New England Patriots Again Prove Ruthless In Offseason Tactics
By Erik Lambert
Few teams have a deeper obsession with understanding the NFL rule book than the New England Patriots. The reasons for that should be obvious.
Teams that know the rules will thus understand how to bend them to their advantage. The Patriots do it every year on the field and during the offseason. Another example just surfaced in the curious case of running back LeGarrette Blount. Most would’ve expected him to have signed elsewhere by now after posting over 1,000 yards and scoring 18 touchdowns in 2016. However the Patriots made that difficult for other teams by slapping Blount with the May 9th contract tender.
As explained by multiple outlets, the idea is to maintain his value beyond May 9th of this year in the compensatory pick formula. Something that would otherwise be impossible.
"“What it does for the Patriots, most importantly, is it allows them to retain Blount’s value in the compensatory draft pick formula if Blount signs elsewhere. Free agents who sign after May 9 aren’t counted in the compensatory pick formula … unless they use the tender like the Patriots did.PFT said the other benefit is the Patriots would have exclusive rights to negotiate with Blount from July 22 through the Tuesday after Week 10 of the regular season, if Blount doesn’t sign anywhere before July 22.”"
LeGarrette Blount’s can sign with a team now, but it would hurt that team’s comp pick formula. If he doesn’t by July 22, he’ll be a Patriot.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) May 10, 2017
In other words Blount has been poisoned to a degree. Any team that signs him to a contract would hurt their ability to land compensatory picks in 2018. This narrows the options for the running back. Which means he has a limited time to find one that is willing to do it or he must sign the tender to play for the Patriots in 2017. It’s an ice cold business tactic by New England, but one that is hard to fault given the advantages they gain.
The odds just grew by a fair margin that Blount will be a Patriot for another year. Good for the team but not so good for a player who may be missing out on his last chance at a big pay day before age takes it from him.