Don’t believe every Patriots’ free-agency rumor you hear — or any of them
COMMENTARY
So far during this happy aftermath of the Patriots’ Super Bowl LI victory and the turn toward altering the roster and preparing for the new season, there have been five player-centric developments that I know to be true:
- The Patriots are keeping around dependable fullback James Develin on a two-year contract.
- Sebastian Vollmer, one of those draft day “reaches” that turned out to be a steal, has called it a career.
- Three depth pieces — cornerback Justin Coleman, tackle Cameron Fleming, and tight end Matt Lengel — were tendered contracts, which may or may not suggest they will be better players than we believe them to be now.
- The Patriots tendered restricted free-agent Malcolm Butler at a first-round value, which is considerably less satisfying news than had they signed the Super Bowl XLIX hero and stalwart cornerback to a deserved long-term deal.
- Willie McGinest is an inner-circle, all-time Patriot in Bill Belichick’s mind based on the warmth with which the coach greets him here:
I suppose we knew about the McGinest/Belichick mutual admiration before, but it was still a neat moment during NFL Network’s mostly mind-numbing combine coverage.
But there’s plenty we don’t know — starting with whether or not the admirable Dont’a Hightower will return. We’ll get answers soon enough now that the tampering period is here in advance of Thursday’s free-agent frenzy.
In the meantime, there are plenty of rumors already that are posing as prospective truths. Until we have some actual news, let’s consider a few of the more prominent ones, all of which leave me skeptical.
Report: Adrian Peterson would take a team-friendly deal from the Patriots.
Curious what his idea of team-friendly is. The hunch here is that it’s considerably more AP-friendly than what the Patriots would actually offer for a running back who turns 32 in two weeks, has more than 2,000 career carries, has a couple of major scars on his knees, and averaged 1.9 yards per pop last year, but who knows?
I suspect I’m in the vast majority here in that I don’t want Peterson here because of his well-documented scumbag tendencies. That no-thanks-go-sign-with-Jerry-Jones mindset is only emboldened by the evidence that he’s someone with scumbag tendencies who also happens to look a lot like a washed-up football player right now. To some degree, most fans are willing suffer a scumbag quota on their favorite team’s roster if the guy can play; no one is proud of it, but we all rationalize rooting for lousy people if they make our Sundays a little more enjoyable.
Peterson looks burned out. Let him go be someone else’s supposed bargain, Faustian or otherwise.
Report: The Patriots offered their first-round pick (32nd overall) to the Saints for receiver Brandin Cooks.
Now this is interesting. Cooks is a dynamic young receiver (he’s 23) who has already accomplished some things in the NFL, with 17 touchdowns and more than 2,300 receiving yards over the past two seasons. He’s apparently become disgruntled with the Saints, and New Orleans reportedly is demanding at least a pick in the middle of the first round for him. My general thinking is that Bill Belichick isn’t coughing up a first-round pick for a receiver unless that receiver is Jerry Rice arriving via DeLorean from 1986. But this might be an exception. He’s familiar with Cooks, having seen him during joint Saints-Patriots practices in recent seasons, and he’s spoken highly of him. I’m still skeptical that he would trade their lone first-rounder for a receiver, a position of relative depth and quality on the roster right now, especially when spending the pick on the pursuit of more quality young defense help would seem the way to go. But I can see one circumstance in which a first-rounder is dealt for Cooks, and it relates to this:
Report: The Patriots will not trade quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo.
To say this is Adam Schefter’s proverbial hill to die on would be a grim exaggeration, but a few days after talking on his podcast with Garoppolo about how a deal for him might go down, the ESPN news-breaker reversed field Marcus Allen-style and got all adamant on us about how the Patriots have no intention of dealing their talented backup quarterback.
I have no doubt that Schefter has well-placed sources within the Patriots organization who told him Jimmy G is staying put. I also strongly suspect the situation is and always has been fluid, meaning that they are open to offers that they cannot refuse and wanted to get the message out there that teams who covet Garoppolo need to stop low-balling and get serious.
I believe this was further confirmed Tuesday by the reports that the Patriots’ asking price is a first-round pick this year and another next. (A very reasonable price, by the way, especially when the alternative is paying Mike Glennon, who couldn’t beat out a McCown brother a few years ago, something like $15 million per season.)
If one team or another eventually antes up, that’s the circumstance in which I could see the Patriots turning around and swapping one of their newfound first-rounders for Cooks.
But you know it is following this team this time of year, and any time of year, really: We’re not going to know what they’re thinking until they’ve made the deal that reveals it.
