cdumler7
Well-Known Member
I think you get close to what you got for Chandler Jones. No team is going to give away a 1st rd pick for a 2nd rd guy who's deal is up. Might be a different story if he was signed for reasonable money for the next 6 yrs. So I don't see him going anywhere. Patriots have a ton of cap space next yr, around 60m (cap goes up every yr from here on out). They should be able to extend these guys no problem. The thing is, the more they wait, the bigger the contracts get for guys outside of NE. I think the Marshall deal in Den is a good starting point for both HT and Collins, and I think the Marshall dead is at a reasonable price.
The question you always have to ask yourself when getting ready to sign the high priced players is is this guy a cornerstone piece to our team? IF so then yeah you do what it takes to get a deal done and if you can get it done a year early you can usually get them locked up for a pretty reasonable price. These players love respect almost as much as they do the money side of things so if you show them that you want them here early on they are usually willing to give just a slight discount compared to if they just wait a year. Throw in the added security helps out.
I would say Marshall's deal is about where Hightower should be looking. That would put him top-7 or so for the position but not quite upper echelon of Kuechly type money. Collins though because he has such versatility and is such a unique player for his position I wouldn't be surprised if he thinks he deserves similar money to that of some of the top paid OLB's which includes some of the pass rushers. Lavontae David is the highest paid 4-3 OLB at around $10 million a year. Wouldn't surprise me to see Collins try to blow that away. His versatility reminds me a lot of Clay Matthews so I wouldn't be shocked if that is the kind of deal he is looking for in the $13 million range per year.