After one season with the division-rival Dolphins, Kyle Van Noy is heading back to Foxborough. The Patriots are signing the soon-to-be 30-year-old linebacker, as Ian Rapoport of NFL.com reports (via Twitter). Mike Garafolo of the NFL Network says that it will be a two-year pact worth up to $13.2MM (Twitter link).
A second-round pick of the Lions in 2014, Van Noy saw very little playing time until he was traded to the Pats in 2016. From 2017-19, the BYU product served as a full-time starter for New England and became a well-respected leader in the team’s locker room.
In his walk year in 2019, Van Noy had 56 tackles, 6.5 sacks, and three forced fumbles as an integral part of a Patriots defense that was putting up historic numbers for much of that season. He parlayed that success into a four-year, $51MM contract with the Dolphins one year and one day ago, but he did not make it to a second season in South Beach. After failing to find a trade partner — not surprising given that Van Noy was due a $12.75MM salary in 2021 — Miami cut him last week.
Pro Football Focus’ metrics considered Van Noy the 26th-best linebacker out of 83 qualifiers in 2020, and his highest score came in the pass rush category. While he has never posted double-digit sacks, he can make opposing QBs uncomfortable, and he is good enough against the run to be a solid three-down ‘backer. His locker room presence is an added benefit, and New England can deploy him in a variety of roles.
The Patriots, of course, have stolen headlines over the legal tampering period and into the first day of the new league year, putting their ample amount of cap space to work by acquiring high-profile talents on both sides of the ball. It can certainly be argued that the team overpaid for a couple of those players, but Bill Belichick & Co. are clearly taking their absence from the playoffs in 2020 as a personal affront. Van Noy, along with fellow new additions Matt Judon and Davon Godchaux, should be a big boost to the club’s front seven.
Dang Old Bill ain’t playing around..lol
Bill hated being laugh at dude wanted to get back on top
But its not gonna happen. Gotta use the draft, but bro they are going all in! Like seriously, whats next gonna trade for Brown JR from Ravens. I’m Ravens fan. Plus Cam sucks
Bill didn’t like losing n clearly he won’t this year very much
Bill doesn’t have a QB and has the third ranked team in the division.
It’s March 17th. Not September 12th
Sooo is four months enough time to make Cam not suck..? And no.. the pats aren’t getting a credible QB between now and then. The Empire is crumbling around you and you believe that blowing a shit ton of money on mediocre FA’s will bring Brady back..? Lol
Stabby let’s just say your an idiot an leave it at that, your not worth the time educating
It’s hard to call someone an idiot when you don’t know the difference between your and you’re.
Cool story, enjoy 7/9 or 7/10 depending on the season length…
Why because they went on a free agent spree? Teams that have done that in the past didn’t win. Bill signed a bunch of meh players. Cam can barley throw the ball and was done 2 years ago.
Still just need a QB who can actually throw the ball with some accuracy.
Nice piece to add to the linebacking core
Timing is everything. The one year that the Pats are flush with cash, the league Cap plummets. Now players are scrambling. A huge welcome back to KVN.
This was a predictable move. The moment he was released everyone knew where he would end up.
The Pats will be fine, they got Cam some help at both tackles and finally gave him some guys who can catch the ball. He’s going to have time in the pocket and will have a monster year. Pair that with a much better defense between signings and players returning, they’ll be battling Buffalo right to the end….well done thus far Hoody!
(I’m a Niners fan for the record)
He can’t get the ball past 10 yards and his throwing motion takes like 10 minutes.
Pats going to playoffs for sure.
I know it’s very very unlikely but I’d love to see them trade up from 15 into the top 10 and grab a future QB. Trey Lance or Zach Wilson would be terrific pick ups
“Cam can’t get the ball past 10 yards”
Below is a table of the season leaders in On-Target Percentage on deep balls for 2020.
Quarterback On-Target %
Cam Newton 70%
Aaron Rodgers 64%
Kirk Cousins 63%
Baker Mayfield 63%
Derek Carr 63%
Kyler Murray 61%
Daniel Jones 61%
League average: 52%
Patriots quarterback Cam Newton tops this list partly because of where we set our qualifier (25 attempts). He had 28 deep attempts in 2020 and had an on-target percentage of 70% on them.
And what’s considered a “deep ball” in this exercise, 20+ yards? There’s no way he was 70% on target for passes 40+ yards.
Anyone who thinks Cam is a capable NFL QB needs to watch him play in the Rams game. No this isn’t about a bad game vs a good team. Its his general skillet which has been diminished to mediocre. If you are counting on him to be your QB in 2021 you have a serious problem and won’t win anything.
The long ball stat is beyond deceiving. 28 deep attempts is nothing for a “starter”.
I watched Cam every game last year. The man is cooked, he simply cannot throw a football. Any stat that is thrown out there that tries to indicate his effectiveness is flat out wrong. He was atrocious.
So, he averaged less than two “deep” completions per game. At 70% completion rate it means he only attempted about 2 per game. In other words, defenses stacked the box and said “I dare you to throw the ball over 15 yards.”
There is no chance the Pats are adding all these players with the intention of having Newton under center for game #1. There is something in the works here.
Okayyyyy Bill! Pumped to see what they do at the Draft.
Would be so sick if somehow BB could lure Andrew Luck out of retirement (after having had conducted some restorative health seance with the Phoenix Suns training staff of years past that somehow got added mileage our of Shaq, Tyson Chandler, and Nash). Yes I am aware they’re diff sports lol.
All this Cam hate, maybe look at what he did when healthy. I mean COVID-19 is a batch and people as well as athletes across sports have had long lasting effects. The dude is not going to win MVP, but to say he is not a starting caliber QB is crazy.
Um, neither the Pats nor Cam himself thinks he’s a starting caliber QB: He signed a one-year contract for $5 million. That’s back-up QB money, if even that.
Can certainly argue that Bill has overpaid on a few of the FAs, but he’s focused on building a team that can compete without needing a Top Quarterback under center. That’s the best way to prove he can win without Brady.
Having said that, they might be able to compete with Cam at QB and make the playoffs…but not sure how deep they could go.
As others have pointed out, Cam’s contract doesn’t prevent another move coming at QB. Could be a trade (Gilmore) or more likely moving up in the draft. There is still a lot of time before they start playing games that count