Nigel Bradham Should Be On the Patriots Radar in Free Agency

[PatsFans.com Article]

Nigel Bradham Should Be On the Patriots Radar in Free Agency

Steve Balestrieri

Bradham has been durable, not missing any games due to injury. He played in 100 percent of the snaps in every playoff game and in 11 regular season games.

Continue reading...

(If you enjoyed this entry - hit the Thumbs Up/If not, hit the Thumbs down in this thread)

 

[maineman209]

Agree. There's even some chance that he could be affordable.

 

[Clonamery]

Making Plans for Nigel - XTC

 

[Chris Stevenson]

Agree. There's even some chance that he could be affordable.

How do you figure that?

Lots of teams rebuilding with oodles of cap space and he has shiny ring on his finger.

Highly doubtful a FA LB signing like this is going to be in the proper pocket. If McClellin retires, and even if they can sign the good Marquis Flowers, yes, LB would be a need, but I am thinking maybe even in RD 1 we can get that in the draft.

1. LB
2. QB
3. NT/DT
4. CB
5. RB
6. Safety

Something along these lines.

 

[BlueThunder]

How do you figure that?

Lots of teams rebuilding with oodles of cap space and he has shiny ring on his finger.

Highly doubtful a FA LB signing like this is going to be in the proper pocket. If McClellin retires, and even if they can sign the good Marquis Flowers, yes, LB would be a need, but I am thinking maybe even in RD 1 we can get that in the draft.

1. LB
2. QB
3. NT/DT
4. CB
5. RB
6. Safety

Something along these lines.

Pats current Draft picks are Rd 1 - 31 , Rd 2 - 43 ( 49'ers pick) . Rd 2 - 63, Rd 3 - 95 and Rd 6 - 191 ....... They have 5 picks in the upcoming draft pending awarding any Compensatory picks.....Probably a 4th and a 7th........

 

[captain stone]

Agree. There's even some chance that he could be affordable.

Doubtful. We barely have enough cap space relative to a lot of other teams to sign most of our own guys, never mind other teams' guys.

 

[maineman209]

Doubtful. We barely have enough cap space relative to a lot of other teams to sign most of our own guys, never mind other teams' guys.

Bradham made $4.75M with the Iggles last season. He turns 29 on September 4th.

The Iggles likely can't afford to re-sign him at any price, since they're still nearly $10M in the red on the cap, and since they still have Jordan Hicks (oft-injured, but four years younger, and about $3M cheaper for 2018).

At 29, I'm doubtful that Bradham will get anywhere near breaking the bank on his 3rd career contract. His just-expired contract with Philly was 2 years, $7.0M, $4.5M guaranteed. A similar deal with a slight raise might get him for the Pats.

 

[mgteich]

His just-expired contract with Philly was 2 years, $7.0M, $4.5M guaranteed. A similar deal with a slight raise might get him for the Pats.

Why would he sign for $3.5M a year, or near that? The original poster suggested an AAV 50% higher.
========
From the story in the original opost,

What Would it Take to Sign Him? When Looking at linebackers who aren’t edge rushers, to nail down a player of Bradham’s caliber would take probably between $5-5.5 million dollars.
=========
That being said, a capable LB who can cover, and who has been healthy, is worth the money.

A $3.5M cap hit for a 2 year contract is doable ($3M bonUs, 2018 $2M, 2018 $5M). I would expect us to want at least a 3 year contract on a 28 year old.

 

[SammyBlueCat]

Who knows, Bradham may try to pull a reverse move similar to what Chris Long and LeGarrette Blount did a year ago by going to the Super Bowl with New England and then leaving in free agency with Philadelphia.

 

[maineman209]

Why would he sign for $3.5M a year, or near that? The original poster suggested an AAV 50% higher.
========
From the story in the original opost,

What Would it Take to Sign Him? When Looking at linebackers who aren’t edge rushers, to nail down a player of Bradham’s caliber would take probably between $5-5.5 million dollars.
=========
That being said, a capable LB who can cover, and who has been healthy, is worth the money.

A $3.5M cap hit for a 2 year contract is doable ($3M bonUs, 2018 $2M, 2018 $5M). I would expect us to want at least a 3 year contract on a 28 year old.

I'd still consider that to be "similar". For example (3-year contract):

2018 = $2.5M salary ... $1M SB = $3.5M cap hit
2019 = $4.0M salary ... $1M SB = $5.0M cap hit
2020 = $5.5M salary ... $1M SB = $6.5M cap hit

While the total value of the contract is $15.5M, providing the $5M+ AAV, the first two years are actually only a slight raise from his last Eagles contract ... total value = $8.5M, 2018 salary and $3M signing bonus ($5.5M) guaranteed. As opposed to 2 years, $7.0M, $4.5M guaranteed.

Except for the final installment of the signing bonus, the last year is "funny money", as usual.

 

[maineman209]

Egregiously wild-*** possibility:

If the Eagles manage to re-sign Bradham somehow (they need to do a crap-tonne of cap maneuvering, regardless), the Pats trade their 4th-round comp pick (#136) to the Eagles for Jordan Hicks (conditionally, since he's coming off a torn Achilles) and the Eagles 5th-rounder (#147).

Hicks is under contract for 2018 at $1.9M (non guaranteed).

Basically, the Pats move down 11 slots to take a flyer on a very talented, but very injury-prone, young LB.

 

[Froob]

Egregiously wild-*** possibility:

If the Eagles manage to re-sign Bradham somehow (they need to do a crap-tonne of cap maneuvering, regardless), the Pats trade their 4th-round comp pick (#136) to the Eagles for Jordan Hicks (conditionally, since he's coming off a torn Achilles) and the Eagles 5th-rounder (#147).

Hicks is under contract for 2018 at $1.9M (non guaranteed).

Basically, the Pats move down 11 slots to take a flyer on a very talented, but very injury-prone, young LB.

Why wouldn’t the Eagles just keep him for that price?

 

[maineman209]

Why wouldn’t the Eagles just keep him for that price?

Well, their current cap space is (-$9.67M), so they need to free up significant money just to re-sign Bradham (and Trey Burton, and a couple other kind of important guys).

If they keep Bradham (who's been reliable and consistently very good over the past two seasons for them), they'd also still have Kendricks.

Meanwhile, Hicks has missed 17 regular season games and three post-season games to injuries (torn pec and torn Achilles) in just his first three NFL seasons. He was originally mid-3rd-round pick (#84), so shedding a couple million off the cap while getting anything at all in return for him might appeal to them at this point.

Anyway, like I said, "wild-***".

Okay, maybe not quite as wild-*** as the folks who think that the Pats need to, and (somehow) can afford to, sign DeMarcus Lawrence in free agency. But still, kinda wild-***.

 

[primetime]

Bradham looked like nothing special in the Super Bowl. A ring means he's going to get overpaid by somebody. I'd rather just draft Vander Esch.

 

[maineman209]

Bradham looked like nothing special in the Super Bowl. A ring means he's going to get overpaid by somebody. I'd rather just draft Vander Esch.

Philly's 3rd-leading tackler in the game. Got a hit on Brady.

At this point, I'm not sure that "special" is a requirement, given the current state of the LB group.

For me, the questions are:
1) Does he have decent NFL experience?
2) Has he been (mostly) healthy?
3) Is he likely to be an upgrade over someone currently under contract?
4) Is he affordable under current cap constraints?

 

[Chris Stevenson]

Well, their current cap space is (-$9.67M), so they need to free up significant money just to re-sign Bradham (and Trey Burton, and a couple other kind of important guys).

If they keep Bradham (who's been reliable and consistently very good over the past two seasons for them), they'd also still have Kendricks.

Meanwhile, Hicks has missed 17 regular season games and three post-season games to injuries (torn pec and torn Achilles) in just his first three NFL seasons. He was originally mid-3rd-round pick (#84), so shedding a couple million off the cap while getting anything at all in return for him might appeal to them at this point.

Anyway, like I said, "wild-***".

Okay, maybe not quite as wild-*** as the folks who think that the Pats need to, and (somehow) can afford to, sign DeMarcus Lawrence in free agency. But still, kinda wild-***.

No offense, but guys like Lawrence entitled prima-donna written all over them, It's what Jerry Jones likes. These are players BB does not like.

It's why drafts a Deatrich Wise or a Derek Rivers. He believes he can mold these kinds of players into a Pats style player.

It's very rare BB shops for high profile FAs who want a lot of guaranteed money and years, when he doesn't know them very well.

 

[Joey007]

Bradham looked like nothing special in the Super Bowl. A ring means he's going to get overpaid by somebody. I'd rather just draft Vander Esch.

I am really intrigued by that Tremaine Edmunds guy.

 

[maineman209]

I am really intrigued by that Tremaine Edmunds guy.

His brother, Terrell, a safety, also seems kinda interesting.

 

[primetime]

I am really intrigued by that Tremaine Edmunds guy.

He looks special, but neither he nor Roquan Smith (who reminds me of Pat Willis) are likely to be available to the Patriots. If one of the two fell to 20, it might be worth trading up to grab them. But I doubt either will.

It's a good draft for linebackers, thankfully. Evans and Vander Esch should be available in the 30-40 range, easily, and they're guys who would likely go higher in normal years. Even guys like Malik Jefferson, Skai Moore, and Matthew Thomas are potential long-term NFL starters.

 

[Sciz]

While people here talk about how they want Bradham because he does things well that the Patriots' other linebackers don't do well, I think he's going to end up on a team like the Colts, who currently don't have any linebackers that do anything well. It's hard to rationalize getting into a bidding war when you're looking for a complimentary piece but another team wants their cornerstone at that position.