BELICHICK LOST THE ACE UP HIS SLEEVE AT NEGOTIATING TABLE
With Brady gone, Hoodie no longer has the upper hand
Tom Brady’s New England chapter came to an end in a rather symbolic way last Sunday.
By beating his former team, Brady got a measure of closure from the Patriots and his two championship filled decades with the team.
And while he may have thrown a curtain down on his time in Foxboro, it hasn’t totally ended. The aftershocks from Brady’s departure remain, mostly in an intangible way. He proved to be an asset for Bill Belichick not only on the field, but at the negotiating table.
With Brady now in Tampa Bay, there’s no longer a contract ceiling for Belichick. And that new dynamic already appears to be at work.
Players simply aren’t going to take less to play for the Patriots without the GOAT in the building. In the past, Belichick was always able to use Brady’s contract as a boundary. It gave him leverage.
How could anyone legitimately ask to be paid more than the guy who won multiple Super Bowls, not to mention being the greatest to ever play the position?
Case in point: Darrelle Revis, who signed as a free agent in 2014, told a great story about negotiating with Belichick. During a video interview last year with Bleacher Report on “Untold Stories,” he spoke about the Brady factor when it came to contracts and the Patriots.
“When it came to negotiation time, Bill was real stern about a number,” Revis said. “My side, we were stuck at 16 (million for a one-year deal). And his whole deal was, ‘Tom makes 14.’ And that was really it.”
The message to Revis was clear. If he wanted to be a Patriot, he wasn’t going to make more than the franchise quarterback, who carried a $14.8 million cap hit in 2014.
So how did it play out? Revis took a $4 million pay cut from his 2013 salary with Tampa Bay, to earn $12 million during his one season — a championship season — with the Patriots.
Now, all bets are off. Another All-Pro corner, Stephon Gilmore, certainly didn’t budge on his contract demand. He wasn’t going to stand for a pay cut, or accept anything less than his fair market value. Would he have been as vigilant to get his money if Brady was still in town, giving Belichick bargaining power when dealing with Gilmore and other star players?
Maybe not.
But since the Brady ceiling no longer exists, Belichick no longer has that ace up his sleeve. So either he’s going to have to pay prices closer to fair market value, or come away empty. Currently, linebacker Matthew Judon sits on top of the payroll, with a $13.6 million average annual salary. Tight ends Hunter Henry and Jonnu Smith are next at $12.5 million, then Devin McCourty at $11.5 million, and Nelson Agholor at $11 million.
Gilmore would have likely jumped over Judon with a new deal, if he was looking for something close to what the cornerback market dictates for a player of his stature. Even though he’s 31, he was still the Patriots best defensive player, had a 2019 Defensive Player of the Year on his resume, as well as several huge plays in the Super Bowl and playoffs.
“Players always start at fair market value, but Bill was always able to use leverage with Brady’s contract, and knock that number down,” said SiriusXM NFL analyst Solomon Wilcots. “And when you think about it, Tom Brady is the greatest player to ever play the game. No player is going to argue that it shouldn’t impact their number, and they should get more than Brady.
“But in reality, the Patriots also weren’t paying Tom fair market value,” Wilcots added. “So how can any player ask to get more, when Tom’s not even getting that? That’s how that was used, and quite effectively.”
In the NFL, players typically want more money when they outplay their existing deals. Even though there might be time left on the contract, that’s usually the impetus for seeking an extension or demanding a raise.
Brady was still a Patriot when Gilmore was the NFL’s best defensive player, and believed he had outperformed his salary. The Patriots put a Band-aid on the problem by moving roughly $5 million from the final year of the deal, and advancing it toward what Gilmore made in 2020.
The Patriots simply weren’t willing to add on after that. By the same token, Gilmore wasn’t about to cave. Brady — and that leverage — had walked out the door in 2020.
At 31, Gilmore was looking
for at least one more significant pay day, and after the Patriots broke the bank for him in 2017 with a five-year, $65 million deal, Belichick wasn’t going back to that well again, especially at his age.
“I know that position is important to him,” Wilcots said with respect to having a shutdown corner. “I just don’t know how much Bill is going to evolve when it comes to the financial part of paying players. I believe that’s going to be his greatest challenge.”
Belichick did go against type with a spending spree during the offseason, dishing out more than $160 million in guaranteed money to sign new players to try and rebuild his 7-9 team.
Those players didn’t sign to play with Brady. They also didn’t have to worry about an artificial ceiling during negotiations. So Judon, Henry, Smith, Agholor et al basically came for the money, and opportunity to play for Belichick.
“There’s guys who’ll take less to play with Patrick Mahomes. But if you don’t have that marquee quarterback, it’s harder,” Patriots Hall of Famer Rodney Harrison said when asked about Belichick’s new reality. “Everybody knew Tom deserved more. Even if you’re a guy like Randy Moss, you don’t mind taking less because you have a chance to play with Brady and win. So that’s definitely a factor.”
It’s going to be a factor in the present, as well as the future, until Belichick finds another player he can use for his benchmark.
Harrison, however, believes that day might not be as far off as one would imagine.
“If Mac Jones keeps on the path he’s going, and continues on the ascension he’s on, people will be willing to come and play with a good young quarterback who’s unselfish, who’s humble, and spreads the ball around,” said Harrison. “Even though they lost that with Tom, this young kid is proving quickly he could be the next one on top of that scale.”
Gilmore in the zone
Stephon Gilmore had his introductory press conference with the Carolina Panthers on Thursday, and seemed happy to be playing for his hometown team.
He still isn’t eligible to play until Week 7.
Are the Panthers a good fit for Gilmore?
SiriusXM NFL analyst Wilcots seems to think so.
While Gilmore’s specialty was shutting down an opponent’s top receiver, locking him down while playing man to man, Carolina plays a lot more zone defense.
Wilcots believes at age 31, that will ultimately benefit Gilmore.
“Here’s why I think he’ll be as good, if not better,” said Wilcots. “Nobody plays more man-to-man defense than the Patriots, except for maybe the Dolphins. Carolina plays a lot of zone.
“Stephon Gilmore can play both man and zone. He’s good at both. But aging corners, if you put them in a zone, they can play all day,” said Wilcots, a former NFL defensive back. “That’s why Richard Sherman is still playing … Stephon Gilmore will now play less man-to-man coverage than he played with the Patriots which allows him to play longer now, and allows him to be more effective. He gets to look back at the quarterback.”
Gilmore, who rooted for the Panthers as a kid, said during his introductory press conference that he loved watching Steve Smith Sr., Jake Delhomme, Stephen Davis and Julius Peppers. His favorite memory was when Carolina reached the Super Bowl to play against the Patriots during the 2003 season.
“It’s a place that I always wanted to play,” said Gilmore. “Looking at the team and what they got, the potential. You have to put in a lot of hard work to get to where you want to go, but for sure it was a great opportunity to come here.”
Harrison’s critique
Speaking further with Rodney Harrison about the loss to the Bucs last week, he thought Belichick should have gone for it, fourthand-3 with 59 seconds left. First, he didn’t think Nick Folk would make the 56-yard kick in the rainy conditions. Second, he thought it was a good chance to get more intel on rookie Mac Jones.
“You get a chance to see what he can do under those extreme conditions,” said Harrison. “If you really wanna see what you got, see if he can make that fourth-and-3.”
Harrison, however, was encouraged by the performance of the defense.
“I thought coming off this game, there should really be a lot of positives,” said Harrison. “I think even though they lost, they win because you walk away from that game defensively, and you say, ‘You know what? We can stand up to pretty much anybody.’ When they focus on doing things right, and taking care of their responsibilities, they can play with anybody. But it has to be week in and week out. They can’t take a week off. But they should build a lot of confidence from the way they played, and they should continue to grow.”
The trouble areas? The defense doesn’t get totally off the hook. Harrison said the linebackers are slow, especially when compared to Tampa Bay’s Devin
White and Lavonte David. And, he doesn’t like how the front gets pushed around.
“They gotta get tougher at the defensive line,” he said. “Those dudes get pushed around more than I’m used to seeing.”
Offensively, Harrison thinks it’s trouble if the Patriots can’t get the run game going.
“They have to try and find a way to run the football,” said Harrison. “It can’t be Mac dropping back 40 times every game. They have to re-establish that identity.”
Tom still hates Giants
With his win over the Patriots last Sunday, Tom Brady joined Peyton Manning, Brett Favre and Drew Brees as the only quarterbacks to beat all 32 teams.
During his SiriusXM podcast Monday night, Brady was asked by host Jim Gray what team he enjoyed beating the most, and which one he enjoyed the least?
His answers were fairly obvious.
“The team I would love to beat the most is the Giants, there’s no doubt about that, because they’ve taken away some really, you know, I’ve always joked with Eli (Manning) but, yeah, and I think he likes that I bring it up all the time. So to bring it up again, I do not like losing to those guys, so when we beat them I love that,” said Brady. “And the team I like to beat the least is obviously the Patriots. Again, those are my guys, man. Those are the other warriors that I went to battle with for so long. I’ve had a lot of battles over the years with different teams, there’s a lot of mutual respect in pro sports, but glad I’m through with the one last night.”
The Giants, of course, spoiled the Patriots perfect season in 2007, winning in that Super Bowl.
And for good measure, the Giants beat them again four years later in the Super Bowl.