HEADLINES

New England Patriots News & Rumors

Devin McCourty Leaning Toward Returning For 13th Season?

February 3rd, 2022 at 5:48pm CST by Sam Robinson

Following the Patriots’ opening-round loss, Devin McCourty did not commit to playing in 2022. But the veteran safety appears to be leaning in that direction.

The 12-year Patriots safety has not declared publicly he will return but has also not given any indication to those close to him retirement is on the table, Mike Reiss of ESPN.com notes. McCourty will turn 35 just before the 2022 season begins. That would make him one of the oldest active defensive players, but the longtime New England starter has also been one of the most durable, having not missed a game since the 2015 season.

McCourty played out the two-year, $23MM deal he inked in 2020, pushing him toward unrestricted free agency. The Patriots still have exclusive negotiating rights with McCourty. Despite the presences of Kyle Dugger and Adrian Phillips, McCourty played 94% of the Pats’ defensive snaps this season. New England has Dugger signed through 2023 and recently re-upped Phillips through 2024. Like McCourty, Phillips was on the cusp of free agency.

Twin brother Jason McCourty, who entered the NFL one year prior to Devin, played a 13th season in 2021. But he suffered an injury midway through his first Dolphins campaign, sidelining him for 10 games. Devin has never missed more than two in a season. He has also started 24 career postseason games — behind only Tom Brady, Jerry Rice and Peyton Manning in NFL history — factoring into his career mileage. Devin and Dont’a Hightower served as defensive pillars during the second leg of New England’s dynasty, but with both being free agents in March, the Pats have some decisions to make.

Updated 2022 NFL Draft Order

January 31st, 2022 at 8:54am CST by Adam La Rose

Championship Sunday has come and gone, and with it, we now know the matchup for Super Bowl LVI. The Rams’ win on Sunday guarantees that the Lions’ other first round pick will be in the bottom two, slightly devaluing it relative to if they had lost. Still, it is one of the bargaining chips they hold if they were to attempt to move up into the top spot, from their current position of second. As one of four teams with multiple picks in the opening round, Detroit will certainly be a squad to keep an eye on in April.

For non-playoff teams, the draft order is determined by the inverted 2021 standings, plus a series of tiebreakers, starting with strength of schedule. For playoff teams, the order is determined by their postseason outcome and regular season record.

Here is the updated order after this weekend’s results:

  1. Jacksonville Jaguars: 3-14
  2. Detroit Lions: 3-13-1
  3. Houston Texans: 4-13
  4. New York Jets: 4-13
  5. New York Giants: 4-13
  6. Carolina Panthers: 5-12
  7. New York Giants(via Bears)
  8. Atlanta Falcons: 7-10
  9. Denver Broncos: 7-10
  10. New York Jets (via Seahawks)
  11. Washington Football Team: 7-10
  12. Minnesota Vikings: 8-9
  13. Cleveland Browns: 8-9
  14. Baltimore Ravens: 8-9
  15. Philadelphia Eagles (via Dolphins)
  16. Philadelphia Eagles (via Colts)
  17. Los Angeles Chargers: 9-8
  18. New Orleans Saints: 9-8
  19. Philadelphia Eagles: 9-8
  20. Pittsburgh Steelers: 9-7-1
  21. New England Patriots: 10-7
  22. Las Vegas Raiders: 10-7
  23. Arizona Cardinals: 11-6
  24. Dallas Cowboys: 12-5
  25. Buffalo Bills: 11-6
  26. Tennessee Titans: 12-5
  27. Tampa Bay Buccaneers: 13-4
  28. Green Bay Packers: 13-4
  29. Miami Dolphins (via 49ers)
  30. Kansas City Chiefs: 12-5
  31. Cincinnati Bengals: 10-7*
  32. Detroit Lions (via Rams)

* = Remaining playoff teams

Saints Have Stake In Payton’s Future

January 30th, 2022 at 9:31pm CST by Ely Allen

When Saints’ former head coach Sean Payton retired, he left the door open for a return. Although he made it clear that he has no intention of coaching during the 2022 NFL season, Payton didn’t rule out a return later on. 

“My plans are not to be coaching in 2022,” Payton said. “I still have a vision for doing things in football and, I’ll be honest with you, that might be coaching again at some point.”

Because Payton is under contract with the Saints through the 2024 NFL season, this “mini-retirement” means that whichever team wants to sign him for the 2023 season will have to negotiate with the Saints to do so. Even though Payton told radio personality Dan Patrick that he heard two teams reached out through back channels, those channels never reached Saints’ general manager Mickey Loomis, according to ESPN’s Chris Mortensen. This means that whatever the level of interest those two teams had, it didn’t rise to the point where they were ready to talk compensation.

Mortensen goes on to explain that, should another team reach out to see what it would take to sign Payton, New Orleans has their compensation chart ready on hand. The chart would be based on past similar transactions setting an estimated value through precedent.

The most recent example would be when the Buccaneers pulled Bruce Arians out of his recent retirement from coaching the Cardinals three seasons ago. This is a precedent the Saints’ would stray away from as Arians lack of success in Arizona led to the Cardinals essentially nudging him into retirement. When the deal was made to send Arians to Tampa Bay, the Cardinals received a sixth-round pick and gave the Buccaneers Arians and a seventh-round pick.

Payton is currently considered in much higher demand than Arians was at the time. Mortensen laid out three past transactions that he considers a little more on par with Payton’s current value. The most pricey example was about 20-years ago when the Buccaneers gave the Raiders two first-round picks, two second-round picks, and $8MM cash in exchange for Jon Gruden, who lead his new team to a Super Bowl victory over his old team. The Gruden deal differs a bit from the Arians deal because Gruden wasn’t thinking of retiring and there was really no threat to his job. Raiders’ owner and general manager Al Davis had some questions over Gruden’s value, but there was never talk that his job was in jeopardy.

Another similar deal came back in 1997, when Bill Parcells decided he didn’t want to coach for the Patriots anymore. Parcells’ contract restricted him from coaching anywhere else, so the Jets attempted to circumvent the restriction by hiring a key Parcells’ assistant, Bill Belichick, as their head coach and hiring Parcells as an “advisor.” After the Patriots threatened legal action, the commissioner, Paul Tagliabue, helped the two sides come to an agreement wherein the Patriots would send Parcells to the Jets in exchange for a first-, second-, third-, and fourth-round pick (spread over the following three years). Even though this deal doesn’t include any “mini-retirements,” it follows the current situation a little more closely than the Gruden deal.

Belichick’s return to New England had a very similar ring to his arrival in New York. After the Jets arranged for Belichick to succeed Parcells as head coach, Belichick went to his press conference and, instead of introducing himself as the new head coach, he introduce his resignation from the franchise. The Patriots soon requested permission to interview Belichick to replace Pete Carroll, but the Jets pulled the reverse card and demanded compensation, as Belichick was still under contract. Tagliabue stepped in, once more, and the Patriots sent New York a first-round pick in exchange for the coaching rights of Belichick.

All these examples, despite their different situations, provide a basis for the Saints to use in determining what they think they are due when another team inevitably comes calling. As a Super Bowl champion and long-tenured head coach, Payton is sure to fetch quite a price for whichever team decides to hire him.

Raiders Hire Dave Ziegler As GM, Josh McDaniels Expected As HC

January 30th, 2022 at 1:45pm CST by Rory Parks

The Raiders have announced the hiring of Patriots director of player personnel Dave Ziegler as their new general manager. That means that the official hiring of Patriots OC Josh McDaniels as head coach is right around the corner, per Ian Rapoport of NFL.com (via Twitter).

Though McDaniels was a late entrant in this year’s coaching cycle — his only interview, which just took place yesterday, was with the Raiders — he became the frontrunner for the position as soon as he was connected to it. Indeed, he reportedly told the team that he would not accept its interview request unless he was going to be offered the job.

Now 45, McDaniels is best known for his lengthy and tremendously successful run as the Patriots’ offensive coordinator, first from 2005-2008 and then again from 2012-2021. Of course, he had the privilege of working with QB Tom Brady for almost all of that time, but the work that he did with rookie passer Mac Jones this year also earned him plenty of positive attention. His ill-fated tenure as Broncos head coach from 2009-10 is well in the rearview mirror at this point, and his leaving the Colts at the altar in the 2018 hiring cycle did not seem to deter other clubs from wanting to bring his talents as an offensive guru aboard (though it is worth keeping that jilting in mind until he puts pen to paper).

Assuming he does finalize a deal with Las Vegas, he will inherit QB Derek Carr, who has one year remaining on his current contract. We recently heard that the Raiders’ HC hire would impact Carr’s future in the silver-and-black, but as Mike Garafolo of the NFL Network tweets, there is “mutual admiration” between Carr and McDaniels, so it could be that an extension for the soon-to-be 31-year-old passer is in the offing.

Obviously, Ziegler will have some say in that. In his previous post with the Patriots, he revamped the team’s scouting department and free agency strategy, as Cameron Wolfe of NFL.com (on Twitter) notes, and he has received a considerable amount of credit for New England’s quick rise back to competitiveness after a disappointing 2020, the first year of the post-Brady era. His philosophy differed from predecessor Nick Caserio and will likely stray from recently-deposed Raiders GM Mike Mayock‘s approach.

Ziegler and McDaniels first worked together with the Broncos in 2010, and the former joined the Pats’ scouting department in 2013 and gradually rose up the ranks (2021 was his first as director of player personnel, a promotion he received after Caserio left Foxborough to become the Texans’ GM). Ziegler has been viewed as McDaniels’ GM-of-choice for awhile now, and it appears that the partnership will soon make its way west.

Bucs To Start Post-Brady Rebuild?

January 29th, 2022 at 9:03pm CST by Ely Allen

With three-time MVP quarterback Tom Brady announcing his retirement earlier today, speculation has already started on the future of the Buccaneers’ franchise. Brady’s retirement has experts wondering about the futures of tight end Rob Gronkowki and head coach Bruce Arians. Both have flirted with retirement before. 

Contributing to the postulation on Arians’ situation is head coaching interest in the Buccaneers’ coordinators on both sides of the ball. Offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich recently had his second interview for the Jaguars open coaching position. Reportedly, talks have stalled as Leftwich has expressed issues with current general manager Trent Baalke continuing in that position, with Leftwich preferring Cardinals’ vice president of pro scouting Adrian Wilson to replace the polarizing GM. The Saints have requested an interview with Leftwich, who previously received interest from the Bears before they hired Matt Eberflus. Defensive coordinator Todd Bowles has interviewed with the Bears, Jaguars, Raiders, and Vikings. With the Bears’ job taken, Patriots’ offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels being the presumed frontrunner in Las Vegas, and Jacksonville having conducted multiple second interviews Bowles’ opportunities for a head coaching job are starting to dwindle, as well.

More cause for speculation has risen from an article from Aaron Wilson of Pro Football Network. In the article Wilson reports that Arians has informed the entire coaching staff that they have permission to seek jobs around the league regardless of whether or not the new position would be a promotion. With the potential exit of the two New England-legends and the impactful group of Buccaneers heading into free agency, this permission could potentially be an opportunity to abandon ship before the start of a Tampa Bay rebuild.

In terms of those free agents, joining free-agent-to-be Gronkowski are three other significant role players: wide receiver Chris Godwin, center Ryan Jensen, and cornerback Carlton Davis. Godwin is expected to be the top free agent priority in Tampa Bay after he received the franchise tag for this past season. Jensen came over three years ago from the Ravens on what then made him the highest paid center in the NFL. Davis was a key contributor due for a big contract year on defense before being placed on IR after Week 4 of the season and missing eight weeks during a crucial year.

The domino-effect of Brady’s retirement is already looming large over the Buccaneers’ prospects for the 2022 NFL season. Tampa Bay has the entire offseason to navigate these obstacles and mitigate the potential fallout. After winning a Super Bowl just last year, the departure of Brady could be as game-changing to the Buccaneers as his arrival was nearly two years ago.

Buccaneers QB Tom Brady To Retire

January 29th, 2022 at 1:29pm CST by Sam Robinson

The increased rumblings of a Tom Brady retirement following his 22nd season did not let up, and Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports reports this is the direction the all-time great is expected to take. Not long after that report surfaced, ESPN.com’s Adam Schefter and Jeff Darlington confirm the Buccaneers quarterback is set to walk away (Twitter link).

Brady has long said he wanted to play through at least his age-45 season, with even that lofty timetable being potentially extended after his seventh Super Bowl victory last year. Those plans appear to have changed. Last weekend’s Rams game indeed looks like it will be Brady’s finale, though some uncertainty exists on the Bucs’ part.

While Schefter and Darlington add the Bucs have braced for Brady’s exit for weeks, the team did not receive advance notice of Saturday’s news. Bruce Arians indicated earlier this afternoon (via the Tampa Bay Times’ Rick Stroud, Twitter links) he had not yet been informed about the retirement. Brady’s agent also tried to hit pause on this situation (via SI.com’s Albert Breer, on Twitter). Brady does appear to be ending his career, but Greg Auman of The Athletic notes (on Twitter) TB12Sports deleted a tweet acknowledging its top client’s accomplishments. Bucs players are nevertheless voicing their appreciation for Brady on social media.

The 44-year-old quarterback has pushed the boundaries of the position to an unprecedented place, remaining a Pro Bowl-caliber player into his mid-40s. Brady finished as this season’s second-team All-Pro passer and had the Bucs as the NFC’s No. 2 seed. Tampa Bay’s reload operation did not result in the team defending its Super Bowl title, with Chris Godwin‘s injury and Antonio Brown‘s explosive exit weakening this year’s team late in the season. But Brady did not show much in the way of decline following his bounce-back 2020 slate. But one of the greatest players to in the sport’s history is unlikely to go through a walk-off tour next season despite having signed a through-2022 extension last year.

Given the cap gymnastics the Bucs performed to bring back their entire Super Bowl-winning core, it was going to be difficult for the team to pull off a similar act for the 2022 season. The likes of Godwin, Rob Gronkowski, Leonard Fournette, Jason Pierre-Paul, Carlton Davis, Ryan Jensen and Alex Cappa are among the Bucs set for free agency in March. With on the cusp of ending his storied career, it can certainly be expected a second Gronkowski retirement will soon follow. Gronk said this week that if he was forced into a decision now, he would indeed leave the game for a second time.

Having been a pro in every 21st-century season and having started for the past 21 years, Brady will finish as the NFL’s leader in every major statistical category. The former Patriots mainstay’s postseason resume laps his peers’, and after his NFL-most 43 touchdown passes this season, Brady will finish his career with 624 — 53 more than the next-closest passer’s total. He and Drew Brees passed this record back and forth last season, and while the recently retired Saints legend is a bit closer to Brady in passing yards, the ageless Bucs QB will exit the game with that record (84,520) as well. Brady’s retirement comes a year after Brees’ and days after Ben Roethlisberger‘s.

Brady’s place as the game’s greatest player can be debated in the years to come, but the former sixth-round pick is without question the best draft investment in NFL history. The 199th overall pick in 2000, Brady launched his unexpected rise to NFL stardom by keeping the Patriots’ QB1 job after a September 2001 Drew Bledsoe injury. The Michigan product proceeded to start 316 games, missing time only because of a 2008 ACL tear and 2016’s four-game Deflategate suspension. In between, Brady piled up six Super Bowl-winning seasons with the Pats.

While the Patriots machine centered around Bill Belichick‘s defenses in the early 2000s, with Brady making just one Pro Bowl in his first four seasons as a starter, he collected three rings in that span. After the Patriots acquired Randy Moss in 2007, Brady made a seismic leap by throwing 50 touchdown passes and winning the first of his three MVP honors. Although the Pats’ hopes at a 19-0 season did not come to fruition, with that upset loss to the Giants coming months before Brady’s September 2008 knee injury, the New England centerpiece remained on his position’s top tier for another decade and change.

Including the famed 25-point comeback win in Super Bowl LI, Brady finished his career with a record five Super Bowl MVP awards and won four championships past age 37. Brady’s decision to sign with the Bucs for two years and $50MM led to the end of that franchise’s 12-year playoff drought and Tampa Bay’s second Super Bowl win.

This retirement call may close the team’s title window, with the Bucs fully committing to Brady and not acquiring an heir apparent. It will be interesting to see if Arians retires for a second time, though the 69-year-old Tampa HC said he would return in 2022. The Bucs will need to dive back into the quarterback market soon, be it another veteran or through the draft, after their successful 2020 plan is abruptly coming to a halt.

Raiders Moving Towards Hiring Josh McDaniels, Dave Ziegler

January 28th, 2022 at 8:03pm CST by Adam La Rose

It appears the next team to make their hire on both the head coach and general manger front will be the Raiders. According to Pro Football Network’s Aaron Wilson, the team is “all-in” on hiring Josh McDaniels as its new HC, and Dave Ziegler as GM. 

[Related: Raiders Request Josh McDaniels Interview]

Wilson reports that the two are expected to be hired “within the next few days”. One of the more notable aspects of this year’s hiring cycle is the fact that McDaniels hasn’t been included with any teams’ respective HC searches, until the Raiders formally requested to speak with him yesterday. On that point, Wilson adds, “McDaniels informed the Raiders that he wouldn’t accept their interview request unless he was being offered the job”.

Meanwhile, in an appearance on NBC Sports Boston, Albert Breer corroborated the growing sense that the longtime Patriots OC will be heading to Vegas. He said, “I think Josh has been vetting the Raiders, I think the Raiders have been vetting Josh, and I think this is the conclusion of it”. He added, “I’m not saying it’s all over… but the fact that they’ve gotten to this point tells me things are pretty far along”.

Throughout the process of the Raiders’ search, there have been reports that McDaniels and Ziegler could be a package deal, if owner Mark Davis chose to go that route and was willing to pay a premium for the former in particular – something which isn’t expected to be an issue. Their working relationship goes back to their days in Denver, when McDaniels hired Ziegler to be a scout. Now the director of player personnel with the Patriots, Ziegler looks poised to have a reunion with his friend, and take a coveted position in a new city and stadium overseeing a 2021 playoff team.

Raiders Request Josh McDaniels Interview

January 27th, 2022 at 3:28pm CST by Sam Robinson

The only team connected to Josh McDaniels during this year’s HC hiring period, the Raiders are interested in speaking with the longtime Patriots offensive coordinator.

They sent McDaniels an interview request Thursday, Adam Schefter of ESPN.com tweets. The Raiders already interviewed Patriots exec Dave Ziegler, who also worked with McDaniels in Denver, and appear to still be considering a Patriots West ticket. McDaniels, who has been on Mark Davis‘ radar for weeks, is expected to interview Saturday, per NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport (Twitter links).

While a Wednesday report indicated the Raiders were moving away from a Ziegler-McDaniels pairing, NFL.com’s Mike Garafolo tweets league buzz still points to McDaniels being a preferred option in Las Vegas. This would certainly be an interesting direction to go, given McDaniels’ past and Raider players’ endorsements for interim HC Rich Bisaccia to keep the job. That said, one source informed Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio a Ziegler-McDaniels power structure in Vegas is “just about a sure thing.” McDaniels has been down a similar road before, only to turn back at the last minute.

But McDaniels does have an extensive OC resume, collecting three Super Bowl rings during his time working with Tom Brady in New England. Of course, his rough tenure as Broncos HC and decision to spurn the Colts affected his standing within the league. In terms of high-level experience, however, almost no one in this cycle can match McDaniels.

In his 10th year back in charge of the Patriots’ offense, McDaniels helped the fifth quarterback picked in last year’s draft — Mac Jones — have the best season among the 2021 rookie QBs. Despite his controversial Colts decision four years ago, the 45-year-old assistant comes up in coaching rumors annually. The two-time Patriots OC has been picky on the interview front, and given his Denver tenure and Indianapolis decision, his next HC job might be his last.

Here is how the Raiders’ HC search is shaping up thus far:

Latest On Raiders’ HC, GM Searches

January 26th, 2022 at 5:54pm CST by Sam Robinson

The Raiders’ general manager search has expanded to include eight names. While the team’s pursuit of its next full-time head coach has not gotten as far off the ground, a few external candidates have emerged.

One possible solution — a Josh McDaniels–Dave Ziegler partnership — has surfaced on the radar, according to Vic Tafur of The Athletic (subscription required). Ziegler, who moved up in the Patriots’ front office hierarchy following Nick Caserio‘s 2021 New England exit, interviewed for the Las Vegas GM job Friday and has been connected to bringing the Pats’ longtime OC with him.

McDaniels has not taken a formal interview with any team during this year’s hiring cycle, though the veteran OC was calling around to coaches around the league for staff-assembly purposes recently, Tafur adds. Patriots West might not be where this Raiders process ends up, however.

Momentum has cooled on a McDaniels-Ziegler pairing this week, per Tafur, who adds Colts VP of player personnel Ed Dodds — a former Al Davis staffer — is still in the mix. Dodds’ GM interview is set for Wednesday. Dodds previously withdrew his name from consideration for the Bears’ GM post. Dodds being with the Colts when McDaniels backtracked on a 2018 Indianapolis agreement would all but squash any chance of those two pairing up.

The Raiders have interviewed only Rich Bisaccia and Patriots linebackers coach Jerod Mayo for their HC position. The team remains interested in speaking with 49ers DC DeMeco Ryans and has a meeting with Buccaneers DC Todd Bowles set for Friday. While Jim Harbaugh looms, not much has emerged connecting the Michigan coach to the Silver and Black in several days. Harbaugh was on the Raiders’ staff as QBs coach for part of Dodds’ Oakland tenure, but this was nearly 20 years ago.

Las Vegas’ GM search is now at eight names, with a request to interview Bucs exec John Spytek and interviews with Falcons staffer Ruston Webster and Steelers exec Brandon Hunt representing the latest news coming out of the search to fill Mike Mayock’s job.

Load More Posts