I think the Pats like Lewis - he got a decent sized workload after returning from injury last year. he did get hurt in the SB, and an injury ended his season last year, and he's a small guy, so just reading the tea leaves they probably have durability concerns.

neither Lewis not White are really downhill runners though. Gillislee and Burkhead are the Blount replacements, Gillislee moreso I think.

I'm not sure this makes the offense really *better* but it will make them more consistent.

Bills can still match of course.

I don't know...it'd be #1M more to do so and if the 5th round tender was such a blunder, why did it take almost two months for Gillislee to receive an offer at the 5th round tender? Could be the Bills are willing to do the same thing they did with Ryan Groy...

Match the offer or not, I doubt Mike Gillislee is going to be the determining factor whether or not the Bills break their 17 year old playoff-free streak...

Pick up Samaje Perine in the 3rd maybe?

You seem to be struggling with concept that Gillislee can have vastly different values to different teams.

The Pats are clearly envisioning a bigger role for him than the Bills are, and as such are offering a contract that prices him out of the limited role the Bills would give him, while still potentially being a good value for them.

Good point...but the Pats also have James White, Dion Lewis, and Burkhead...so unless MG is going to be their undisputed starter and not a committee back, it might not be a great deal after all for the Pats

From a Pats writer that's shown a solid bunch of sources.

@DMooreNFL
I'm being told #Bills are unlikely to match #Patriots offer sheet to RFA Mike Gillislee. Couple of reasons, from what I'm hearing. (1/3)

#Bills were not necessarily comfortable giving Gillislee more than one year deal. Also, were comfortable w/ J. Williams progress. (2/3)

Lastly, the #Bills would have little cap room to work with if they matched offer sheet. Would prefer 5th rd pick at that point. (3/3)

The timeframe for fit is longer than this season though. Only MG would be signed beyond this season.

As for this year they have a ton of cap space and he would be the most natural downhill runner they have. So they can afford to overpay for some depth and flexibility.

yeah, if I'm a Pats fan, I like the signing.

But whatever....Pats are gonna Pat and Bills are gonna Bill.

Of course they like Lewis, he's just somewhat redundant with White & Burkhead if Gillislee isn't matched & Burkhead isn't expected to fill the Blount role. If they could regain a decent pick, I could see them moving on to recoup a pick & relying on the rest of their depth at the position.

Offering Gillislee the 2nd round tender is pretty much exactly equivalent to signing him to a 1 year $2.746m deal as no one is going to sign him to an offer sheet at that level of tender & you super snap take the 2nd if anyone is stupid enough to. I think that's a good deal for a guy who rushed for 5.7 ypc 2 years in a row.

RFAs always take a while to sign due to the nature of the market & teams not having any urgency to do so, but the agents always thinking the players have more leverage than they do.

JWill put up 27/94/3.5/1 & 1 catch for 0 yards last year...I'm not particularly inspired.

& if they wanted to give Gillislee a 1 year deal, I just pointed out the easiest way to do it.

But at this point, yeah, I think letting him go is best.

But it's 4 million for this year and 2 for next.

There's no such thing as a bad one year deal basically. There can be no regret here, it's not something that's going to hang over their heads moving forward. After this year they get him for 2 millions dollars.

Even if he has a poor/injured year, all that's left is one year at half the salary. It's really great time/value allocation of cap space.

Pats announce Butler signed on. Lengel too. Tre Jackson released.

Pats extend White 3 more years as well.

Rumour that Saints will give Pats back 32 for Butler

looks like another year of having no clue which patriots RB to play in fantasy week to week, but when a random one goes off for 25 points it sure as hell will be against me

The Patriots should demand more or simply keep Butler and try to resign him after the season.

Aaron Hernandez kills himself in prison.

Wowee

Good?

how long until it's appropriate to inquire about the salary cap implications of the suicide?

What were the salary cap implications of him being in prison?

Pats already took the dead $ hit in like 2013 or 2014, & got a slight refund in 2015 from a grievance against Hernandez. He's been off the books for a while.

it's complicated and it actually had to do (I think) with whether he was convicted or not of the double murder (but not the single murder, due to timing).

loong old read about it here

edit:

Phrasing

Shrewd move suspending himself before Goodell could.

NFL players (not already in a stage of drug program) are tested once a year for marijuana. Testing window starts today. Yes, 4/20.

Only in the NFL!