PatsPropaganda

An Independent Patriots Blog

What Do To With Danny Amendola

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While Danny Amendola has made clutch play after clutch play for the Patriots in their past two runs to the Super Bowl, his time with New England might very well be up.

Currently, Amendola is due to make 6.5 million in 2017, and he ranks fourth out of all Patriots in terms of cap hit, counting 7.8 million against the cap. Trailing only Brady (14M), Nate Solder (11.2M), and Devin McCourty (10.9M), Amendola is scheduled to count more against the cap than fellow receivers Julian Edelman (5.8M) and Chris Hogan (3M), not to mention Rob Gronkowski (6.8M). Because of this, there is a 0% chance Amendola remains on the roster with his current contract, so the Patriots can choose to either restructure his contract or release him.

Amendola has restructured his contract the past two offseason’s, so it remains to be seen if he would be willing to take a pay cut for the third straight year. Following a first restructure in March of 2015 that took 2.3 million off his deal, Amendola made about 2.7 million for the 2015 season, and after another restructure in May of last year that cut his salary by 4.4 million, Amendola made just 1.5 million in 2016.

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Pats Should Prioritize Extensions for Edelman and Solder

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There’s been plenty of analysis about which free agents the Patriots should retain this offseason, but another major piece of the puzzle will be extending players to either balance out their cap hit and/or prevent them from hitting free agency next offseason. Two players that are prime for extensions are left tackle Nate Solder and Julian Edelman.

Solder bounced back from a biceps tear in 2015 to hold down Tom Brady‘s blindside for the Super Bowl run. He didn’t have his best game against Dwight Freeney in Houston, but that doesn’t take away from the stability that Solder brought this season.

Solder’s cap hit for 2017 is due to be over $11 million dollars, a number the Pats would love to get down. Solder’s had two contracts with the Patriots, his initial rookie deal and then a two-year extension he signed in 2015 that guaranteed him $20 million.

He’ll turn 29 this April, so Solder still has plenty of good football left in him. The Patriots have already agreed not to use the franchise tag on him in 2018, so now’s a good time to take a look at a deal that would make sense for both sides. With the rest of the starting offensive line locked up for at least the next two seasons (David Andrews is a RFA next offseason), another two year extension that spreads some of his cap hit out would make sense for Solder.

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Should Pats Ditch Shea McClellin?

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Shea McClellin signed a three-year, $9 million contract last offseason, the biggest contract the Patriots awarded to an external free agent in 2016. He ended the season having played just 37 percent of the defensive snaps and 49 percent of the special teams snaps, logging 16 solo tackles, two fumble recoveries and one sack.

That’s not great production for that much money and in 2017 McClellin is currently slotted to be the 10th highest-paid Patriot. The Pats could save $1.6 million in cap space if they were to cut McClellin. Should they when there’s already a lot of uncertainty with some key front seven players?

I have to admit, I was not a fan of McClellin’s early in the season. While we thought he’d play a sub linebacker role, he started out as more of an edge hybrid where he was ineffective. His athleticism was clear, but he lacked much “pop” to his game and just didn’t really do anything to stand out.

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A Closer Look at Patriots Defensive Personnel and Roles

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Each year the Patriots defensive schemes slowly evolve over the course of the year and each year is unique. I always pray that people can get past the simplistic 3-4 vs. 4-3 debate which is archaic and meaningless now.

The Patriots trend of heavily using sub defense continued this season, as did their evolution to incorporating more Cover-2 Zone as the season progressed. The line between defensive ends and outside linebackers continues to blur, while the importance of having three good safeties and three good corners has become more imperative.

Here’s a look at some of the formations the Patriots utilized in the Super Bowl and what they might be able to tell us about their offseason plan of attack.

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Patriots Internal Free Agents: Defense Edition

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Coming off their fifth Super Bowl victory, the New England Patriots are in tremendous shape cap-wise, as they have right around 62 million dollars in cap space heading into the 2017 offseason. This cap room gives the Patriots incredible financial flexibility, and lets Bill Belichick, Nick Caserio, and co be as aggressive as they please in free agency. Of course, the Patriots do have several important free agents of their own that need new contracts, with many of them falling on the defensive side of the ball, including essential pieces in Dont’a Hightower and Malcolm Butler (although Butler is a restricted free agent), so lets take a look at the Patriots defensive free agents.

Dont’a Hightower 

  • Age: 26
  • Projected contract (via Spotrac): 4 years, 40 million
  • Other notable free agent inside linebackers: Lawrence Timmons, Malcolm Smith, D’Qwell Jackson

In nearly every Patriot fans mind, locking up defensive captain Dont’a Hightower is the Patriots #1 priority entering free agency, and if Jeff Howe is correct, it appears the Patriots organization feels the same way. Yesterday, Howe, on 98.5 the Sports Hub, said, “[The Patriots] definitely want to keep [Hightower]. He is their priority”. That is a good sign, but this situation does not appear to be one in which Hightower would be willing to take a home-town discount to remain in New England. Howe went on to say, “Hightower wants to stay, but the Patriots aren’t going to be able to really skimp on his contract. They’re going to have to pay him top dollar.”

Hightower will surely be looking for a contract that exceeds the one former teammate Jamie Collins signed with Cleveland in January. The Brown inked Collins to a four year, 50 million dollar deal, with 26.4 million of that guaranteed, so it seems like any contract discussion with Hightower will probably begin at that figure and work its way up. I see Hightower signing a contract in the range of 4-5 years for 60 or so million dollars, with at least 30 million of that guaranteed; those amounts are nearly exactly the same as the ones in the contract Luke Kuechly, the NFL’s premier inside linebacker, signed prior to the 2015 season for 5 years, 62 million, and 35 million guaranteed. Luckily, the Patriots have the financial flexibility to make this sort of contract work without compromising the rest of the roster, so I would be really surprised if Belichick let Hightower leave New England.

Similar to the contract discussions with Devin McCourty two offseason’s ago, I think Hightower is the type of player Belichick and the Patriots will do whatever it takes to keep in a Patriot uniform, whether it be by a long-term extension or via the franchise tag, which would cost the Patriots about 15 million to retain Hightower and would allow the two sides another year to negotiate a new contract.

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Linkage: The MMQB Podcast with Tom Brady

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Download past episodes or subscribe to future episodes of Peter King, The MMQB Podcast by Sports Illustrated for free.

Source: Peter King, The MMQB Podcast by Sports Illustrated on iTunes

It isn’t often you get an in-depth breakdown from Brady about much of anything, much less one of his epic performances, but here it is. Fascinating to hear Brady’s perspective on one of the craziest comebacks we’ve ever seen.

Just hearing him talk football like this was awesome.

One of the most interesting points by Brady is how in every Super Bowl he’s played the defenses have had trouble stopping the offenses at the end. Never really put that together before but it’s so true.

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Time to Put Out the Blount

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This is the first in a series of Patriots internal free agent posts. You can find the full offseason plan here.

LeGarrette Blount is coming off the best season of his career. At 30 years old he put up 1,161 yards and a Patriots team record 18 touchdowns. However Blount was once again a total non-factor in the playoffs, putting up his worst playoff numbers in his three trips to the post-season with the Pats.

Blount didn’t draw much interest on the open market last season, re-signing with New England on a one-year, $1 million deal. He was coming off a season-ending hip injury which might’ve scared away some potential bidders.

Now, Blount’s deal is up again and despite his record-setting 2016, I think it’s time to let the veteran running back go and throw some youth at the position.

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