Exactly - no way even an early 3rd this year is better than having him play out the tender and getting a 3rd comp next year.

@patscap (great follow btw) just tweeted that we've averaged a $4.6m carryover the last 5 years. so they are still sitting on a massive pile even if they were to extend Butler.

I know a Jimmy G. trade fills the obvious draft pick holes they have, but a contract extension for him looks almost as obvious.

ChandlerJones got a fortune. I don't remember him being that great.

Six (or seven) more years of Tom Brady

Why exactly do the Pats not want to keep Butler? Is he asking to be the top paid CB in the league or something.

Also if Brady legit plans/wants to play till like he's a senior citizen...can't they redo his contract to push a lot of his salary to his mid 40s and just eat the cap hit if he retires early due to a decline or injury?

Malcolm wants what every RFA wants, and that's to be paid like an UFA. My guess is he plays for the Pats next year. Why haven't the Saints made an offer yet? Probably bc they don't want to give up a high pick and sign him for big bucks - but that's what it's going to take.


similarly, I think Brady wants what every player wants - to play forever. reality eventually will get him. I suspect Pats are saving cap space to pay 2 QB's for a year or maybe two, but who knows.

I think the Pats wanted to sign Butler to an extension, but rightly so wanted Butler to give up some money in order to get more money/security sooner.

When it became clear Butler wanted UFA money the Pats decided to sign Gilmore instead. Whether the Pats think he's better value than Butler (at what Butler was demanding) or if they decided to do it on principle is anyone's guess. Maybe it's both?

Can't imagine you make a move that big on principle.

I'd go with they just think Gilmore is the better player.

--I love Malcolm. I don't know Gilmore. But if we're discussing which player is better, I'm now very excited about Gilmore.

--I don't know why people doubt Brady can keep going as long as he says. He's in the best shape of his life, and he almost never gets hit.

I'm guessing the Gilmore signing is partly a hedge in case something wonky happens with Butler, partly his replacement if/when he leaves. my guess is they don't pay both of them top CB money and they were getting signs that Malcolm would be tough to sign, so they gave themselves some insurance for 2018

and for this year of course it's no problem at all bc Malcolm counts for short money

some of this probably depends what happens with Jimmy G. as well.

as in, can they pay Brady + Jimmy G. + Gilmore + Butler in 2018? that feels like a stretch. but maybe they keep Butler if they aren't paying Jimmy G or vice versa

AP heading to Foxboro.

Adrian Peterson to visit Patriots on Monday

2017 Patriots Schedule

Sep 07: vs. Kansas City Chiefs, 8:30pm (Thursday)
Sep 17: @ New Orleans Saints, 1pm
Sep 24: vs. Houston, 1pm

Oct 01: vs. Carolina Panthers, 1pm
Oct 05: @ Tampa Bay Buccanneers, 8:25pm (Thursday)
Oct 15: @ New York Jets, 1pm
Oct 22: vs. Atlanta Falcons, 8:30pm (Sunday)
Oct 29: vs. Los Angeles Chargers, 1pm

Nov 5: Bye
Nov 12: @ Denver Broncos, 8:30pm (Sunday)
Nov 19: @ Oalkland Raiders (played in Mexico City), 4:25pm
Nov 26: vs. Miami Dolphins, 1pm

Dec 03: @ Buffalo Bills, 1pm
Dec 11: @ Miami Dolphins, 8:30pm (Monday)
Dec 17: @ Pittsburgh Steelers, 4:25pm
Dec 24: vs. Buffalo Bills, 1pm
Dec 31: vs. New York Jets, 1pm


Quick thoughts:

Five primetime games: two on Thursday, two on Sunday, and one on Monday.

We get a good bye in week 9.

Five of our last six games are against division rivals. The sixth game is against conference rival Pittsburgh.

Of those five games, the first three are on the road (weeks 13-15).

Our four NFC games come in the first seven weeks.

We play on the road in back-to-back weeks against Denver and Oakland (Mexico City). That should be good since the Pats probably won't make the trip back to Foxborough. Gronk will get a vacation in Mexico between games.

It should have been Atlanta in the opener.

Playing NFC South and AFC East twice makes this schedule pretty easy. That's 9 games against below average teams. Other than that @Pitt and vs Falcons are the premier matchups and maybe the Raiders are healthy for a good game.

Strange schedule- they play the entire NFC South before the end of October and 5/6 of their AFC East games after Thanksgiving.

Only 5 days until the draft. I guess it's now or never for Jimmy G or Butler trades if they're going to be moved before next season?

So after he Pats get #6 next season I suggest changing the thread title to, "New England Patriots: Working on the Other Hand"

Maybe after #7 we could go with, "New England Patriots: No Finger Left Behind"

We're not gonna win ANYTHING if the old guy retires.

Im encouraged by some of the big national guys reporting that Butler trade is unlikely now. Butler staying would be the icing on the cake for this offseason.

It's hard to believe the Patriots couldn't get a good deal from the Bears in exchange for Jimmy Garoppolo.


Also, the Saints used the #11 pick to draft cornerback Marshon Lattimore.

I hope im wrong but i have a feeling in like 10 months or so we will be complaining about not trading Jimmy G today

I'm not sure what the plan is, but I'll just trust for now.

I think the most likely explanation is that they plan on keeping Jimmy G around for the long term. Which probably means BB plans on coaching him for a while.

second most likely is they view the optionality of this year as more valuable than whatever picks they would have gotten. IE the value of

- having Jimmy around as a backup in case Brady gets hurt this year
- having Jimmy as a future option at QB in case Brady starts to show signs of decline

and then after 2017 you can better figure out what the future looks like and how to figure out contracts etc. but, use the year to collect as much info as you can + keep the value of a great backup

or possibly it's some combo of the above. but I think if they thought there was a solid chance they would ultimately let Jimmy go, he would have been traded before yesterday.

I think him and BB are both here for the long term. which means an ugly cap situation for a couple years, but they probably think it's worth it if it means continuing a run for another 6 or 7 years. a top 10 QB is very very hard to find and if they think they have one, that's worth more than whatever they could have gotten in a trade.

a young top 10 QB is worth...man I don't know bc those trades never happen. but Cutler was traded for 2 firsts and a 3rd, and it's possible they view Jimmy as better than he was

Agree the fact that he hasn't been traded likely means BB actually thinks he's good.

yeah, that seems LDO at this point (that BB thinks he's good) but it's...a real simple answer to the question of "why didn't they trade him?" or "why couldn't they work out a team with team X?".

B/c actually good (not "maybe good") young QB's are all but untradeable. it's the most valuable asset in the NFL.

maybe it's just not more complicated than that.

there are of course complications to that wrt salary cap, but that's worth short term pain in exchange for being competitive in the post Brady years.