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Free Agency

Patriots Ready to Move On From Blount?

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After an extended quiet period the Patriots were back in the news with a couple visits this morning, bringing in Buffalo RFA Mike Gillislee and Miami RFA Damien Williams.


Yes, it’s always fun when the Pats get ready to raid their AFC East rivals, but you’d think at this point the Bills and Dolphins would do their best to match any offer the Patriots make, except that, oh yeah, the Patriots have more cap flexibility and can pretty much do what they want.

Of the two, Gillislee is the more appealing to me and as someone who’s ready to move on from LeGarrette Blount, I’d welcome the addition. It was reported earlier this week that Blount has had a contract sitting on the table from the Patriots since the start of free agency and is still looking for more money. The fact that he hasn’t gotten a better offer elsewhere, coming off a record-setting campaign for the Pats, says volumes.

Blount certainly has his moments, but his inconsistency in big games leaves me wondering if it’s more the overall Patriots scheme that is most responsible for his best successes, which often seemed to come against the weakest teams. Look at his playoff numbers below and the trend is pretty clear.

Playoffs Rushing & Receiving Table
Game Game Rush Rush Rush Rush Rush Rush
Year Age G GS Rush Yds TD Lng Y/A Y/G
2013 27 2 1 29 172 4 73 5.9 86.0
2014 28 3 0 47 189 3 22 4.0 63.0
2016 30 3 1 35 109 1 18 3.1 36.3
Care Care 8 2 111 470 8 73 4.2 58.8
Provided by Pro-Football-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 4/13/2017.

Williams seems more or less just a guy. He’s never topped 36 carries in a season but has had over 20 catches in each of his first three years and can return kicks. Would he suddenly take off with New England? I’m more interested in Rex Burkhead at this point.

But Gillislee is more intriguing. Belichick had this to say about him last season:

“Some of his time has been limited because of McCoy, who has had such an explosive season, but when he’s had a chance to play he’s done a good job,” said Belichick. “He had a big run against San Francisco, like a 44-yard touchdown. A strong, downhill runner, one cut guy, that’s hard to tackle. Good complementary player to McCoy. McCoy is exceptional, but Gillislee is a good back too.”

Gillislee averaged 5.7 yards-per-attempt in each of the last two seasons. He’s just the kind of under-the-radar player that the Patriots are famous for plucking and turning into a key contributor. Not that that is what they need from him. He’d join three backs who are already pretty balanced overall. It seems clear the Patriots want a deep backfield that can do just about anything. Burkhead has some power, but Gillislee would bring even more explosiveness.

ProJo/Daniels: Former coaches rave about Patriots’ pick-ups

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWv39lWRpog&t=37s

“They’re getting a blue collar, I would say undervalued player around the league,” Harbaugh said. “Don’t sleep on Lawrence Guy. Don’t under estimate this player. He’s a really good football player — run and pass. Love him to death. Every time I see him he gives me this big giant Lawrence Guy hug. He’s a great guy. He’ll be a leader in the locker room. I thought it was a great signing by the Patriots.”

Source: Former coaches rave about Patriots’ pick-ups

Some good quotes from former coaches in this piece from Mark Daniels, and of course it’s always nice to listen to Chuck Pagano and John Harbaugh praise players that will now be Patriots. You know it just kills them on the inside.

I think this has been a pretty surprising offseason so far. The only real slam dunk was Dont’a Hightower and even that was interesting for a bit. But in the end it worked out because Hightower got to see what things are like elsewhere around the AFC. You know the saying, if you love something set it free and if it comes back to you he’ll be smashing offensive opponents for the next four years or so.

Rex Burkhead, Lawrence Guy and Dwayne Allen are classic Patriots moves. Solid football players that weren’t atop anyone’s fit list but players the Patriots pounced on because, simply put, they’re football players. At the end of the day, that’s what made the Patriots dynasty. Not grabbing overpriced superstars in free agency or lucking out with their constantly-low-end draft picks. Just guys who play hard and love football. Of course, having a mastermind like BB to put them in position to succeed helps most of all, but you get the picture.

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Spoiler Alert: Cooks Fits Patriots Offense

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In case you were wondering, yes, Brandin Cooks is a perfect fit for the New England Patriots offense. I’m not sure how anyone could possibly think that the Patriots wouldn’t figure out a way to make Cooks fit. Many have some preconceived notion that Julian Edelman is a prototype and how anyone outside of that prototype might struggle in New England.

There’s no question, Tom Brady has had plenty of receivers he just didn’t jive with, but there’s little reason to think Cooks would end up like Chad Jackson, Joey Galloway or any of the others who came with promise and flamed out. PFF put out this chart on Wednesday, but it’s really just a jumping off point.

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Resetting Patriots Offseason To Do List

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With the re-signing of Dont’a Hightower, along with the other significant free agency moves the Patriots have made over the past two weeks, the 2017 team is starting to round into form. There’s still a big question mark surrounding Malcolm Butler and, to a lesser extent, Jimmy Garoppolo, but it would appear that outside of those two most of the heavy lifting this offseason is close to done.

What we know? The offense looks ready to evolve once again with the addition of Brandin Cooks. He’ll bring a whole new level of explosiveness and if Rob Gronkowski can return to form and everyone stays healthy, who knows what the ceiling is for this offense.

Defensively, the Pats swapped Logan Ryan for Stephon Gilmore and Jabaal Sheard/Chris Long for Kony Ealy. On paper those moves look like they made the Patriots better. There are still depth questions at linebacker and defensive end, but those should be manageable. If Malcolm Butler returns it’s not crazy to think this defense will be even better than last year’s that led the league in points against.

What holes do the Patriots still have? Whose contracts could be extended or released? There’s still plenty of moves to come, and with the Pats currently having no draft picks before the third round, there’s a good chance they’ll look to round out their picks so they can still grab some impact rookies.

Here’s what I see as the priorities going forward with the rest of free agency and the draft.

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Report: Dont’a Hightower Returning to Patriots (phew)

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It’s been an interesting couple of weeks as Dont’a Hightower made the rounds to the Titans, Jets and Steelers, but in the end found that the best fit was to remain in New England according to Adam Schefter.


I was slightly pessimistic about Hightower’s chances of returning once he was set to hit the open market. What I underestimated is how Hightower’s skillset is somewhat of a unique fit in New England. While I’m sure he would’ve been fine in the Jets or Steelers system, the Patriots know exactly how what to do with the 260-pound linebacker.

But how do the Patriots use Hightower? By the end of the 2016 season, he would often play at a traditional inside linebacker spot on early downs, although when the Patriots employed their “6-1” look, Hightower would slide to the weakside outside linebacker spot where he was strong setting the edge. On passing downs the Patriots used Hightower often as a blitzer. And I think this is a good excuse to post one of my favorite GIFs from SB51 as an example.

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Report: Patriots Sign RB Rex Burkhead

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While we were waiting not-so-patiently on Butler and Hightower the Patriots signed running back Rex Burkhead, as reported by Field Yates.

Burkhead was drafted in the 6th round of the 2013 draft and waited three seasons before injuries gave him a shot in 2016. He delivered with 4.6 yards-per-attempt on 74 carries with two touchdowns. He also pitched in with 17 catches for the Bengals, had six kickoff returns in 2016 and played close to half of the special teams snaps. Clearly he brings some value and can contribute in a number of ways. At 5’10”, 210 pounds, Burkhead should compete for early down carries.

Rushing & Receiving Table
Games Rushing Receiving
Year G GS Rush Yds TD Lng Y/A Tgt Rec Yds TD RRTD Fmb
2013 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
2014 9 0 9 27 1 10 3.0 10 7 49 0 1 0
2015 16 0 4 4 0 2 1.0 15 10 94 1 1 1
2016 16 1 74 344 2 17 4.6 20 17 145 0 2 1
Career 42 1 87 375 3 17 4.3 45 34 288 1 4 2
Provided by Pro-Football-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 3/14/2017.

 

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Saints, Texans Circling Malcolm Butler

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The great wait on Dont’a Hightower and Malcolm Butler continues.

Hightower is visiting with the Steelers today, while Butler is reportedly meeting with the Saints, trying to hash out a deal with them. PFT and Reiss both had good explanations of how things can work out when trading a restricted free agent like Butler.

So, to summarize: (1) Saints negotiate with Butler; (2) if a tentative deal is reached, Saints approach Patriots; (3) if a tentative trade is reached, Butler signs tender; (4) Patriots sign Butler to multi-year deal and trade him or Patriots trade him and Saints sign him to multi-year deal.

It’s an interesting situation. On one hand you already have Stephon Gilmore, Eric Rowe, Cyrus Jones and Justin Coleman, not to mention Jonathan Jones, who, despite being primarily a special teamer, looked pretty good in a handful of cornerback snaps from the slot last season. Even without Butler, it’s not situation critical at corner. Getting a first round pick back would also help fill the void left by Butler as well.

But that ignores the bigger picture that Butler has been awesome and is one of our favorite defenders to watch. Same goes for Hightower. Those two made some of the biggest plays in the last two Super Bowls. I know BB won’t pay for past performance, but those plays gave Hightower and Butler a special place in Patriots’ fans hearts that will never go away.

There’s no place for a sentimental Patriots fan unfortunately. And now it seems like a distinct possibility that both Hightower and Butler could be on other teams next offseason. If that happens these will perhaps be the most surprising change of course by the Patriots over the last 17 years.

The 2012 draft was the start of it. The Patriots took two defenders in the first round and it seemed like they would be the core of the next dynasty. They drafted and scouted so well they knew they’d have a ton of hard choices to make if they were to keep that defensive core intact. And now it seems like building a foundation on defense didn’t really matter. Well, it didn’t matter as much as maintaining their pay structure, even when they had plenty of pay to go around.

It’s been about acquiring assets and keeping the cheap young player pipeline fresh. Chandler Jones, Jamie Collins and now perhaps Butler could all be spun into capital, instead of maintaining continuity with the defense. Even Hightower’s exploratory adventure across the AFC would ultimately result in compensatory picks should he sign elsewhere.

We’ll weigh all that when the fates of Butler and Hightower are finalized. But this will certainly be a fascinating year for the defense.