Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - LOCKED ON PATRIOTS- 3/14/17- Patriots Remain Active In Free Agency, Trade Market

Episode Date: March 15, 2017

Chris Simoneau of Scout.com discusses the latest Patriots news. #patriots Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Minimum purchase required, U.S. only. Good evening. I'm Chris Simineau, Patriots Insider for Scout.com and also your host of Lockdown Patriots, your source for everything Patriots. Today is Tuesday, March 14, 2017. Tonight we're going to get you guys updated on all the free agency signings and some of the trades the Patriots have made. It's been a pretty interesting start here over the last week or so. The Patriots have been in the mix on pretty much everything that's gone down. They've been extremely active, so we have plenty to discuss.

If anything does happen during the show, we will break for breaking news, so hopefully that does happen, because that's always exciting stuff. The Dante Hightower situation, that scenario is the big one. Does he return? Most people say yes, but until he signs, anything can happen.

So, again, we have Twitter up here, keep an eye on that, and I also have my phone fully charged, ready to go. So, if anything changes in the Hightower scenario, we'll be the first to let you know. Also, Malcolm Butler seems like he's on his way out. Will the Patriots make a trade and get the 11th pick in the draft? Or will they match the offer and keep one of the best young corners in the game and pair him with Stephon Gilmore, who they just paid $13 million to? Also, Rex Burkhead officially signed today.

We're going to take a look at what he'll bring to the Patriots running game, who he replaces on the depth chart, and we'll let you know if his signing means that the Patriots are done at running back. Hint, I don't think they are. Before we get started, I want my listeners to know that I can be found on Twitter under the handle Chris underscore Simono at C-H-R-A-S underscore S-I-M-O-N-E-A-U. If you have any questions for the show, be it about the Patriots, myself, Patriots Insider, or if you're looking to advertise here on Lockdown Patriots, myself, Patriots Insider, or if you're looking to advertise here on Lockdown Patriots,

you can email me directly at simono.christopher5 that's S-I-M-O-N-E-A-U .christopher5 at gmail.com Again, that's simono.christopher5 at gmail.com If you're a member of Patriots Insider on scout.com,

and if you're not, I strongly suggest you go sign up. You can contact me directly on the site via message. All right, so like I said, we have a whole bunch of news, a whole bunch of things going on. You know, we're just going to go attack the topics and get right at it. We got about 20 minutes worth of stuff here, and the way we do it, as you guys know, we don't mess around. We've got one commercial that we're going to give you guys, and pretty much the rest of it is just good stuff. That's what we like to do.

First thing we want to talk about tonight is the Brandon Cooks trade and how he fits into the Patriots' offense. Now, I said it all last season that an evil in Gronkowski was healthy. I thought that speed was an issue for the Patriots. Now, you look at a guy like Edelman, he's quick, and he's not as quick as he used to be since he had the foot injury, but they didn't really have anybody that could burn down the field. Malcolm Mitchell's a good guy. He's a good possession receiver, but he doesn't have that quick twitch speed that they were looking for.

And a guy like Brandon Cooks absolutely provides something that they just don't have. And now they have it. And to put that along with Gronkowski and Dwayne Allen and Edelman, it's going to be scary. And the thing about Cooks, too, is he's not just a deep threat. I mean, this isn't Sean Jefferson we're talking about here. This guy makes a lot of plays.

He's constantly making plays down the field. He can make a play on slants. It doesn't matter what it is. Cooks is one of the best players in the league for his age, and the fact that they actually have him on the team and they're able to get him, you know, I understand they had to give up a first-round pick to get him. But we're talking about a guy here who had 84 catches in 2015.

He had 78 catches last year. You know, he's got almost 3,000 yards in the three years in the league, 20 touchdowns. You know, he had nine touchdowns in 2015, eight touchdowns last season. He's going to come to the Patriots, and he's going to be one of their number one targets, and he's going to do damage. So to be able to get a kid, you know, a kid, he's 23 years old. Let's put that out there.

He's 23. So, you know, the kid's birthday is September 25th. So he's going to turn 24 right around week two, if my math is correct. So he's a young kid still. And I understand that the Patriots have this year and then they'll have an option for next season. So they'll have to figure that out beyond after the two years, but they're picking up a guy here, again, for a first round pick that is, was a first round pick. He was selected 20th in 2014, so you know you're getting a guy who's proven.

He's done it every season he's been in the league, every time he's getting a shot. He's going to do it again with the Patriots. It's going to take some time for Brady to get used to him and for him to get used to Brady. But once he gets it figured out, and once the rest of this offense understands what they can do with him and what he's going to do off of him and what he can do off of them, it's going to be fun to watch because they have every different type of element you can think of.

You know, God forbid Brady was to go down. You know, that's one of the things that you don't really hear talked about all that much, but it could happen. I mean, this guy's going to be 40 next season. Let's not forget that. So what happens if Brady goes down and Garoppolo's still on the team? Well, now Garoppolo's got a guy like Cooks to go to. He's got an extra option in the offense.

A guy like Garoppolo who's young, who, you know, he may not be as, he's not, he's not as good, he's not Tom Brady. So now you have a guy in your offense that adds to it, that can stretch the field a little bit, open it up underneath for Gronk a little bit, which is going to happen. It's going to open it up for Edelman, maybe Amendola, depending if he's back with his $7 million number. I don't think he's going to be back under that, but he could be back under a cheaper number.

In fact, I'd like to see them take that money and give it to Cook so they can get him re-signed, but that is a podcast for another day. But as far as the Cook situation, as far as on the field is concerned, I just think it's an unbelievable pickup. And, you know, to give up a first and a third, to get them, and then get a fourth back, which the fourth, this just stinks. So that fourth-round pick that the Patriots got back from the Saints has been absorbed by the NFL.

That's absorbed for the deflate gate fiasco. So the Patriots get their fourth round pick back. They get the 32nd pick in the fourth round back given to them and they have to give up the one from the Saints. That would have been the 114th selection or something stupid like that.

Just the NFL doing what they do. Whatever. Patriots just do what they do and win Super Bowls and continuously make trades that make you wonder what the heck other teams are thinking. So it was a good move to go out and get Cooks. Actually, it was beyond a good move. It was a great move. They pick up a guy that is in a contract. He's basically in a contract year.

You know that he's going to have a huge season, and even if the Patriots do pick up his contract, which they will, for 2018 it's an $8 million, I think it's $8.8 million he's going to make, and that's a chump change for the numbers that he puts up. He's going to put up big numbers, I think, and he's going to get open a lot. Brady's going to find him, and like I said, God forbid if something was to happen to Brady, that gives Garoppolo another great weapon in the offense to work with too, so all in all, this is just a great move for the offense.

Adding depth with your weapons is huge, not just for your quarterback, but just for your team in general. You have guys that can step up and make plays because there's going to be injuries. Guys are going to get hurt. Edelman's going to get hurt. Gronkowski's going to get hurt. Dwayne Allen's going to get hurt. Brandon Cooks is going to have games that he gets dinged up. It's just going to get hurt Edelman's going to get hurt Gronkowski's going to get hurt Dwayne Allen's going to get hurt Brandon Cooks is going to have games that he gets dinged up it's just going to happen guys are going to get dinged up but you got to be able to have

other guys that can step up and help out when need be and the more guys you can pick up the better and when you have a Cooks a guy like that even if he's not at the top of his game at least if he's able to go out there and provide a bit of a decoy, they've been able to do that with Gronkowski in the past when he's been a little dinged up. They just added another guy that's just going to make things easier for Brady and, God forbid, Garoppolo if he had to come in. So great trade, great pickup for the Patriots.

Again, the guy's in his career. He's been targeted 315 times, but he only has 215 catches. So that ratio is a little bit off. I'm not really a big fan of that ratio, to be perfectly honest. But he has 32 out of 42 games, 215 catches, 2,861 yards, 20 touchdowns, and 13.3 yards per catch, which is one of the things the Patriots really like, you know, is the yards per catch.

He gets it done. You know, that's what it comes down to. He did return punts a little bit back in his rookie year, but he's just too good of a commodity to have on special teams. You don't want to stick him back. You need him in the passing game. So I don't believe that they will use him in the passing game. I think that would be crazy of them to do, but you never know.

You just never know with the Patriots. They're one of those strange teams that can do anything, but I don't see them doing that. So, again, Brandon Cook trade. I love what they did to give up the 32nd pick for a guy who was the 20th pick in 2014 and who has, again, almost 3,000 yards and 20 touchdowns and has proven to be one of the best offensive weapons in the league, to add him to an offense that needed speed

and that speed may just push them over the top to push them to this sixth Super Bowl title, that's pretty awesome. That's a pretty impressive trade by Belichick and by the Patriots organization. So Brandon Cook's in New England is one of those offseason moves that we may look back at and say that's the reason why they won their sixth Super Bowl. Patriots also went out and beefed up their defensive line.

First thing they did, they went and signed Lawrence Guy, defensive lineman. Actually, it was defensive end for Baltimore for the last two seasons. He's been in the league since 2012. Originally came in with Indianapolis. He was a seventh-round pick. He was the 233rd overall selection in the 2011 NFL draft. Actually, he played for Arizona State, 6'5", 300. Last year, he actually was pretty good for Baltimore.

He started 10 out of 16 games, picked up a sack, hit 14 tackles, 14 assists. He also had a fumble recovery and a forced fumble. So he's definitely a good situational guy for them. The Patriots have always done a good job to make sure that they have good guys rotationally. Last year they used Chris Long, guys like that, Jabal Sheard. And we'll get to the Jabal Sheard replacement in a minute

because they've just replaced him also. But this is a good pickup. I believe Lawrence Guy is one of those players. He's going to turn 27 on St. Patrick's Day. He's starting to come into his own here as a player in the NFL. Again, he started 17 out of the last 32 games with Baltimore over the last two seasons, so he's definitely proven that he can be a cog in a defense. Back in 2015, actually, that was his best season.

He started seven out of 16 games. He had a pass defended, four and a half sacks, 29 tackles, 17 assisted tackles. So the guy proved that he could make some plays out there, and I think the Patriots like his versatility. Again, he's 6'5", 300. He's listed as a D tackle, but he played a lot at the end over the last few years. I think he can play inside and out,

which is always something the Patriots want to have. It's important to them. So Lawrence Guy is a very underrated pickup for the Patriots defense. I know he's going to be part of the rotation. I think that they're going to use him more than people would expect. But people are also going to say, wow, this guy can actually make plays. And I think his production is going to come up in New England, similar to what we saw with Jabal Sheard when he came to New England from Cleveland.

His production was down the year before he came here, and then he had a pretty good year, his first year in New England. So, again, good pickup. I think that he will provide, Lawrence Guy is going to provide good depth for their defensive line, give them a bit of a pass rush, and he's also pretty good against the run, too. So, Lawrence Guy to New England to add some depth to the defensive line. Again keep it on that defensive line. Patriots win again to the trade market. This time they went and made a trade for a guy who I believe

would have been the Super Bowl MVP in Super Bowl 50 if Carolina's offense had showed up. But they decided not to show up that day and unfortunately for Coney Ealy, his sack, his interception, and his two, actually his two sacks, his interception and his forced fumble all went for naught, but he was incredible in that game. So the Patriots went out and traded for Coney Ealy, and it's pretty funny because, you know, they gave up a second-round pick to do it,

but they got back a third, and all they did was drop eight spots. That's it, eight spots. So people are like, oh, wow, they gave up a second-round pick, and they don't have a first or a second-round pick. Well, if you only gave up eight spots to drop in the second round to the third round, you're not really giving up all that much. The 64th pick in the draft, you're dropping you drop him from 64 to 72, that's not really a big difference. You know, you have the last pick in round two, it's not really much

different than being in the top eight of round three. So for the Patriots, it's basically they just go out and get Coney Ealy for essentially nothing. You know, they give up eight spots in the draft to add a guy, you know, who's for them, he's going to them, I think going to be huge for them. Ilya was a second round pick out of Missouri back in 2014. Over the last two seasons, he's been a part-time guy. In 2015, he started nine games, finished with five sacks, 15 tackles, 17 assists. More of a pass rush guy than a run defender, but he was definitely good against the run too. He helped out last season. Started only 6 games out of

16. He had an interception. 3 passes defended. 2 forced fumbles. He actually had 3 forced fumbles his rookie year. He had 2 fumble recoveries his rookie year too. Second year. Sorry about that. 2015. He didn't recover any fumbles last season but he also had 5 sacks, 19 tackles, and 13 assists. So he's been active, and he makes plays. That's the thing about Ealy that people are going to like. If you look at that, he started 15 games, 15 out of the last 32.

He started 15 out of 47 in his career because he did play and appear in 15 games as a rookie. In fact, he had one forced fumble, four sacks, nine tackles, and seven assists. So he's been a pass-rushing guy since he's come into the league. He's only 25 years old. He's still a kid. You're talking about a very young guy here. He's not going to turn 26 until December 21st, which means you're getting a kid in his prime

who's just going to keep getting better. And with the way the Patriots coach him up, I think Coney Ealy is going to be one of those guys you look back at and say, wow, what a pickup. You know, he's only got one year left on his deal. There's probably a good chance that the Patriots only have him for one year, but that one year is probably going to be the best season of his career because the Patriots have figured out something here that they trade second, third,

fourth round picks and they get back selections and they go after these guys that are in the finding years of their deal that teams are afraid they're going to lose them and they want to let them. Don't be afraid to ride it out with the guy and try to win with them. And the Patriots say, you know what, alright, we'll take them and we'll drop back a little bit in the draft. We'll try to recoup it with somebody else. And they end up doing that, and they figure it out. And even if they don't, they just sign somebody in free agency that's younger,

or they just do it a different way. But the way that they've been doing this lately with going after these guys like Coney Ealy, you know, just by dropping eight spots in the draft. That's just a terrific move by them. The Dwayne Allen trade, no different. They traded him in a fourth, and they get back for him, and they get back at him in a sixth. You know, they give him a fourth, but they still get back a draft pick.

It's not like they give away the selection just to get the player. They've given up the draft pick, but they're also getting back a player and a selection. With the Coney Ealy one that just dropped eight spots, that's his genius. So Ealy, I really do think that he's going to be terrific for New England next year. I'm going to go on record right now to say that he ends up with eight sacks next year on the rotation. I think he's going to be a guy that ends up starting more than half their games.

He's going to be one of their better players next season. So, Coney Ealy trade, huge move by the Patriots. Again, all they did was drop back from the 64th pick in round two to the 72nd pick, which is round three. So, they just dropped back eight spots. So, that's just a terrific trade by Bill Belichick, Nick Casario, in the Patriots' front office. So, Cick, Nick Casario in the Patriots front office. So, Coney Ealy, welcome to the Patriots.

Let's hope you have some games like you did in Super Bowl 50. And if you do, I'm sure the Patriots will actually go out and get the win for you because you actually have an offense behind you instead of what you had in Carolina. So, Rex Burkhead, he was spotted in New England over the last couple days. He came in for a meeting. People thought that they were going to lock him in the bunker, keep him here because he's one of those type of great guys that they like. He can catch the ball. He can run the ball. He's really good on special teams. Well, it's all set. They got him done. He's signed, and he is a Patriot as of today. So the former Bengal, I think that his signing signals the end of Brandon Bolden era.

Bolden's one of those guys that, again, he's a good special teams player, makes some plays. He's made some blown-head plays the last couple of years, but overall he's been a pretty good special teams player and he's been their fourth back then you know that guy that they use occasionally is like a speed type guy good hands but he really doesn't because he makes a lot of drops and as you guys know i'm not a huge fan of him so to have burkhead come in and replace him i'm actually a fan of that because I think Burkhead's actually a better player overall. So I believe that's what he's doing. He's come in here as his role is to catch the ball a little bit out of the back field, maybe run it a little bit depending on what the matchup is as far as who they're playing

because he has had some big games against certain teams. He may get the ball the most he's ever got in his career. Last year he played on 22% of the Bengals' offensive snaps. I expect that to be similar to what he'll see this season with New England, but again, it could be higher depending on what his output is and how well he fits in with the offense. And again, I think he's going to replace Brandon Bolden. I don't think anybody should read into too much of this,

him replacing Garrett Blount or hurting the possibility that they're going to go out and try to pick up another running back that might be available in free agency. So, that's again, Rex Burkhead, welcome to the Patriots. Next on the list, we had a lot on the docket today as you guys can see here, Malcolm Butler update. So, Butler is meeting with the New Orleans Saints, I wouldn't say as we speak because I don't know, it would be a lie, but I know he is meeting with them.

He's negotiating a contract. They're trying to figure out a deal, and then they're going to come back to New England and try to work out a compensation, yada, yada, yada. Everyone knows how that works. So basically what it is, the Patriots put a first-round tender on Butler, and if the Saints want him, they can offer him a deal. Patriots have, I believe it's 10 days to match that deal. If they don't match that deal, then the Saints have to send their first-round pick,

which would be the 11th pick, to the Patriots or work out some type of other compensation. Now, this is where I want to have a little conversation. Now, I don't think the Patriots should do anything but get the 11th pick for this guy. If they don't get the 11th pick for Malcolm Butler and they let him walk, they should be ashamed of themselves. Don't get a second-round pick and a first-round pick next season

or a first-round pick in 2019, any of that. You're giving up a guy who's, I'm not going to say top five, but I'll say top ten cornerback in the league who you could pair with Stephon Gilmore to make maybe the top second there in the league with what you have for safeties back there and what you're probably going to still do as far as your corners are concerned on the free agent market because there's still money to be spent.

So you're going to give this guy up for anything less than the 11th pick? No, absolutely not. So keep an eye on this one. I don't think the Butler situation is over. I honestly do believe that he's going to go down there he's going to get a contract offer it's going to be steep they're going to offer big bucks they're going to give him probably a five-year deal worth 15 million dollars a year so five times 15 what are we looking at 75 million dollars right there yeah that's 75

million so i'm thinking five years 75 million with about 45 million guaranteed and you know what might happen the patriots might look at that and say okay we're gonna match it we're keeping you and i think that would be the best thing to do if you have to overpay this guy a little bit i don't think that's going to be the worst thing that could happen for the Patriots right now. I don't know if people understand what I'm saying when I say that, but, you know, for years they've gotten away with, you know, they don't, it's not that they don't pay guys, because they do, but they don't pay bonuses. They pay salary. So they don't pay out money as far as, they don't leave a lot of dead money on the cap and stuff like that because they just don't pay out a lot in bonuses most of the money

they pay out is in salary so if they're going to go out and pay a guy and they're going to pay him big bucks and offer him 40 million dollars guaranteed like they did with gilmore and a guy like butler's looking at that going are you me? And he gets bent out of shape about it. You don't think that that's not going to trickle down around the NFL and they're going to hear about it and the other teams are going to go, wait a minute. Why are these guys? They got drafted by them and they didn't take care of their own.

Even a free agent from another team isn't going to want to come here because of that. That's a problem. And then, not only that, you get your homegrown talent like guys like Dante Hightower, who we're going to get to that situation in a minute. We're going to wrap things up with that. We have one more little rumor to get to before that,

but we'll talk about Hightower last. But you match the contract. Unless they offer him, you know, if it's over $15 million a year, if it's $16, $17, $18, $19, $20, crazy money like that, then you take that 11th pick, you go out, you draft the best player you possibly can with that 11th selection, go assign Jarrell Rivas, tell him to get his fat butt in shape and come back here and be as good as he can be

because I think that's what they're going to do. I think that's the plan anyways. We're going to talk about that tomorrow. I think Rivas is coming back to New England, especially if Butler is traded. But again, we'll going to talk about that tomorrow. I think Revis is coming back to New England, especially if Butler is traded. But again, we'll get to that tomorrow. But again, I would just match it. If it's $15 million or less,

if it's 5 at $75, $45 million, I think that's what it's going to be. I think they're going to try to throw a crazy contract at him to say the Patriots, to get them out of the mix. They got the cap room to do it, but so do the Patriots. That's the thing to keep in mind here. So do the Patriots. The Patriots have a ton of cap space, so they can look at this and say, all right, you know what? We have to do this from not just a perspective of he's a good player and he's a guy that you found and you developed and he won you a Super Bowl and he's been a great start of you for the last two seasons. But in that locker room, you just paid a guy who, exactly what I just said,

was developed by you, brought up by you, just like Tom Brady, just like some of those other guys in that locker room that have stuck around. Butler is an example of what you want the Patriots to be, and I think that's why they have to look at this situation and say, you know what, from a PR perspective, from being smart, from the way this looks around the league, to the way this looks to their future draft picks, to the way this looks to their future free agents,

I think they need to go out and say, all right, that's the contract that they offered you. Guess what, Malcolm? We like you as a player. We're going to match that. That's it. We're not letting you go. You stay.

Sorry. We matched the contract. Sign it. Done. You lock him into a four-year, five-year deal. You know, you got him and Gilmore as your corners for the next few years. If it doesn't work out, I'm sure there's a way to get out of the contract. There's always ways to get out of it.

So that's my two cents on it on the Malcolm Butler deal. Again, if you're not, you either have to get the 11th pick this season or you just match it. Just say, okay, I see you. I see your contract offer, and we're going to go ahead and match it. So that's what has to happen. You cannot, the Patriots have the leverage in this thing, and they have to maintain their leverage.

And the way that they maintain their leverage is by either forcing that 11th pick or by matching it and paying him and keeping him. So that's my take on the Malcolm Butler situation. So yesterday, I'm on the Malcolm Butler situation. So yesterday, I'm on Twitter a lot, so I follow a lot of people, and I have some accounts out there that I follow that are a little bit sketchy at times, but sometimes these guys drop nuggets, and I'm not going to say who their names are because I'm just not, I refuse to, I'm not going to promote who they are. I keep an eye on them just because I know that they occasionally do get information because they have friendships

with agents and things of that nature so there was a rumor yesterday from one of these somewhat sketchy sources that the Patriots spoke with Adrian Peterson's agent yesterday he got out of his meeting with with Seattle and they spoke with him

in that he is going to come to New England, meet with the Patriots, and go from there. So that's all I got. That's what I heard. I don't know if it's true or not. I do believe in this situation, because this source has been pretty much right when it comes to the NFL. I do believe that they probably did do this. Again, I said Rex Burkhead is not replacing LeGarrette Blount,

and the LeGarrette Blount situation is still very fluid. So I do think that Peterson, the guy that the Patriots look at and say, you know what, they have him running for us on first and second down is something that we could definitely get away with. Again, Blount is still an option for them, but I know that the rumor was floated yesterday. Again, from my sketchy source, that's why it's not really a source. It's just an account that has been right more than they haven't been. And that's why I look at it and say that they could that's

that's interesting and i'm not the only member of the media that follows these guys and um but i am not only not only am i the only member of the media who follows them i'm also not the only member of the media who will not say them by name because they don't deserve it because they are tremendously rude but um they said it so we'll see what happens. So possibly the Patriots meeting with Adrian Peterson and his agent. We'll see what comes to fruition there. And again, there's nothing on the blunt front. So we get into the 11 o'clock hour, and I've been checking Twitter, and I've been checking it pretty religiously because, well,

there's a situation going on with the Patriots. And that situation is, what the heck is going on with Dante Hightower? I mean, seriously, are they going to sign him? Well, they're not going to sign him. Well, my answer to that question is I believe that they are. I think that he is weighing his options because he was offered an exorbitant, exorbitant, is that the right, how do I say that? I'm not even going to try to say it again because I'll mess it up. He was offered a tremendous amount of money from the New York Jets. My guess

is probably in the range of probably $14 million a year. If they, if they're really, really, really after him and they have the cap space that i know that they do have um i would say they probably offer them what's five times 14 here um looking at 28 and 56 you're looking at about 70 million dollars 72 million dollars yeah so i i bet you they offered him about five years, $72 million per year. So $72 million a year, five years, $72 million, that's about $14 million a year. If they did offer him that deal and the Patriots offered him, say, four for $40, you know, how can he not sit there and look at that and go, are you kidding me?

How can I not take this deal? So if that's the situation and he's offered that much more money, I think the Patriots need to step up their offer a little bit and say, all right, you know what, then fine. We'll give you four years, 52 million, and we'll guarantee 30 of it. And that's a big guarantee, but at the same time, you're talking about a guy who's still young, he's still a good player for them, he's a big part of their defense, he's the glue of their defense as far as I'm concerned.

You know, again, I talked about the public relations part of it. You know, it matters when the player's still good. You know, if Malcolm Butler, like I said earlier, from a fan perspective, from a perspective of how free agents have got to feel about you going forward, things like that, that's the public relations part I'm talking about. It's the same thing with Dante Hightower. This guy's numbers haven't been crazy, but people know what impact he has for the team.

If you lose him to the Jets because they offered him $14 million and they offered him, say, $30 million guaranteed, and you can say we offer him, well, $12 million with $30 million guaranteed, we'll keep him here, and you say, no, we're not going to up our offer, we're going to keep it at $10 million, that's not a good look. That's not a good look for you. Not only your current free agents, but again, guys that get drafted are going to automatically hear about that. Their agents aren't going to like it. It's a bad look. So I just think that if the Jets

did offer him something crazy, like again, five years, $14 million a year with, say, $30 million guaranteed, the Patriots need to step their offer up to about $12 million. Take care of this kid. They did the same thing with McCourty. They overpaid McCourty. I don't care what anybody says. They overpaid to keep McCourty here because they knew he was offered a big contract and McCourty said, listen, look at the deal that was offered to me.

You guys have got to step this thing up and get this thing close to 50 and they did. And they gave him a big, big contract with a lot of guaranteed money in it. I think they need to do the same thing to get this Hightower deal locked down. That's why it hasn't happened yet. That's why he's bouncing around to Pittsburgh,

which the last I heard is he left Pittsburgh so that contract offer may be off the table from the Steelers. That was what the Steelers was. They put a contingency out there and said, listen, if you leave Pittsburgh, that contract is off the table. So that happens. That's negotiations, and they did that. But it appears that he has left. So it's going to be down to the Jets and the Patriots, I believe.

So, again, I think the Jets offer an exorbitant amount of money. Did I say that right? I think I did say it right this time. We're going to go with that. And I know the Patriots, I know that they offer them at least $10 million a year. I think personally that they offer them four years, $44 million. I think that's what it was. Not 44, actually four years, $42 million, about $10.5 million a year. But again, that they have to up that thing and get him 12, 12.5, that's okay it's okay to do when you have the cap space that they have

they can do that and they can overpay Malcolm Butler a little bit they can do this they can get away with it and they'll still be okay next season if the plan is to go ahead and franchise Garoppolo and keep him around next season because they're afraid of what's going to go on with Brady

or with him getting older. I get that. But you can overpay, buy a million dollars to a great linebacker like Hightower and overpay, buy a million dollars or two to your corner, your top corner, especially when you look at Gilmore's contract. It's essentially just a two-year deal. They can get out of that thing after two years. They can manage

a cap better than anybody. So this team really, really, really needs to be smart, get this thing done, make the Dante Hightower saga end, get him signed. If you have to give him over $12 million a year, then do it. No more dicking around. Go out and get this guy signed up and get this team locked up. Get things done here and then add some veteran free agents that you know would come here on short money,

and maybe, who knows, maybe get Adrian Peterson into the mix. So let's take a minute to tell you about one of our sponsors, Patriots Insider on scout.com. We provide daily news, video from NFL.com. Great fantasy football. You can go on to play there. It costs money, but it's worth it because you can win a whole bunch too. And you can also earn money back when you

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Ridiculous discounts. You cannot beat this deal. So go check us out and sign up today. I want to thank you guys all for joining us on this Tuesday edition of Locked On Patriots. Be sure to go to iTunes, subscribe to our show today, as in right now, like tonight. It's 1108. Go do it right now.

There's no reason for you not to. And tell your friends about us here at Locked On Patriots. We are all about getting Patriots fans the most info you need to be the most in-the-know Patriots fans. Be sure to join us again tomorrow. We're going to provide you guys with up-to-the-minute news on the world champions. Hopefully we'll have some stuff on Dante Hightower. Again, I'm keeping an eye

on it at all times. My phone is ready. I got Twitter up just in case some weird update goes up. You never know. Sometimes their agents, you got to follow those guys because sometimes the agents make the announcements. So I'm keeping an eye on the agents for Dante Hightower to see if anything comes out there.

We'll let you guys know on that show tomorrow. We'll also talk a little bit more about Rex Burkhead, his numbers, what he did in college, things of that nature. We're also going to talk about some of the remaining free agents out there that do make sense for the Patriots to

maybe pick up. We'll talk about that tomorrow. Again, I'm your host, Chris Semino. I want to thank you all for joining us tonight. Be sure to join us again tomorrow night and have a great evening, Patriots fans. What you doing? Ran out of space on my phone, so I'm deleting some stuff. By singing dog. By goal. I pronounce you. Bye wedding ceremony. Stop. At Metro PCS, you get two free phones with twice as much memory.

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