MORSE: Reactions to Devante Parker's 3-year Extension

Devante Parker Signed to a 3-year Extension

I am not a Devante Parker fan. My immediate knee-jerk reaction was that Bill Belichick had lost his mind. However, I am going to reserve judgment until Miguel Benzan (Patscap) tells us what the actual breakdown of the contract is.

The 3-year, $33M with $14M guaranteed and roster bonuses reported by Ian Rappaport sounds excessive at face value. If the extension is backloaded, with the last two years as fluff to spread the signing bonus out and reduce the Cap hit then that might be ok.

This appears on the surface to be a way to calm down Parkers’ hurt feelings over the potential signing of DeAndre Hopkins. Parker was visibly upset at the questions he was asked in mini-camp about the potential signing of Hopkins. This will also give them three signed WRs for next year.

The Best and Worst of Devante Parker

This stat courtesy of Warren Sharp

Devante Parker’s WR separation ranking from Next Gen Stats:

2022: #122 out of 122

2021: #127 out of 127

2020: #132 out of 132

2019: 4^th worst

Parker has a reputation for being great at catching those 50/50 balls. The reason for that is that every pass to him is a 50/50 ball. Additionally, Mac Jones had the highest rate (11%) of Interceptions (4) when throwing to Parker because he can’t separate.

Marcus Mosher posted this in a tweet:

Devante Parker was really good last year in the 13 games he played.

99th percentile drop rate.

98th percentile Average Depth of Target (ADOT) 3^rd in the league at 15.9 yards.

98th percentile receiving grade vs. single coverage.

91st percentile receiving grade vs. zone coverage.

Parker, when healthy is a good player. However, he missed 3 of the last 4 games, playing in the season finale. He was great in that game with 6 catches on 7 targets for 79 yards and 2 TDs. It was his best game with Mac Jones all year. Parker was also held back by the Matt Patricia disaster as the offensive coordinator.

Parker’s original deal was a $6.2M hit against the cap and $5.7M of that was salary this year, non-guaranteed. If the Patriots signed DeAndre Hopkins, they could have cut Parker immediately and used that $5.7M to help offset the signing of Hopkins.

Does this mean that Hopkins is not signing with the Patriots?

Hopkins signing with the Patriots is not dead. Actually, the Parker deal will clear some cap room and the signing of Hopkins will make some of his incentives very unlikely to be met, lowering the overall value of the deal. I think removing Trent Brown and his $10M cap hit would be the right thing to do and sign Hopkins.

Bedard’s Observation from Mini-Camp

Greg Bedard from Boston Sports Journal had this observation from the open media OTAs and Mini-Camp. He thought Parker was awful up until the news broke that the Patriots were in on Hopkins.

Bedard went on to say that Parker looked like a whirlwind on the last day of Mini-Camp. A completely different player. That was the same time that Parker was very snippy at his press conference when asked about Hopkins. Parker responded “Talk about the players here” and then followed that up with a Belichickian response “Next question”.

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About Mark Morse

Merrimack Valley native and lifelong fan of the New England Patriots. My earliest memories of the Patriots were attending as a child with my dad, the off-season practice at Phillips Academy. I was at the Patriots game at Harvard Stadium in 1970 where Bob “Harpo” Gladieux was called out of the stands by the stadium announcer over the PA to play in the game. Analyzing the draft since ESPN first started to televise it in 1980 and former writer for the Lowell Sun Newspaper.

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