Offseason Free Agents thread....

[thecore762]

Hightower
Ryan
Butler
Bennett
Amendola

These guys all played a key role on this team at some point throughout the year.

I'd say without a question Hightower and Butler should be 1 and 2. Then I'd look to retain Ryan and Amendola, those guys are key especially Amendola on the return game.

Lastly Bennett, he has been consistent for us all year and played through injuries without complaint and helped tremendously when Gronk was absent.


I am too confident we will retain all of them, it's more likely Bennett and Ryan leaves us.

I just don't see BB putting the franchise tag on Bennett.

Also I am not sure what we going to do with Vollmer this upcoming season...

I hope we get some good value in the draft this year and get some edge rushers. Flowers is a beast and adding that extra rusher will make our front 7 that much better.

 

[mihap]

Hightower,
Butler,
Branch for one year,
Develin
Most of all Amendola but unlikely

 

[FalconHeavy]

I will keep Amendola, he is clutch in play offs and a team player. Bennet looks like he is gone and someone will overpay him.

 

[Hammer of Thor]

Amendola is under contract, although a decision will need to be made on him obviously.

Butler is a restricted free agent. They can keep him with a 1st round tender - question is would the Patriots be willing to risk that, i.e. someone swooping in with a sweetheart offer, and the Pats losing Butler but obtaining their first round pick.

Other key free agents: Branch, Harmon, Blount, Sheard, Develin. Long, Van Noy, Mingo and Floyd are also free agents. There's a reason the Pats have so much cap space. Will be very curious to see who they prioritize, who they are able to retain, and who they intend to let walk and replace with an external option.

 

[Patriot Missile]

Hightower is a tall order. Gonna be sought after by quite a few teams I imagine.

Butler is a must.

 

[UFGatorPat]

What is Blounts contract? Still has plenty of value and hopefully the OL improves an it run blocking.

Obviously they are way better in the second half once they wear the DL down.

 

[Minitron]

RE-SIGN(priorities in Bold)
Bennett 2yr
Ryan 2-4yr
Branch 1yr
Develin 2yr
Hightower 4-5yr
Amendola 1yr
Vollmer 1yr

 

[thecore762]

Hightower,
Butler,
Branch for one year,
Develin
Most of all Amendola but unlikely

Branch is getting up there in age and that can be a concern, but he has been consistent all year long so I wouldn't mind seeing him here for another year.

I'm confident we retain Amendola because he built a huge bond with Edelman and Brady and now Hogan, I think he is willing to sacrifice a bit of cash to stay in NE, plus he has a young family so he might be less inclined to move somewhere new.

I am most excited for Mitchell next year, he earned Brady's trust after this SB and hope to see him play at a high level and not regress like LaFell.

Lastly if we trade JG then we will have definitely an extra first round pick and 2nd round pick which we could use to get another edge rusher and another tight end that can block. I don't care much if a tight end is not very good at the passing game, if we can buy Brady an extra second or two against the rush he will surely find someone to make a play to.

 

[ashley]

I really think we need to keep Branch, Hightower, Amendola and Butler. I would like to also keep Bennett and Ryan, but finances may not allow it. If we lose Bennett, I think tight end is right at the top of our needs list.

 

[thenepatsrule]

Bennet was on NFLN last night with his brother and was saying that now that he has the ring its time to cash it in... i am pretty sure he is gone

 

[thecore762]

What is Blounts contract? Still has plenty of value and hopefully the OL improves an it run blocking.

Obviously they are way better in the second half once they wear the DL down.

I'm not sure if we keep Blount if we get a solid 3 down back, Blount had a good season with all the TD he got, but mostly because of the outstanding blocks our linemen did for him and the wide receivers. I think Blount had his best season this year and we might see a minor drop off next year if he sticks around.

Resigning Blount won't break our budget, he will come cheap and he likes it up here in NE, so I'm sure he will take another pay cut if he wants to stay here for another chance to get another championship.

 

[zimmy]

This close to free agency you are a fool if you don't test the market, so in many ways whether players come back will be decided by the market. If some teams want to overpay then we will say goodbye, regardless of how much cap room we have.

Butler and one other can be kept via tags. Hightower is the obvious candidate there. I'm happy to give High a good contract but his injury history does scare me. I assume he will look for at least Jamie Collins money.

I personally would like to keep Logan Ryan. He is one of the better number 2 corners in the league, knows the system and by all accounts is a great locker room guy - hard working and film room junkie. It's gonna cost some though. On the open market he could get $10m a year. As a comparison, Robert Alford (Falcons number 2) signed a 4 year $38m deal a few months ago. I might pay that for Ryan depending on the guarantees. Butler is in line for $12m+ a year.

I'd like too keep Bennett around because of Gronk's injury situation but he will command decent money too - maybe $9m a year. If we don't TE becomes a big draft area.

Amendola will be cut and then probably resigned for much less.

Hopefully we can get Alan Branch back on a 1/2 year deal too.

All in all, we might end up giving out 2/3 pretty large contracts in the next 6 weeks. Could potentially see something like the following if we really push the boat out, but Ryan and Bennett might be too rich for our blood.

Butler 4 years $52m or transition tagged
Ryan 4 years $38m
Hightower tagged $13m (or 4 years $52m)
Bennett 2 years $18m
Branch 2 years $7m

 

[patsinthesnow]

Get Adrian Peterson in the building once he's released. He's the next Dillon to help clinch the second dynasty.

 

[chasa]

Amendola i don't see going anywhere. we have him under contract, hopefully hes good with only making about half what hes scheduled to make

Blount is probably gone unless he comes back for 1mil, but even at that i think his best days are behind him, he's been missing SO many giant holes lately, last night he missed an easy 5 yard cut and ended up getting tackled for a loss on 4th an inches.

Butler and hightower id love to see get 4-5 year deals.

Bennett is gone. hes a great tight end, but we cant commit 14-16 million a year into two players at tight end.

Mingo long and sheard all got their rings, i wouldnt be surprised to see long retire, mingo and sheard sign mid range contracts elsewhere, bill will bring in three more hungry edge players who will go for a title on a cheap one year deal.

Van noy i'd like to see stick around.

Biggest needs are going to be Oline, RB, and filling all the defensive holes were about to see open up.

Malcom mitchel, and Hogan means were good at WR, with jules, and amendola we are 4 deep. bring in a couple of camp bodies(floyd, another rookie) and see how it pans out.

 

[thecore762]

Get Adrian Peterson in the building once he's released. He's the next Dillon to help clinch the second dynasty.

We can't afford him, plus his latest injury history is a concern, I rather not cripple this team with the last few years Brady got left and we need to invest in younger talent consistently.

 

[mitsudriver]

We can't afford him, plus his latest injury history is a concern, I rather not cripple this team with the last few years Brady got left and we need to invest in younger talent consistently.

He's made $61m over his career. Maybe he's in for a "chance to win it all" discount. If not, pass. Pats NEED a serviceable running back, not a superstar. Although, superstar would be nice.

 

[thecore762]

Amendola i don't see going anywhere. we have him under contract, hopefully hes good with only making about half what hes scheduled to make

Blount is probably gone unless he comes back for 1mil, but even at that i think his best days are behind him, he's been missing SO many giant holes lately, last night he missed an easy 5 yard cut and ended up getting tackled for a loss on 4th an inches.

Butler and hightower id love to see get 4-5 year deals.

Bennett is gone. hes a great tight end, but we cant commit 14-16 million a year into two players at tight end.

Mingo long and sheard all got their rings, i wouldnt be surprised to see long retire, mingo and sheard sign mid range contracts elsewhere, bill will bring in three more hungry edge players who will go for a title on a cheap one year deal.

Van noy i'd like to see stick around.

Biggest needs are going to be Oline, RB, and filling all the defensive holes were about to see open up.

Malcom mitchel, and Hogan means were good at WR, with jules, and amendola we are 4 deep. bring in a couple of camp bodies(floyd, another rookie) and see how it pans out.

Long may no longer be a 3 down lineman, but he has that thing about him that he wills himself to make plays, I'd like to see him get a vet minimum contract and stick around for another year, I doubt he gets big money at this stage of his career.

I agree the O-line needs to be better, I want us to draft a stud center to compete with Andrew at that position. It would help us a lot in those short yardage situations.

I don't think we bring back Sheard next year because of his inconsistencies throughout the year.

I am not sure if Ninkovich comes back next year, he was rarely a factor this year and seemed to slow down a lot.

 

[thecore762]

He's made $61m over his career. Maybe he's in for a "chance to win it all" discount. If not, pass. Pats NEED a serviceable running back, not a superstar. Although, superstar would be nice.

I see him joining a team like the Cowboys instead of the Pats... I just don't think he would take a huge pay cut for a ring. I just don't see it happening.

 

[patsinthesnow]

We can't afford him, plus his latest injury history is a concern, I rather not cripple this team with the last few years Brady got left and we need to invest in younger talent consistently.

If he's expensive then I agree and no thanks to AP. He said his goal is to win a championship and I'm not sure how expensive a 32 year old RB will be considering this may be the deepest RB draft of all time. There may be an opportunity to get him for a reasonable price.

edit: saw your reply to another poster. fair point

 

[jah]

Get Adrian Peterson in the building once he's released. He's the next Dillon to help clinch the second dynasty.

**** that guy.