is becoming a more important position to many teams.

Don't get me wrong, nothing would please me more than seeing a guy take $3m off the table to sign a team-friendly contract and stay with the Patriots. It's just that very few (none that I can recall) NFL players would voluntarily agree to a 30-40% reduction in pay from what the market will bear to stay with a winning team/culture even when they love it where they are. Nor should they, given the economic and physical realities of the NFL. I'd set the floor at $9m and that would be a discount IMHO.