Official Free Agency 2018

[Deus Irae]

It's conceivable the New England Patriots could carry seven wide receivers on the roster for the 2018 NFL Season:

Cooks, Edelman, Hogan, Amendola, Dorsett, Mitchell, Slater

It's not if Jacob Hollister rocked the world in calendar year 2017.

Inactives: Eagles vs. Patriots Super Bowl LII

Inactives: Jaguars vs. Patriots

Slater is basically an ST only guy, regardless of the label. The Patriots currently have six WRs of any consequence

Edelman
Cooks
Hogan
Dorsett
Britt
Mitchell

under contract, and Amendola as the FA they might want back. Really, the first question isn't about carrying seven WRs, because that's almost certainly not going to happen The first question is whether they'll carry five or stretch it to six. The second question is whether they will find a WR from outside the existing group who plays well enough to make the cut down more difficult.

 

[ATippett56]

Slater is basically an ST only guy, regardless of the label. The Patriots currently have six WRs of any consequence

Edelman
Cooks
Hogan
Dorsett
Britt
Mitchell

under contract, and Amendola as the FA they might want back. Really, the first question isn't about carrying seven WRs, because that's almost certainly not going to happen The first question is whether they'll carry five or stretch it to six. The second question is whether they will find a WR from outside the existing group who plays well enough to make the cut down more difficult.

Re-sign Danny Amendola and Matthew Slater. Neither have been itching to break the bank. If the aforementioned transactions come to fruition, wide receiver is not an issue.

I am more concerned about the offensive tackle position.

Solder, Nate - unrestricted free agent
Fleming, Cameron - unrestricted free agent
Waddle, LaAdrian - unrestricted free agent
Cannon, Marcus - injured reserve
Garcia, Antonio - non-football illness

 

[Deus Irae]

Re-sign Danny Amendola and Matthew Slater. Neither have been itching to break the bank. If the aforementioned transactions come to fruition, wide receiver is not an issue.

Tunes' point, which you responded to without actually responding to, was that the position would have need if Edelman and Amendola were either gone or ineffective.

They might if Amendola walks and Edelman isn't his old self, although that could be remedied via the draft...

I think Tune would agree that the return of McDaniels makes the retention of Amendola more likely.

I am more concerned about the offensive tackle position.

Solder, Nate - unrestricted free agent
Fleming, Cameron - unrestricted free agent
Waddle, LaAdrian - unrestricted free agent
Cannon, Marcus - injured reserve
Garcia, Antonio - non-football illness

The OT position is only an issue for 2018 if they don't bring Solder back. He's said that he wants to keep playing, so I expect he'll be one of the top 2 FA retention priorities.

 

[ATippett56]

Don’t know. Could be postering for a new deal, could be that he’s serious about moving to the next chapter of his career. I would hope the pats have their answer before the draft. Even if he continues playing if the pats aren’t entirely confident that he’s gonna be around multiple years it’s a good class to get somebody and groom to be ready in 2019.

In the two games Rob Gronkowski was inactive during the 2017 NFL Season, Dwayne Allen produced the following:

2 receptions, 5 targets, 10 receiving yards

Simply pathetic!

 

[ATippett56]

Don’t know. Could be postering for a new deal, could be that he’s serious about moving to the next chapter of his career. I would hope the pats have their answer before the draft. Even if he continues playing if the pats aren’t entirely confident that he’s gonna be around multiple years it’s a good class to get somebody and groom to be ready in 2019.

Take your pick.

NFL Draft Scout----Powered By: The Sports Xchange

New England Patriots
2018 NFL Draft
31st overall
43rd overall
63rd overall
95th overall
136th overall (compensatory)

Projecting The 2018 Compensatory Picks | Over the Cap

 

[Ivan]

League-wide roster purges have just barely begun. The players who are released immediately become SFA who are often cheaper than UFA.

At the moment, those include:

DT - Nick Fairly, NOL
DT/DE - Tony McDaniel, NOL (age 33)
CB - David Amerson, OAK

Lots more to come over the next few weeks.

It's okay to dream about the Pats signing guys like Lawrence, but the reality is that the Pats can't spend what they don't have in cap space, and they'd be stupid to spend all or most of what they do have on just one player, "difference maker" or not.

As always, there are multiple roster holes to fill and positions to upgrade.

I agree, this is where you start, as well as looking at their re-signs. I think those looking at Lawrence and Richardson etc... are wasting their time, Richardson, in particular, has zero chance of becoming a Patriot. And paying a starting TE like Eifert to be a back up wil never happen, the #2 TE will a draft pick or current back up. The only caveat to this would be if they traded for a guy like Cameron Brate, which is unlikely.

I think they will be looking closely at the regime changes to find players getting dumped or on the market, and free agency will primarily for depth.

 

[Ivan]

In the two games Rob Gronkowski was inactive during the 2017 NFL Season, Dwayne Allen produced the following:

2 receptions, 5 targets, 10 receiving yards

Simply pathetic!

Agree, Allen simply can’t catch.

 

[Ras-IR Dowling]

Take your pick.

NFL Draft Scout----Powered By: The Sports Xchange

New England Patriots
2018 NFL Draft
31st overall
43rd overall
63rd overall
95th overall
136th overall (compensatory)

Projecting The 2018 Compensatory Picks | Over the Cap

I’d like to get a future starting TE at 95 just not sure that’s realistic. We have 3 glaring holes on defense imo that should be addressed with our first 3 picks (LB, DT and CB). But I have a feeling QB will be one of those picks. At 95, maybe fumaghali at Wisconsin becomes an option?

 

[sambam94]

Boston Herald's Jeff Howe reports the "early vibe" is Dion Lewis won't be on the Patriots in 2018.

Lewis is reportedly looking for a deal somewhere in the range of $15-18 million over the course of three years with $10 million guaranteed. The Patriots seem to draw the line for paying running backs at around $3 million annually, making Lewis an unlikely candidate to return.

 

[Bourne Again Christian]

Pay the man his money or draft

 

[Bourne Again Christian]

Pay the man his money or draft

I've claimed my running back binkie.
He's a hybrid of Lewis and Jones Drew

 

[maineman209]

Amendola is underpaid, even as a spot player. I hope he re-signs. Does anybody really expect Britt to be back?

For the off-season roster? Sure.

NFL experience, under contract cheaply through 2018. Worth keeping until the Pats see how everything else works out.

 

[maineman209]

Agree, Allen simply can’t catch.

He did okay in Indy. Disappointing that he hasn't picked up the passing game with the Pats yet, but he's got the other half down very well. Better than pretty much all of the blocking TEs the Pats have had.

 

[maineman209]

Boston Herald's Jeff Howe reports the "early vibe" is Dion Lewis won't be on the Patriots in 2018.

Lewis is reportedly looking for a deal somewhere in the range of $15-18 million over the course of three years with $10 million guaranteed. The Patriots seem to draw the line for paying running backs at around $3 million annually, making Lewis an unlikely candidate to return.

White is getting $4M APY.

 

[DaBruinz]

The New England Patriots don't need another wide receiver.

Cooks
Dorsett
Edelman
Hogan
Mitchell

Kenny Britt and Riley McCarron are also signed for the 2018 season..

 

[DaBruinz]

KVN played about 66% of snaps while Elandon Roberts played roughly 50% and Flowers played 25%. Roberts and Van Noy both played about 25% in 2016 with McClelan, Collins and Hightower all taking more. Of course the timing of arrivals and injuries played an impact in these numbers so with Shea and Hightower hopefully back KVN should lose a lot of time.

If we get second year leaps from Langi or Flowers or with some rookie talent and I think we can hopefully field 3 linebackers including Hightower who will see higher snap counts than van noy. I think that'd help a lot with the defenses ability to cover RB's/TE's in the flat and up the field an creating negative plays. As a unit, they struggled with this even with Collins who wasn't disciplined or natural enough to consistently do either.

I always love when people start throwing out things like snap count but forget to mention that Van Noy only played in 12+ games. He got injured early in the 1st Buffalo game and then missed the 2nd Miami game, the Steelers game and the 2nd Bills game while seeing a very limited amount of time in his return against the Jets.

Kyle Van Noy 2017 Fantasy Stats | Pro-Football-Reference.com

Van Noy will be the guy on the field with Hightower. Just like he was before Hightower got hurt. Van Noy was on the field for 100% of the snaps for the 1st 4 games of the season. In the 11 games before Van Noy got hurt, he played 90%+ of the snaps in 8 of 11 games.

This idea that Hightower being back will cost Van Noy time is just silliness and makes one wonder how much you actually watched the games.

 

[DaBruinz]

Mike Gillislee

Mike Gillislee 2017 Game Log | Pro-Football-Reference.com

Rex Burkhead

Rex Burkhead 2017 Game Log | Pro-Football-Reference.com

Mike Gillislee offers little to nothing in the passing game unlike Rex Burkhead. Mike Gillislee offers little to nothing on special teams unlike Rex Burkhead.

You can't look at how the Patriots didn't use Gillislee as to what he offers..

Gillislee played on Special Teams in Buffalo and also caught passes out of the backfield there.

Buffalo Bills 2016 Snap Counts | Pro-Football-Reference.com
Buffalo Bills 2015 Snap Counts | Pro-Football-Reference.com

You have to remember that in Buffalo, they has LeSean McCoy in front of him as the all-purpose back. Yet he still managed 9 receptions on 11 targets for Buffalo.

 

[50-yard-line]

I agree, this is where you start, as well as looking at their re-signs. I think those looking at Lawrence and Richardson etc... are wasting their time, Richardson, in particular, has zero chance of becoming a Patriot. And paying a starting TE like Eifert to be a back up wil never happen, the #2 TE will a draft pick or current back up. The only caveat to this would be if they traded for a guy like Cameron Brate, which is unlikely.

I think they will be looking closely at the regime changes to find players getting dumped or on the market, and free agency will primarily for depth.

I have to admit that Richardson is the one who interests me the most, Ivan. He's capable of being a disruptive force, has had a bad year+, and needs a change of scenery.

If the Pats could rehabilitate his career, he would solve a lot of problems. Don't see it happening, but wouldn't be sad if it did.

 

[Joey007]

We’ve really had a tough time with #2 TE’s..

We’ve had one that could block but not catch, one that could catch but not block, one that killed a guy, and one that did none of those things and just kinda sucked.

 

[DaBruinz]

So now Dwayne Allen is supposedly the 20th best tight end in the NFL. Tell me how did Dwayne Allen do against the Miami Dolphins in week 14 with Rob Gronkowski inactive? Here's a hint, the New England Patriots lost.

It seems you are unwilling to restructure a player's contract to create salary cap space, cut a player to create salary cap space, or even allow a player to depart via unrestricted free agency to create salary cap space. Good luck trying to re-sign Nate Solder with that attitude.

The fact that you think that the Patriots lost against the Dolphins ONLY because Allen wasn't Gronk 2.0 when Gronk went down shows your intentional bias and really hurts your case.

There were much BIGGER reasons the Pats lost to the Dolphins than Allen. How about not having someone to step in for Kyle Van Noy, who was out. How about Brady having a piss poor game and being intercepted TWICE by Xavier Howard? And I'm pretty sure Howard also had 2 PBUs as well as the 2 ints..
Those interceptions led to 10 points for the Dolphins..