The New England Patriots have an opportunity to re-sign the three best players in their secondary this offseason, but inking Darrelle Revis, Devin McCourty, and Brandon Browner to new deals could cost the Pats more than $40 million in 2015.
Here's Michael David Smith of Pro Football Talk with his analysis of the Patriots' current conundrum:
The good news for the Patriots is that they have the choice to keep both Revis, McCourty and Browner, if they want to. Revis is under contract for 2015, and the Patriots can pick up his deal by paying him a $12 million roster bonus on March 9. Browner is under contract for $5.5 million in 2015, of which $2 million comes in a roster bonus next week. McCourty becomes a free agent on March 10, but the Patriots can keep him by using the franchise tag. McCourty has indicated that if the Patriots franchise him, he’ll sign the one-year, $9.6 million franchise tender.
The bad news for the Patriots is that picking up the second year on Revis’s contract would give him a $25 million cap hit for 2015. No other cornerback even has a cap hit of $15 million for 2015. Revis is great, but is he so great that the Patriots want to spend $10 million more on him than the Cardinals are spending on Patrick Peterson, and $13 million more than the Seahawks are spending on Richard Sherman or the Browns are spending on Joe Haden?
For comparison's sake, the Packers led all NFL teams in 2014 by spending $26.6 million for 11 defensive backs. Are the Patriots truly willing to spend $13 million more than that for just the top three players in their secondary?
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