Rumored as a franchise tag candidate, Kyle Dugger remains a precedence for the Patriots. The younger safety would be among the top defenders handy if he reaches the open market. The Pats are making an attempt to forestall that.
Less than a week before the deadline to observe franchise tags, MassLive.com’s Karen Guregian and Mark Daniels document the group has submitted an provide to Dugger. Absent a tag, the Pats have until 11am CT to negotiate solely with Dugger. At that point, unsigned gamers are free to communicate with other teams in the tampering window.
The cap spiking to $255.4M has made it extra pricey to tag a safety; that range exams in at $17.12M. This is notably higher than what it took for the Bengals to maintain Jessie Bates off the 2022 market ($12.9M). That complicates things for the Pats. The Giants are believed to be thinking about the lesser-used transition tag for safety Xavier McKinney; that would value $13.82M. A transition tag does open the door to provide sheets, as no compensation comes lower back to teams in the tournament of an unmatched offer. A franchise tag all but slams the door on a player signing elsewhere.
Already organized to spend extra than they traditionally do in free agency, per Jerod Mayo, the Patriots giving GM energy to Eliot Wolf does make that truly interesting. The Packers have been now not acknowledged for such endeavor for the duration of Wolf’s time under Ted Thompson. But Green Bay normally retained its very own brain at some point of that long-running regime. In Dugger and Michael Onwenu, the Patriots have two gamers who are set to be top UFAs soon. Both will be expensive to retain.
Bill Belichick held onto Dugger and Onwenu at the trade deadline; both were rumored candidates to be moved as the team discovered itself in the rare position as a achievable midseason seller. Dugger performed 97% of the Pats’ shielding snaps closing season, and with Mayo and DeMarcus Covington sticking around, the former second-round select affords continuity for a team that just released Adrian Phillips. Dugger performed ahead of the veteran in 2023. PFF only ranked Dugger 68th among safeties closing season but considered his 2022 greater favorably; the Lenoir-Rhyne alum lower back two interceptions for touchdowns that year. Although Dugger has fared higher nearer to the line of scrimmage, he has nine INTs over the past three seasons.
The Patriots are among the league leaders in cap space, keeping $78.1M as of Thursday afternoon. That sits 0.33 in the NFL, although teams have a quantity of days to arrange their budgets in advance of the 2024 league year. Keeping Dugger would additionally be a extremely good transaction due to the team’s run of not re-signing current high draft choices. The team has now not extended a homegrown first-, second- or third-round choose seeing that re-signing 2013 third-rounder Duron Harmon in 2017.Â
