Rumours now that Butlers agent is trying to get him an offer sheet in the range of gilmore money. Best case scenario is some team gets Butler to sign an offer sheet that the Pats match. If Pats end up losing Butler this offseason after signing Gilmore to that contract i will be pissed.

No one is going to give Butler Gilmore $ for the right to give up a 1st round pick to the Patriots, & if they do, unfortunately the Pats probably shouldn't match.

As much as I like Butler, it's obvious that BB is not pleased with a rookie agent making absurd demands.

Besides, Gilmore can return kicks and is younger than Butler.

I'm hoping there aren't thinking about it as an either/or. We already lost a solid CB in Ryan, so losing Butler as well would be a pretty big negative.

Eh, if Butler would be worth $12m/yr as an unrestricted free agent then he is actually worth $4m, $12m, $12m, $12m except there is not that much motivation for a team to give him that $12m now instead of waiting and making sure he does not get hurt next season, so if he wants that money now, it is probably more like $4m, $10.5m, $10.5m, $10.5m.

But since they have to give up a 1st round draft pick those numbers would need to fall even further... which means he has to get traded before he signs an extension (so they keep the 1st round draft pick)..

which makes no sense at all why he would want to decline the Saints trade.

it seems like Butler is not too bright and his agent is clueless/arrogant/trolling thinking he is gonna game BB on his first deal.

I'd rather it not be either/or situation, but Butler turned down $7m/year for 2 years, now his idiot agent is asking UFA money for an RFA. He's not getting that here, but if he gets it somewhere else, the Pats get a 1st for him.

My hope is the best he gets offered is something in the $7-$8m range and the Pats match it.

right, I just find it unlikely he actually doesn't play for the Pats next year. is someone going to offer more than that AND a 1st round pick? doubtful. the other scenario he goes is if Pats trade him - but I also find that unlikely since he is slated to play for $3.9m next year and is really valuable

The problem is any team willing to offer $7-8 mm year know they are just doing the Pats a favor.

If Butler really wants $13 mm year now he's going to have to realize he's still not going to get paid more the $4 mm for next year over the length of the deal.

So 4, 13, 13, 13 = $43 mm = $10.75 mm per (and of course a fat chuck of this would be signing bonus money up front).

And the Pats should get a little more give since they now incur the risk of injury in the first year. Meaning right now they could make him play next season for $4 mm and after next year sign him for $13 mm per - if he gets hurt bad next year they walk away.

Therefore something around $9 mm per over 4 to 5 years seems like a good offer right now for both Butler and the Pats.

Of course people on the radio are saying the Pats would be screwing Butler by offering him anything less than $12-13 mm per season since that's what he's worth. That ignores the reality of RFA.

Damn I forgot where I was going with my last post...

A team having to give up a 1st round pick can't offer more than the Pats can right now (under terms some people think are "screwing" him) unless that team doesn't care about screwing themselves.

The Browns apparently think a 2nd round pick is worth $16 mm. What is a 1st worth?

Guys, the whole point here is that he's NOT going to sign an offer sheet for $7-8M/yr. He wants $10M+ and he's going to need to play another year to get that.

Whats really annoying me is all this talk by the reporters how if Sants and Butler agree to a deal that then the Saints and Pats would likely work out a trade. Id hate that. If they want Butler make them use the offer sheet route and take the 11th pick. If they dont want to do that then just keep Butler and pay him his $4m this year and have one of the better secondary's in the NFL.

Yeah, it wouldn't make sense to trade him & not get significant compensation. They could still franchise him next year if they wanted to, or a likely 3rd round comp pick.

In other news, Pats sign Rex Burkhead. Interesting.

What will the FA tag on a CB be? Like 15? Hard to see the Pats spending like 25% of the cap on secondary in 2018. Got Gilmore, McCourty, Harmon all making good $ now.

Were you guys surprised they gave Harmon 5m a year? He is a decent roleplayer but seems like the type you let walk.

I meant tag & trade. Would be shocked if they tagged & kept.

Moderate surprise, but Chung is getting old & they love that big nickel.

Seems like good chance Butler is gone to the Saints but definitely think 1yr/4m of Butler is > getting a 3rd rd pick 1 year earlier. Since the compensatory pick will only be a little lower.

I would be legit annoyed if they traded him for a 3rd, & I pretty much always trust BB.

My frustration with this whole thing is Pats look absolutely loaded for next season. If they let Butler leave or trade him it puts a pretty big hole in the starting lineup.

At the moment the worst case scenario for the Pats value wise is Butler plays this season on the RFA tender for ~$4m and leaves next year as a free agent and pats likely get a 3rd rd comp pick.

I just want to keep Butler and go into next season with a absolute wagon

I will be baffled if Butler is gone. Gilmore doesn't preclude him, last time I checked you need two cornerbacks and he was cost controlled with every chance of being signed to something. Whatever he does with the Saints is irrelevant because this will be a blow to the Pats in the secondary by whatever observation.

BB is tossing money and draft picks around like a drunk at a strip club and seems to dislike all of his homegrown players. I'm not going to question the process, but it is damn interesting.

Hightower, Collins, Jones, Butler. All needed contracts. Could be zero. Nobody saw that coming.

For the record I think Hightower is coming back officially today but we're all gonna lament the loss of Butler for a much lower pick than expected. 11 would be amazing, 32 is acceptable, the mid-level 3rd being discussed is absolutely disgusting.

I've completely given up on trying to figure out how BB wants to structure his team and so should you for the sake of sanity. There used to be a trend until there wasn't.

Rex Burkhead's one-year, $3.15 million deal makes him the highest-paid Patriots running back since Fred Taylor in 2010.
The Patriots haven't paid a running back $2-plus million in over a half-decade. Some Patriots fans apparently assumed Burkhead would be a special teams-only replacement for Brandon Bolden. According to ESPN Boston's Mike Reiss, Burkhead is "viewed as a key cog, both offensively and on special teams" by the Patriots, while the Providence Journal's Mark Daniels believes Burkhead "is coming to the Patriots with a chance to be their starting running back."


Rex in full effects

I was hoping for $2.5m or so, but there was definitely word out there that he might be the best free agent RB available, period, & the Patriots value the special teams stuff more than any other team.

Not a lot of upside on that contract, though with no unguaranteed 2nd year. I guess on the bright side if he is amazing someone will overpay him & potentially give us a decent comp pick.

Careful with raw $ amounts. It's cap percentage that matters. On that scale, Burkhead's 4th behind Kevin Faulk, Corey Dillon and Fred Taylor.

Patriots Re-Sign LB Dont’a Hightower To Four-Year, $43.5M Deal With $19M Gtd.

Also, insiders still expect Garoppolo to get traded, and the most likely destination is the Browns once the Patriots come down a bit from their demand for two 1sts.

Nice deal

pretty happy about the hightower signing